Conference noted::sf

1183.0. "Scyoc's Darkchild Trilogy" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Thu Oct 21 1993 16:04

Article: 405
From: [email protected] (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews PS#15: Sydney J Van Scyoc and "Darkchild"
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 20 Oct 93 01:34:48 GMT
 
  Belated Reviews PS#15:  Sydney J. Van Scyoc and the "Darkchild" Trilogy
 
I'm not sure whether Sydney J. Van Scyoc is still writing.  Her first
book, "Saltflower" (**-), appeared in 1971, and showed more promise than
skill.  The last book I saw by her was "Deepwater Dreams" (**), in 1991,
and it was nothing special.  Between the two, appeared the Darkchild
trilogy, which *is* something special.  Like most of Van Scyoc's books,
those in the trilogy combine two themes -- coming of age and human
evolution (gradual or sudden).
 
"Darkchild" (****) is the first and best of the trilogy.  The planet
Brakrath has been settled (accidentally) for so many millenia that its
inhabitants have adapted to its mountains and its winters.  The Brakrathi
are a peaceful breed, for the most part, living in fertile mountain
valleys, working hard in the summer, hibernating in winter.  Most of them
are comfortable with their lives, unaware of the outide galaxy, and
uninterested.  Each valley is ruled by a Barohna, a member of a mutant
offshoot of that race, whose ability to store and redirect sunlight keeps
the valley fertile.  When a Barohna's daughter (always daughters) reaches
the edge of maturity, she goes hunting one of the mountain predators.  If
she survives, the process triggers her metamorphosis to a Barohna. 
 
Khira is a palace daughter, i.e., an untested daughter of a Barohna.  She
*was* the seventh daughter, but all the others have gone to the mountain,
and died, the sixth most recently.  Thus winter -- the season in which the
valleyfolk sleep, the Barohna goes on an isolated retreat, and the palace
daughters are left alone in the palace -- finds her lonely, scared, and
peevish.  The loneliness, at least, is relieved by the appearance of a
strange child, physically different from Brakrathi and unable to speak the
language.  He is a spy, cloned by a race of spacefarers, conditioned to
collect information, and set down to be adopted and to evaluate the
planet's exploitable resources.  He also becomes her friend.
 
"Bluesong" (***+), the second book in the trilogy, concerns two youngsters
who are out of place, in a world where everyone has a place.  Danior is
the only son ever born to a Barohna.  (I suppose this is a spoiler for
"Darkchild", but I don't think it's a serious one.)  Keva is the daughter
of a Barohna, but has been raised in ignorance of the mountains and their
people.  Both find their way to a desert inhabited by small, warring tribes,
and by a man who means to bring peace and civilization to the desert, even
if no tribe but his survives the process.  The Bluesong of the title comes
from a silk-like fabric of unknown origin, that sings when set in the wind.
There are a number of these silks, and one of them, instead of singing,
calls for help -- with the Darkchild's voice.
 
"Starsilk" (***+) (notice a pattern in the titles she chooses?) is the
story of Danior's youngest sister, Reyna, a palace daughter who has been
forbidden the attempt to become a Barohna.  Instead, she is offered the
opportunity to go to another star, to solve the mystery of the starsilk's
cry for help.  This is the quietest book of the trilogy.  There is some
action, some danger, but mostly it is the story of Reyna learning that
there is a larger universe beyond Brakrath, and that there is a place for
her between the two.
 
The Darkchild trilogy is Sydney Van Scyoc's best work.  She's built an
interesting and appealing world, peopled it with characters who are (most
of them) peaceful and sympathetic without being dull, and used them to
tell a good story.  I've seen one short story set in this world.  That's
"Stonefoal" (***), which appeared in the August, 1980 Isaac Asimov's
magazine, and which is set millenia earlier.
 
It's probably safe to say that if you don't like "Darkchild" you won't
like any of Van Scyoc's books.  If you do like it, you may like some of
her other books as well.  They are weaker, and will probably not be to 
all tastes. 
 
"Starmother" (**+) may be the best of her other books.  Jahna Swiss is a
member of a future equivalent of the Peace Corps, and has been sent to the
failing colony on Nelding, ostensibly to care for a group of mutant infants.
She finds herself at the focus of a power struggle.  The original colony
is dying, and has reacted with religious fanaticism.  In the backwoods are
'primitives', hated by the colonists and returning the sentiment, who have
undergone a strange evolution:  Infants are imprinted by the ones who
raise them, and take on their characteristics.  It's a form of immortality, 
for some.  And Jahna has been brought in to provide a new template --
something she is not sure she likes and which many others are sure they
*don't* like. 
 
I enjoyed many of Van Scyoc's books well enough, but the I'd only really
recommend the Darkchild trilogy.  If you read that and like it well enough
to want to read her other books, they're not hard to find in used book stores.
 
%A  Van Scyoc, Sydney J.
%S  Darkchild trilogy
%T  Darkchild
%T  Bluesong
%T  Starsilk
 
%T  Starmother
 
=============================================================================
 
The postscripts to Belated Reviews cover authors of earlier decades who
didn't fit into the original format -- whether because the author seemed
an inappropriate subject, or because I was unfamiliar with too much of the
author's work, or whatever -- or sometimes just isolated works of such
authors.  The emphasis will continue to be on guiding newer readers
towards books or authors worth trying out, rather than on discussing them
comprehensively or in depth.  I'll retain the rating scheme of ****
(recommended), *** (an old favorite that hasn't aged well), ** (a solid
lesser work), and * (nothing special). 
 
-----
Dani Zweig
[email protected]
 
"One of my favorite games when I was a kid was 'murder/suicide.'
 Dad would show us a photo and ask us, "Is it a murder or a suicide?"
	  --  Colleen Doran