The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
The 'salt roads' of this novel's title are the blood, sweat and tears of Ezili's people as they struggle against prejudice and slavery to achieve fulfillment in their lives. Three women are featured, separated by centuries and geography, but united by the touch of a troubled goddess. Ezili is both powerful and helpless. She is a force without a will, and then a will without the freedom to act. Over the course of the novel, the heroines age as the goddess grows up.
A key moment, for Ezili, is the scene in which she clashes, through the agency of of one of the women, with a rival god bent on reckless violence. But for the most part, Ezili knows no more about who and what she is than the reader does, and the richness of the novel is derived from the life experience of its protagonists. Whether or not the thematic aspects achieve a satisfactory chord for the reader, the crisp characterizations and historical details surly will.
I found The Last Light of the Sun a somewhat grimmer story than most of Kay's wonderfully emotive sagas, but still completely enjoyable although I don't think I would rate it as my favorite of his books. Kay's quasi-historical settings were delicious, as usual, and the fairy world elements of the story were cool, other-worldly and mysterious. The book is a "slice of life saga", skillfully tackled from multiple viewpoints. As always with Kay's books, I was sorry when I found I was done.