Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crosstime travel on an alien world, 21 Nov 2004
If you're expecting something in Devlin & Emmerich's universe, this won't be what you had in mind. Yes, there are long-lived aliens with many wonders from a dying world, who sought out a new home when their own world lay dying - but their lost homeworld was *Earth*. Yes, they found a primitive people struggling to survive - but they offered learning, not tyranny. Unfortunately, both the Star Lords and their now-resentful protegees feel it was a mistake - the Terrans don't want to lead the people of Gorth into their own old mistakes, and some of the Gorth leaders feel that the Star Lords have deliberately withheld their last secrets: their seemingly eternal lives and strange weapons. Now the ships at Terranna are preparing to space once more, this time seeking an empty world.Kincar s'Rud, like so many of Norton's star characters, has lost everything - in his case, on the night of his grandfather's death. As the son of his grandfather's eldest daughter, he is the rightful heir - but the "s'Rud" branding him as the son of Rud, one of the aliens of the mysterious city of Terranna, turned his mother's people against him. Both his parents died years ago, and his mother's kin have cast him out, so he seeks Terranna, hoping to reach it before the last ships leave. But as it happens, some of the Star Lords can't bear to leave their adopted home, so they came up with an alternate solution - a Star Gate, which travels not through space or back in time, but crosstime - to an alternate version of Gorth's history. (Combining the notions of crosstime travel and space travel is relatively rare in SF, oddly enough.) Those seeking the Gate include some of Rud's kin - his brother, for one - so Kincar s'Rud is welcome to join their search for a Gorth where intelligent life never arose, which they can settle with a clear conscience. Their first attempt, while unsuccessful, brings them to a history they can't pass by - a world where the Star Lords came indeed, but to a Gorth with a far more advanced civilization - and to which they deliberately brought enslavement and misery. The feel of the story reminds me of Norton's later collaborations with Mercedes Lackey in creating THE ELVENBANE and its sequels. Can one group of Star Lords undo the evil done by another - especially when Gorth's people have good reason to distrust all of them? And if they can intervene, do they have the right to try?
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Crosstime travel on an alien world, 27 Dec 2004
If you're expecting something in Devlin & Emmerich's universe, this may not be what you had in mind. Yes, there are long-lived aliens with many wonders from a dying world, who sought out a new home when their own world lay dying - but their lost homeworld was *Earth*. Yes, they found a primitive people struggling to survive - but they offered learning, not tyranny. Unfortunately, both the Star Lords and their now-resentful protegees feel it was a mistake - the Terrans don't want to lead the people of Gorth into their own old mistakes, and some of the Gorth leaders feel that the Star Lords have deliberately withheld their last secrets: their seemingly eternal lives and strange weapons. Now the ships at Terranna are preparing to space once more, this time seeking an empty world.Kincar s'Rud, like so many of Norton's star characters, has lost everything - in his case, on the night of his grandfather's death. As the son of his grandfather's eldest daughter, he is the rightful heir - but the "s'Rud" branding him as the son of Rud, one of the aliens of the mysterious city of Terranna, turned his mother's people against him. Both his parents died years ago, and his mother's kin have cast him out, so he seeks Terranna, hoping to reach it before the last ships leave. But as it happens, some of the Star Lords can't bear to leave their adopted home, so they came up with an alternate solution - a Star Gate, which travels not through space or back in time, but crosstime - to an alternate version of Gorth's history. (Combining the notions of crosstime travel and space travel is relatively rare in SF, oddly enough.) Those seeking the Gate include some of Rud's kin - his brother, for one - so Kincar s'Rud is welcome to join their search for a Gorth where intelligent life never arose, which they can settle with a clear conscience. Their first attempt, while unsuccessful, brings them to a history they can't pass by - a world where the Star Lords came indeed, but to a Gorth with a far more advanced civilization - and to which they deliberately brought enslavement and misery. The feel of the story reminds me of Norton's later collaborations with Mercedes Lackey in creating THE ELVENBANE and its sequels. Can one group of Star Lords undo the evil done by another - especially when Gorth's people have good reason to distrust all of them? And if they can intervene, do they have the right to try?
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