num_pages: 560
description: In a high fantasy feminist epic a revolutionary spell gives women the ability to control their own fertilitywith consequences that rock their patriarchal society to its core.When a noblemans first duty is to produce a male heir women are treated like possessions and bargaining chips. But as the aftereffects of a world-altering spell ripple out physically and culturally women at last have a bargaining chip of their own. And two women in particular find themselves at the crossroads of change.Alys is the widowed mother of two teenage children and the disinherited daughter of a king. Her existence has been carefully proscribed but now she discovers a fierce talent not only for politics but also for magiconce deemed solely the domain of men. Meanwhile in a neighboring kingdom young Ellin finds herself unexpectedly on the throne after the sudden death of her grandfather the king and everyone else who stood ahead of her in the line of succession. Conventional wisdom holds that she will marry quickly then quietly surrender the throne to her new husband. Only Ellin has other ideas.The tensions building in the two kingdoms grow abruptly worse when a caravan of exiled women and their escort of disgraced soldiers stumbles upon a new source of magic in what was once uninhabitable desert. This new and revolutionary magicwhich only women can wieldthreatens to tear down what is left of the patriarchy. And the men who currently hold power will do anything to fight back.
language: English
title: The Women's War
publisher: Del Rey