Books

Books : reviews

Diann Thornley.
Ganwold's Child.
Tor. 1991

rating : 4 : passes the time
review : 28 December 2002

Baby Tristan and his mother are marooned on an alien world during an interstellar war, and he is brought up by a tribe of hunters. Years later, when his mother falls ill, the young adult Tristan tries to get help, but is captured by the opposing side, and used as a hostage to make his father give up the fight.

For most of the time as the bewildered Tristan is struggling to cope with the new world of humans, he is accompanied by one of his alien friends who keeps reminding him how to behave properly, for an alien. This could have been an intriguing juxtaposition, but as the main alienness is how to behave in a conflict (turn away from it), it doesn't lead to as much culture-clash as it could have. So, this is competent space opera, with a fairly frenetic pace that kept me turning the pages, but nothing particularly special story-wise.

Diann Thornley.
Echoes of Issel.
Tor. 1996