Kaaron Warren, it appears, can write anything. Her first novel for Angry Robot, Slights [buy isbn=”9780007322428″], was hailed as exceptionally scary horror. I have a copy, but haven’t plucked up the courage to read it yet. Her third novel will apparently be fantasy. But book #2, Walking the Tree [buy isbn=”9780007322442″], is science fiction, of a sort.

The book is set on an isolated island in a vast ocean. It may be the only land in the world for all we know. In the center of the island is a giant tree that takes up most of the land. Small villages are dotted around the coast. Isolated by distance and the difficulty of travel, they have little contact with each other, and have developed distinct local customs.

There is one custom, however, that links the communities together. Young women are sent out round the island in search of husbands (someone, in the deep past, obviously worked out that too much in-breeding is bad for you). They go in a group, taking with them the villages young children, because this is the way the kids learn about the world. The book is the story of one such “school trip”.

Given that the book is the story of a group of women, and the children in their care, the presence of a bizarre and mysterious world probably won’t be enough to allow many male readers to enjoy the book. The fact that the women are sexually liberated, and that one of the purposes of their trip is to allow them to sample different men until they find one that they like, won’t help either. On the other hand, if you are into feminist science fiction you will probably find Walking the Tree fascinating. The nearest thing to it that I have read before is Ursula K. LeGuin’s Always Coming Home [buy isbn=”9780520227354″]. Warren’s world, however, is less idyllic. Indeed if, like me, you find small communities rather scary, you’ll find much of her world quite horrible.

The book is very slow, and it is not at all clear what point, if any, Warren is trying to make with it. An appendix titled “Threads” that sets out some of the main themes of the book helps a lot, but ultimately the reader is left to make of it what she may. If you like books that make you think then you will probably like this too.