West of January by Dave Duncan. "Sci-fi". After rereading A Man of His Word series I was unhappy. A let down from leaving that world I suppose. Instead of continuing on tried something different. Liked it a lot. The beginning had a more serious tone than usual Duncan. Was really impressed. But eventually, despite the awful things that happened to him, it ended up feeling like his usual character who wasn't really affected by things somehow. Such as is normally the case in fantasy fiction/sci-fi. But then, it's fine line to walk when you're putting someone through such things while hoping the reader will keep turning the pages.

Anyway, starts with the Herdman who send the boys off on their own when they get armpit hair. They usually die. Adult male herdman have a ton of wives and except for rare traders/trades have no interaction with other herdmen except to fight to the death. Knoble leaves their with an "Angel". Then stays with the Seafolk for a while. Then a slave to the miners. Then sold to Traders. Then sold to a Spinster. Then saved by Angels. Stays with them quite a while. And then goes back to Herders and becomes their king while changing their way of life. Uses his power to destroy the slavery of the miners and that's that.

On the first day I awoke and found myself in a cave on a cliffside. I had no idea how I had come to be there. It was very dark and I stumbled and felt my way to the light. My body felt funny. But it was too dark to see. In the light of the entrance I examined myself and without a mirror at least I seemed to be the same. But I felt different somehow.

I was on the side of a steep cliff. Down below stretched a barren plain. It had no grass, no trees, no plant life at all that I could see. Just a reddish dirt and in the distance my view was obscured by a reddish mist. The wind blew rather hard across the cave entrance. There were no clouds in the sky and also no sun that I could see, yet there was light. I stared upwards trying to understand. It seemed different somehow. Was I in a vast cave?

No sun. No moon. No clouds. Just a uniform reddish light across the entire sky. If that was the sky.
The constant harsh wind suggested weather, suggested I was outside.

I sat for hours at the cliffside cave entrance thinking of what to do. And trying to remember how I had came to be here. I vaguely remembered being in an ambulance and then a hospital. The conclusion was obvious. Which was fine except for not being there for my two year old son. I did not want history to repeat itself with him. Thinking about it caused me anguish. Like me, he seemed different and would need someone with wisdom. I wanted to get back to him. But if I had died, I wouldn't get back.

It didn't appear to be much of a world. Very empty. Slightly ominous. But if I had died, it was a lot better than ceasing to exist. I pondered my options: explore the cave or climb down the cliff. I would have to eat. It seemed unlikely I would find food stumbling around in the dark cave. So I half climbed and half slid down the cliff to the barren plain. From my new this vantage I could see that this cliff stretched onwards to the left and right in an almost straight line. Climbing up higher than my cave looked to be impossible. I now wished I had examined the back of the cave to see if it ended.

I began walking to my left, keeping the cliff walls well in site and periodically looking back to the cave opening. It could prove to be the best shelter available and I was anxious I wouldn't be able to find it again.

It felt as if the plain to my left ought to be an ocean. Like the cliffs to my right were the result of millions of years of waves. To my right the ground did very gradually slope downward but there was no water in sight. The air was cool but not uncomfortable. I walked for a couple of hours before I finally saw something. It looked to be a person off in the distance. They seemed to be naked like me. I couldn't tell their gender from their stride. I walked briskly to catch up. And even began jogging. I appeared to be a skinny naked lady with red mid length wavy hair.

She was not more than 30 yards away very slowly carelessly wandering along when she finally saw me. She was startled and then looked in all directions as if to examine her options. Then she stared at me while walking backwards.

"Hello!" I shouted. "I certainly mean you no harm!"

She continued to walk backwards while staring at me.

"My name is Joble. Where are we?" I said.

She hesitated and then replied, "I'm Linda. I don't know."

I motioned at my naked body and hers and grinned sheepishly. "Haven't seen any clothes around I guess?"

"No.".

How long have you been here? What do you remember before coming here? Where shall we go?

Let's go our separate ways. - -- bewilderment. Why??? Is that a good idea? I mean you no harm.She is like crazy and wants nothing to do with him and starts screaming gibberish. This isn't the afterlife she wanted! He better stop pretending! She knows who he is. And he needs to get the hell away from her!

And then a roar far away. ..... A huge creature appears flying in the far distance. They stand frozen, very afraid. The roar it makes is terrible. "Stand still." They aren't sure if they should sprint for the cliffs. Get low to the ground or just stand still. It wasn't flying directly towards them at first but now veers towards them. Joble scans the cliffs and thinks he sees some shelter, maybe. I think we should sprint for the cliffs. Birds usually have extremely good eyesight. It's huge and I have a bad feeling about this.

....they run.

They survive. It's a horrible thing. But that's too soon.