The Changewinds

This is an omnibus edition of Chalker's Changewind stories that follow the stories of Charley Sharkin and Sam Buell. At first the duo are presented as normal teens with normal issues about sexuality and body image but their problems become even more existential after Sam starts dreaming of a honed beast chasing her and killing her during thunderstorms of varying nastiness. As the days continue, Sam runs away from these dreams, particularly when she starts seeing improbable storm clouds bringing Charley into the picture as she tries to escape the net the police have thrown around Sam's disappearance. Both girls are together when the storm finally find Sam and drags her off somewhere...

When the girls recover their balance, they find show more themselves in a completely new world - literally and they found themselves confronted by a man claiming that in this world, the core of reality, magic works. They didn't want to believe this but the fact that Sam looked like Charley, and vice versa, certainly leant evidence to this assertion. The first third of the book then details the girls' acclimatisation to their new world and the firts stage of their journey to their destinies. The middle part of the book, like many such stories, details the journey and their personal growth whilst the third part of the book deals with the conflict and takes a look at the system that generated it.

The ending did feel rushed and definitely was a deus ex machina though to be fair, this was fairly well signalled in the lead up. It's definitely a book of it's time, though still fairly rare with having two girls being the main protagonists. Whether you would be able to getaway with some of the elements of the story these days is something else to ponder show less