This is volume #2 in a series of three; I read #3 (The Mists of Time) a couple of weeks ago and have yet to read volume #1. Very obviously, I am Just Not Doing It Right.

To be honest, between these two books at least, it doesn't matter that I've read them in the wrong order: the two are complementary accounts of the same tale. In Mists we follow the adventures of future girl Lara Avara as her gentle people, who have relocated from Nepal (or thereabouts) to Scotland after a climate-change-induced collapse of civilization, deal with a local and more primitive (i.e., more 20th-century in their thinking) bunch, the Barbaric Ones. Part of the tale is bound up with the arrival from 1979 or so by time warp of the children Robert and Jennifer. Circle is the relevant part of that tale as seen not by Lara Avara but by Robert and Jennifer (mainly Robert).

"Just a rehash?" I can here you think. "What a bore!"

In fact, the effect was enchanting, as bits and pieces of the other story blossomed out, giving me a fresh insight into both stories. I'm becoming a bit of a Margaret J. Anderson fan . . . ( )