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Crystallis is a deep-space retelling of the book of Ruth by troper Jewelled Dragon (also known as Katz). It seeks to expand and reframe the source material while remaining faithful to both the events and the themes of the original. It's novella-length and told in a mixture of verse and prose.
After the deaths of the rest of their family, the young widow Rujhi and her mother-in-law Nan, the last of the Earthraiser clan, return from the dissipated asteroid of Sarkos to Nan's home asteroid of Azural, where for generations their family has been seeking the Bright Earth, the scientific secret that will bring life back to this cold, dead stone orbiting so far out that Sol Novus looks scarcely larger than a star. When, due to their poverty, Rujhi stoops to gathering fragments left behind by the crystal harvesters, a wealthy crystal field owner named Vairn takes an interest in her. Vairn, it turns out, is a kinsman of Rujhi's dead husband, and by the custom of the land it is his duty to lift the two women out of their distress...
This story provides examples of:
- Abandoned Laboratory (the Earthraiser factory)
- Acquired Poison Immunity (the air on Sarkos)
- Asteroid Miners
- Awesome but Impractical (hovering vehicles)
- Babies Ever After
- Cyborg
- Determined Widow
- Dogged Nice Guy
- Earth-That-Was
- Energy Economy (crystal mining)
- Fog of Doom (the air on Sarkos)
- I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...
- Planetary Romance
- Power Crystal
- Relationship Upgrade
- Romancing the Widow
- Second Love
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man
- Sleep Cute (in some drafts)
- Survivor Guilt (Nan's husband and two sons)
- Terraform
- The Clan
- Wretched Hive (the cities of Sarkos)