This fantasy not only plays in feminist ways with the Moorcockian themes of Eternal Champions and hallucinatory multiplanar adventures, but it also deserves recognition as an early "steampunk" work. "Bear Baby", as it is affectionately known in Twin Cities fandom, also defies simple good-evil dichotomies that are so common in fantasy, and proves that Babbage Engines and dragons are connected! ( )

Eleanor Arnason tells of a housewife in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., in a life that never fully holds her attention. She dreams of a strange world and one day finds herself in it. It's a world where magic works and where the people know her and hail her as a long-awaited hero. She is the Bear King's daughter, with great strength and unusual healing powers. And she has been called here to fight a creeping and shadowy evil. She returns to Mineapolis but is followed by monsters. Being a true bear and a shape-changer, she's not a typical wife and mother. Now she has some of the bear's personality: instead of worrying about her grown-up children she returns to the other world, which she can help to save. By doing so, she removes the monsters from our unsuspecting world and returns to the task for which she was born. ( )