Review
A coming-of-age yarn, the first independent novel from veteran writer-editor Silverberg since The Alien Years (1998). Centuries ago, the tall, thin, technologically advanced Masters invaded and subdued the squat, muscular Folk of Homeworld, parceling out the planet into huge estates and pressing the Folk into service while the intelligent native Indigenes remained aloof and indifferent. Now, Masters learn three languages-Master, Folk, and Indigene-as a matter of course. Fifteen-year-old Master Joseph, heir to House Keilloran on the southern continent Helikis, pays an extended visit to House Getfen on the northern continent High Manza. One night, suddenly and astonishingly, the Folk rise in rebellion and set about slaughtering all the Masters. Joseph escapes with the assistance of a kindly, loyal servant woman. He flees into the wilderness hoping for aid at a neighboring House, but injures himself. A native noctambulo brings him to an Indigene village. The Indigenes possess no medical skills whatsoever, and thus Joseph's meager aptitude for dressing wounds and straightening fractures is greeted with awed acclaim. Eventually, he learns that the neighboring estate was also destroyed in the rebellion, which seems to have engulfed most of the continent. Joseph resolves to walk home-a mere 10,000 miles. Among his further adventures: servant Folk and Folk who serve no Masters; near-starvation; first love; capture and interrogation as a spy. Worse yet: will he have a House and family to return to? Silverberg handles his protagonist's absorbing material and spiritual odyssey from naive youth to weary journeyman with quiet, precise wisdom. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
For more than a thousand years, society on Homeworld has remained rigidly stratified. The Great Houses rule, peace between them enforced by unbreakable webs of kinship. The Folk accept the benefits of the system: stability, prosperity and peace. The Indigenes -- their world occupied for thousands of years by settlers from Old Earth -- are placid. Then, on one night of worldwide rebellion, everything changes, as the Folk turn against the ruling Houses and annihilate them. Joseph -- scion of one Great House, visiting another -- is one of the few survivors at House Getfen. His home is ten thousand miles away. The infrastructure which he has taken for granted all his life -- communications, transport -- has been swept away. For all he knows his family has been wiped out as thoroughly as the members of House Getfen. But his only hope lies in finding his way home, across ten thousand miles of a world turned suddenly strange and hostile. To succeed, he must set aside all his old beliefs and assumptions and learn the truth about the world he lives in. Robert Silverberg's newest novel is a masterful portrayal of a society and turned upside-down, and a colourful and highly imaginative depiction of an alien world.
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