duane@anasazi.UUCP (Duane Morse) (12/25/85)
The jacket reads: "Spacewarp--the collapse of time and space--plunges Fleet Captain Areia Darenga's ship to a hostile planet where she becomes an outcast, living alone in the harsh and desolate reaches of the Yarbeen. There she is rescued by M'landan, a handsome alien priest, over seven feet tall, who awakens in her a disturbing passion and mystical visions of a new and tempting world. Punished and cast out from his kingdom, M'landan and his beautiful High Priestess live in seclusion. But still they will risk everything for a forbidden love, a love that will cost M'landan his future--but save his people from certain extinction." This book is the second of a trilogy, the first being THE FALL OF WORLDS and the last being NO EARTHLY SHORE. If I hadn't read the first of the series and given it four stars, I doubt that I would have purchased the second based on the jacket summary--it just doesn't sound like my type of book. The quoted summary is fair enough, though rather sensational. The first sentence, in fact, gives the reader more information about what went on before than is found in the book; if you start reading this book without having read the first, you'll probably find things somewhat confusing. This particular book doesn't spend much time on technology and science, but emphasizes the characters and the alien society, and it reminds me somewhat of DUNE--an outworlder starting to play a major part in an alien land, mystical occurrences, passions, violence. The major character is very believable, and one of the author's strong points is the ability to create situations in which the reader shares Darenga's anger and frustration and excitement. The plot is fairly interesting, but I suspect that it is primarily a bridge between the first and third books (a necessary bridge, I hasten to add, because it explains M'landan society and religion). I give this one 3.5 stars (very, very good), and I look forward to reading book 3. -- Duane Morse ...!noao!terak|anasazi!duane or ...!noao!mot!anasazi!duane (602) 870-3330