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This children's SF novel starts with a lovely, haunting scene in which Alanna and her twin brother Mal are playing on the alien planet on which they've only just arrived. The scenery is colorful, and they discover that they can use the thin material of their protective suits to hang-glide on the wind. But Mal goes too high, and--
--Alanna wakes up on a spaceship. It was all a prophetic dream. I regret to say that that scene is the best part of the book, which is especially annoying as I picked up this book after reading the first few pages. Mal doesn't appear again till the last page, they never fly with their suits, and no one ever has any fun for the whole rest of the book.
I'm not surprised this book is so unknown, as while it has interesting ideas and imagery, it's really incoherent and jumbled and inconclusive.
Alanna is on a spaceship because Techmen have taken over the Earth and offered people food and medicine and other good things if they implant crystals in their foreheads, so the Techmen can suck their energy. Alanna's family were Independents who refused the crystals, so they've been packed off on a one-way colonizing expedition on a ship crewed by Techmen. Alanna meets a crotchety old man who the Techmen want, and they threaten that she'll never see her family again if she doesn't get them the old man.
Things which are never explained: why the Techmen want the old man, why they can't find him themselves given that everyone's cocooned in a spaceship they run, who the Techmen are, whether they're human or aliens or elves or what, how the Techmen got to Earth, and why the Techmen are escorting the Independents to another planet.
The cocooned Independents are chucked on to a planet, where Alanna gets separated from everyone and meets some alien rodents who she threatens for ages before adopting one as a pet. The Techmen again demand that she give them the old man, though at this point she has no idea where he even is. She meets an alien dog creature who kills some of the rodents (not her pet) and then it turns out they both can astral project and they take a tour of the planet where she sees an ooze devouring everything in its path. The dog creature explains that on this planet, everything gets glommed together and reconstituted as particles and then back to ooze. The Techmen kill Alanna's pet rodent before she and the dog shoo them away. Then she's reunited with her family.
Things which are never explained: How the colonization is going to work when the planet is covered in ooze that eats everything, why the old man was important, why the Techmen everything, why the dog randomly killed a rodent, why this book's editor didn't request more clarity.
--Alanna wakes up on a spaceship. It was all a prophetic dream. I regret to say that that scene is the best part of the book, which is especially annoying as I picked up this book after reading the first few pages. Mal doesn't appear again till the last page, they never fly with their suits, and no one ever has any fun for the whole rest of the book.
I'm not surprised this book is so unknown, as while it has interesting ideas and imagery, it's really incoherent and jumbled and inconclusive.
Alanna is on a spaceship because Techmen have taken over the Earth and offered people food and medicine and other good things if they implant crystals in their foreheads, so the Techmen can suck their energy. Alanna's family were Independents who refused the crystals, so they've been packed off on a one-way colonizing expedition on a ship crewed by Techmen. Alanna meets a crotchety old man who the Techmen want, and they threaten that she'll never see her family again if she doesn't get them the old man.
Things which are never explained: why the Techmen want the old man, why they can't find him themselves given that everyone's cocooned in a spaceship they run, who the Techmen are, whether they're human or aliens or elves or what, how the Techmen got to Earth, and why the Techmen are escorting the Independents to another planet.
The cocooned Independents are chucked on to a planet, where Alanna gets separated from everyone and meets some alien rodents who she threatens for ages before adopting one as a pet. The Techmen again demand that she give them the old man, though at this point she has no idea where he even is. She meets an alien dog creature who kills some of the rodents (not her pet) and then it turns out they both can astral project and they take a tour of the planet where she sees an ooze devouring everything in its path. The dog creature explains that on this planet, everything gets glommed together and reconstituted as particles and then back to ooze. The Techmen kill Alanna's pet rodent before she and the dog shoo them away. Then she's reunited with her family.
Things which are never explained: How the colonization is going to work when the planet is covered in ooze that eats everything, why the old man was important, why the Techmen everything, why the dog randomly killed a rodent, why this book's editor didn't request more clarity.
