I keep meaning to read Eleanor Arnason's stuff, but it's not in either of the specialist sf stores here, nor at the library. What's a good place to start?

And yes to Tamora Pierce having some odd background assumptions. I also can't describe them - I know the specialness of her characters bothered me a lot in this book, and Protector of the Small, but there was something else going on in the first craft quartet that I can't quite describe. Still, I'd like to read the second quartet sometime for the same-sex relationship bit.