JDowds
4/18/2013
I'm going to be honest. I had a really hard time getting through this book. So much so that I didn't actually get through it.
It isn't that the book is bad. It isn't that Eleanor Arnason is a bad writer. I just thought the book was kind of boring.
Initially, I was intriuged by the prescence of humanoid creatures on this planet raised. Do mammilian animals always evolve into dominant life? Why is their culture so similar to human culture? Is there some sort of universal tendencey to lean towards shamanism in our early developments?
By page 300, I just didn't care anymore. I wasn't big on the characters, I wasn't big on the story.
I'm counting this book as read, because I skipped to the end and read the last few pages. So yeah, done.
I think this book suffers from false advertising. It's supposed to be a first contact story, where humans have to decide whether or not to intervene in the development of an alien culture.
Only, it isn't really an alien culture. It's a tweaked human culture. The aliens are like cavemen, and while there are differences in our physiologies and institutions, there's not enough of a difference to make them see alien.They're like transplated early humans. Maybe they are. I didn't read enough to find out.
What's more, there's too much wandering around. These characters wander EVERYWHERE.
"Oh hey, let's go over there," said character 1.
"Okay, let's go," said character 2.
Then they go there, having micro-adventures along the way.There's remarkably little SF for a SF novel.
Maybe you'll enjoy it. Like I said, it's not poorly written. By all means, pick it up and give it a try. You may love it! From the endorsements on the cover, plenty of people did.
But I'm moving on.