Bear Country is an unspoiled alternate reality with no overcrowding, no pollution, no lawyers and no taxes. Paradise? Not even close.
Bear Country' is a wild, dangerous place, full of 'Ice age animals on steroids'. The only humans there are people trapped there in 'Exchanges'--natural, seemingly random events where parts of Bear Country and our reality temporarily trade places. Susan Mack has to find her way through threatening animals, a brutal street gang, escaped convicts, the schemes of her abusive ex-husband and the "Church of the Second Chance" to get back to her daughter. She also has to fight her attraction to the mysterious man who introduces himself as 'Leo' and figure out what he is up to.
EXCHANGE has a rich setting. It has strong, colorful, sometimes ambiguous heroes and villains.. It also has an intricate plot--wheels within wheels as one character puts it-- that should keep you guessing until the end. In Bear Country, powerful ambitions clash over stakes that are far higher than they initially seem. Bear Country threatens our world with ecological catastrophe if its animals establish themselves here, but it also contains secrets that are even more dangerous than its animals.
Exchange is complete at around 85,000 words, though only the first 4 chapters are on Authonomy.