Amazon.com description: Product Description: Yaleen always wanted to join the boating guild and become a riverwoman. It was the most important role for a woman in her world. The boats sailed up and down the eastern shore, from Tambimatu in the south (where the river emerged from the base of the unclimbable Far Precipices) to the sea in the north. Only women could travel the river. A man was allowed on trip, with his wife-to-be, but if he dared set foot on a boat again the black current would call him to his death. It was the black current, too, which made the river impossible to cross. It ran the whole length of the waterway - gelatinous, mysterious, and alive. On the western bank lived other people who could sometimes be seen through telescopes, but they appeared to be male-dominated savages. When she was accepted in the Guild, Yaleen little suspected that she was embarking upon a course which before long would take her across to the western shore, and into the heart of the black current itself. Ian Watson's novel is perhaps the most colourful and enjoyable he has written. Set on a strange distant planet, it offers a feast of mystery and dramatic incident. This is the first of a trilogy known as The Books of the Black Current. Watson is also the author of the Warhammer 40,000 Inquisition War Trilogy.