Orn (Corgi science fiction) (Paperback)

Cal, Veg, Aquilon, and four of the mantas are sent on a mission to a newly discovered world (via a transfer mechanism whose operation is not yet completely understood) to determine the world's suitability for human habitation. Cal quickly determines that this world is not 'new', but is rather our Earth of some sixty-five million years ago, the Paleocene age, just after the age of dinosaurs and the beginning of the age of mammals. But within this world there is also something that doesn't quite fit that age: a large, intelligent, flightless bird, Orn.

Orn is definitely the best part of this book, as he doesn't think like we do, but rather navigates his world via 'racial memory' - built into his genes are those experiences of all his ancestors that have happened frequently enough to be so imprinted. This is an idea that most biologists think is very unlikely, but it certainly makes for a very different life form whose actions and 'thoughts' are nevertheless very understandable.

There is an inevitable meeting between Orn and the humans, occurring in a physically isolated enclave where some of the dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous have managed to survive. The interactions between all of these beings is properly driven by each being's character, from Veg as a confirmed vegetarian to Cal's emphasis on logic and survival of the fittest, and only near the end of the book does it take on larger aspects as the Earth authorities try to exert control over the group.

Thematically, this book is a further investigation, which was started in Omnivore, into the morality of killing others to ensure your own survival, here looked at both from the point of view of evolutionary demands and on the individual level, from herbivore to omnivore. At times this book gets a little too bogged down in scientific details (such as the differences between various classes of mollusks), and the portrayed mind-set of the Earth authorities seems a little too harsh to be totally believable, but in general this is a good action-adventure set in environment where dinosaurs are not only believable but are properly portrayed in both their strengths and weaknesses.

Anthony closes the book with an appendix that defines his own thoughts on how and why the dinosaurs died out. Written before the confirmation of the iridium layer and the Yucatan crater, his ideas still make a good addendum to the catastrophic theory of their demise, even though he specifically denies 'catastrophe' as the primary cause.

This is probably the best of the three books of the triptych, greatly enlivened by the unique viewpoint that Orn brings to it, and is a far more serious effort than his Xanth books. Written very early in his career, it shows the kind of inventiveness and good understanding of human motivation that makes for enlightening reading.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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