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juushikaTitle: Enchantress of the Stars
Author: Sylvia Engdahl
Published: New York: Firebird, 2001 (1970)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 286
Total Page Count: 96,207
Text Number: 276
Read Because: personal enjoyment, picked up at Holland American Line MS Eurodam's book exchange
Review: Elana is a member of an advanced interstellar civilization that studies and protects unadvanced "Youngling" civilizations. When space-faring Younglings called Imperials invade a medieval Youngling planet called Andrecia, Elana becomes involved in an attempt to rescue Andrecia—without endangering either culture, or revealing her own. Enchantress of the Stars is an ambitious book, but not always a successful one. There are three civiliazations, three points of view, two narrative styles, a wide-ranging plot and setting all couched within a framing narration, and with so much going on no one aspect is fully realized. Take for example the characters: Elana and her love interest Georgyn are admirable, realistically faulted, promising characters, but Elana's narration deadens her own character development by burdening it with excessive explanation; the interaction between these characters is satisfyingly complex—except for the crucial romantic element, which develops too easily and early, and shoulders too many plot points. These aspects are well-intended and the groundwork for their success is laid out in elements such as Elana's naivety and intelligence, Georyn's keen emotional insight, and the unique POVs which accompany each character, but they never quite come to life. This failure makes for an emotionally stunted novel—which is particularly regrettable in young adult literature.
The plot has similar lofty goals and rocky execution. Its ambition and scope is what I loved best in the book, and it makes for a young adult novel that, rather than talking down to its audience, challenges them with difficult concepts of societal and personal maturation. The carefully constructed triple narrative also makes for some strong parallelism and clever plot developments, the sort of which would be unlikely in a traditionally narrated book. But the triple narrative also makes for unfortunate repetition, the plot's tension is destroyed by the framing narration, and in between the lovely parallels and plot points are some pinprick plot holes. Why, for example, do the Imperials consider colonized natives effectively nonhuman if they study—of all things!—their psychology, which is virtually identical to the Imperials's own? Because it makes for a convenient plot point later on, of course—but while such plot holes don't render things entirely improbable, they are enough to make the plot feel more like machination than natural progression, weakening its erstwhile strengths. I nitpick, of course, but that's just my point: I went through Enchantress from the Stars constantly distracted by nitpicking; I was never absorbed by characters or motivated by plot enough to overlook the various weaknesses. It's a laudably ambitious book, intriguing for its premise alone, and at times comes rewardingly close to its goals, but more often than not it made me wish, instead, that I were reading the book that it could have been. I recommend it only moderately, mostly on the basis of what it tries to be.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Sylvia Engdahl
Published: New York: Firebird, 2001 (1970)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 286
Total Page Count: 96,207
Text Number: 276
Read Because: personal enjoyment, picked up at Holland American Line MS Eurodam's book exchange
Review: Elana is a member of an advanced interstellar civilization that studies and protects unadvanced "Youngling" civilizations. When space-faring Younglings called Imperials invade a medieval Youngling planet called Andrecia, Elana becomes involved in an attempt to rescue Andrecia—without endangering either culture, or revealing her own. Enchantress of the Stars is an ambitious book, but not always a successful one. There are three civiliazations, three points of view, two narrative styles, a wide-ranging plot and setting all couched within a framing narration, and with so much going on no one aspect is fully realized. Take for example the characters: Elana and her love interest Georgyn are admirable, realistically faulted, promising characters, but Elana's narration deadens her own character development by burdening it with excessive explanation; the interaction between these characters is satisfyingly complex—except for the crucial romantic element, which develops too easily and early, and shoulders too many plot points. These aspects are well-intended and the groundwork for their success is laid out in elements such as Elana's naivety and intelligence, Georyn's keen emotional insight, and the unique POVs which accompany each character, but they never quite come to life. This failure makes for an emotionally stunted novel—which is particularly regrettable in young adult literature.
The plot has similar lofty goals and rocky execution. Its ambition and scope is what I loved best in the book, and it makes for a young adult novel that, rather than talking down to its audience, challenges them with difficult concepts of societal and personal maturation. The carefully constructed triple narrative also makes for some strong parallelism and clever plot developments, the sort of which would be unlikely in a traditionally narrated book. But the triple narrative also makes for unfortunate repetition, the plot's tension is destroyed by the framing narration, and in between the lovely parallels and plot points are some pinprick plot holes. Why, for example, do the Imperials consider colonized natives effectively nonhuman if they study—of all things!—their psychology, which is virtually identical to the Imperials's own? Because it makes for a convenient plot point later on, of course—but while such plot holes don't render things entirely improbable, they are enough to make the plot feel more like machination than natural progression, weakening its erstwhile strengths. I nitpick, of course, but that's just my point: I went through Enchantress from the Stars constantly distracted by nitpicking; I was never absorbed by characters or motivated by plot enough to overlook the various weaknesses. It's a laudably ambitious book, intriguing for its premise alone, and at times comes rewardingly close to its goals, but more often than not it made me wish, instead, that I were reading the book that it could have been. I recommend it only moderately, mostly on the basis of what it tries to be.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
