Enchantress from the Stars, guest book review by Susan Cassidy
I rarely re-read books but every time I do I wonder why I don’t do it more often. Recently, in an attempt to find a great book to review for this blog that hasn’t been discussed here already, I revisited a book I discovered thirty years ago, when it was already 10 years old. In Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, three civilizations meet at the intersection of magic and technology.
Georyn is a native of the planet Andrecia, a woodcutter’s youngest son. His world is in peril—a dragon is laying waste to a large area of the land, and the King has offered to grant any boon to the brave man who slays the dragon. Georyn and his brothers set forth on their quest, doing their best to keep to the familiar wood and avoid the Enchanted Forest.
‘And then it was that the brothers came upon a small stone hut, which surprised them greatly, for it had not been there in the past when they had cut wood near that place. As they were wondering at this, a tall, dark-haired maiden stepped forth from the hut; and the woodcutter’s sons stood silent in amazement and awe, for she was unlike any mortal maiden they had ever seen, and they knew at once that she was an enchantress.’
Jarel is an apprentice medical officer assigned to the Imperial Exploration Corps who have landed on Andrecia to found a colony. On a lovely spring day, he stands watching the massive rockchewer eat away at the woods.
‘It was too bad that the land must be cleared. It was kind of a nice planet, green trees and grass and stuff. It was the third planet of a yellow sun, even: in that, as in other ways, it seemed just like home. But the place was crawling with alien bacteria; not only must pressure suits and helmets be worn until immunity was established, but every inch of ground must be sterilized before any construction could be started. Burn off the trees, level the ground—how else could you take over a hostile world?’
Elana is a student at the Academy who dreams of a career in the Anthropological Service, studying Youngling civilizations. Although she has just begun her training, she finds herself part of the small landing party who has come to Andrecia to protect Georyn’s feudal world from Jarel’s imperialist society. Because those in the Service are sworn to keep their existence secret from less advanced civilizations, Elana’s team decides that the best way to persuade the imperialists to leave Andrecia is to convince them that the native population has powers that the science worshiping colonists cannot understand: magic.
‘So there was only one course we could take. We’d have to give the natives power advanced enough to impress the invaders, to scare them off. But possession of that power couldn’t be allowed to disrupt the Andrecian culture; it must be made to blend so imperceptibly into the natives’ own background of beliefs that it would not even be noticed by their future historians. Neither side could ever know that there had been an intervention.’
Writing in three distinct voices, Engdahl creates both a believable love story between a space girl and a fairy tale boy, and a suspenseful adventure with a stunning climax. Elana’s first person voice is the primary one: she is recording her experiences for the starship’s log. Jarel’s story is told in the third person from inside his head, as he comes to question the motives and means of colonizing an inhabited planet. And Georyn’s story is told in the detached and formal third person voice of a traditional fairy tale. By eschewing gadgets and focusing on what makes her characters human, Engdahl has written that rare thing: a science fiction novel that delights with freshness and originality despite being 40 years old.
What I most like about this book is the combination of science and fantasy. Although we fantasy fans know dragons and enchantresses are real, not everyone is a believer, and I love the practical explanation for how these magical beings could have become a part of our lore. And although Engdahl is a science fiction writer, her portrayal of the power of magic—never mind how it comes to exist—is powerful indeed. For by the end of the book, it is not just the woodcutter’s son who believes in forces he cannot see.
What I like least about the book is that at the crucial moment, it is the guy who gets to perform the spectacular, world-saving feat. This isn’t really a surprise (as the entire intent of Elana’s mission was to help the native people save themselves) but it will certainly strike readers of Robin’s books as something that could have been handled differently. How much slack should writers from the 1950s, 60s and early 70s be given on this issue? And how much does it matter that the author is a woman? Personally, I’m willing to cut Engdahl some slack as the characters, traditional though they may be at times, really work. Besides, I’m a sucker for a great story.
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