One title to make the grade:Harmony by C. F. BentleyRead about another book on the list.
According to author C. F. Bentley Harmony is her “spiritual quest with a literary twist in a space opera landscape.” The spiritual aspect of this novel is apparent almost from page one. Harmony is the central planet of a caste society where all people are assigned their positions in society by the caste marks that appear on their cheeks at birth. Workers, Nobles, Priests, and Warriors all bear different marks and no intermarriage is allowed between the castes. Sissy is an exception, born with all of the caste marks upon her cheek; she has grown up hiding her marks from everyone, fearing that like others born with more than one mark she will be consigned to an insane asylum. But when an earthquake threatens to tear apart the entire planet of Harmony, Sissy communes with the planet and stops the total destruction. She is soon discovered, and is immediately removed from her Worker caste family into the role of high priestess, the most powerful role in the seven planet Harmonic Empire. Young woman that she is, Sissy must overcome manipulative priests, a society in slow decay, and the desire of other external empires to conquer harmony for its one great commodity, badger metal. Here there is magic, the rag-to-riches story common among epic fantasies, and a compelling central character who finds herself facing improbable odds.
--Marshal Zeringue
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