Възвръщане

by Sarah Zettel, Сара Зетел

Никой не е господар в Царството на Безименните сили...

Представете си далечно бъдеще, в което галактиката е населена от различни групи, които търсят своето еволюционно начало. Част от тях се обединяват в търсене на митичната “родина”. Ерик и Арла, бегълци от изоставена планета, наречена Царството на Безименните сили, ще изиграят ключова роля в разкриването на истината. Древни сказания, генно инженерство, пришълци, изкуствени интелекти, причудливи артефакти и хилядолетна борба за власт изпълват страниците на този забележителен роман, с който Сара Зетел се нарежда сред майсторите на епичната научна фантастика.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Space Opera

Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

About the author

Sarah Zettel is the critically acclaimed author of more than twenty novels, spanning the full range of genre fiction. Her debut novel, Reclamation, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her second release, Fool’s War, was a 1997 New York Times Notable Book, and the American Library Association named Playing God one of the Best Books for Young Adults of 1999. Her novel Bitter Angels won the Philip K. Dick Award for best science fiction paperback in 2009. Her latest novel, Dust Girl, was named as one of the best young adult books of the year by both Kirkus Reviews and the American Library Association. Zettel lives in Michigan with her husband, her rapidly growing son, and her cat, Buffy the Vermin Slayer.

Reviews

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am in love with author Sarah Zettal's books. 'Reclamation' is the second of her novels I have read, but it is her debut novel, for which she won the Locus Award for the Best First Novel (1997).

I am going to tell it like it is. Her writing is complex. I think it works best for science-educated readers as well as those who find politics (especially that of organized religions and the creation of myths) fascinating. Dune fans should try one of Zettal's novels. I also think her stories are an interesting mix of hard science and speculative science fiction. She will include telepathy and telekinesis when the plot requires it (some hard science fiction fans hate the inclusion of such 'soft' science-fiction elements, so I am mentioning it). Her imagination in regards to alien life forms is completely mind-boggling and outstandingly fantastic. However, some readers may find the plots too dense, the science too hard, and others may find characters who practice realpolitik morality too depressing.

I love it. Bite me.

A powerful politically-connected religious cult, the Rhudolent Vitae, is using every tactic it can to pressure many planet governments, other alien races, and independent commercial businesses on space stations to further their cause of "Reclamation". Ten thousand years ago they lost their 'homeland', the planet they believe humans first populated, and a slave race of what were originally petri dish humans they call artifacts. They feel entitled to rule over both planet and the artifacts - if they can only find them. Recently though, they think they are finally close to their goals. The planet may have been discovered. We readers soon learn the planet is populated by a very primitive and poor people, but as the book opens the Vitae know nothing about how 'the People' on 'Realm of the Nameless Powers', as the inhabitants call their world, live. The Vitae have only the ancient stories of secret powers hidden somewhere on the planet and maybe in the bodies of the genetically engineered 'artifacts'.

Eric Born is a bottom-feeder entrepreneur. He presently owns the spaceship U-Kenai which he uses to fly from job to job. He is a systems handler Contractor, specializing in hacking computer systems and programming. He has a special talent which helps him in the work, but he avoids using his telekinesis power in public. He takes work wherever he can find it, but his primary employer has been the Vitae, who tend to offers of employment in the spirit of "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse". They do not question him closely about his past, but they assume he is a normal, if now civilized, human from the Realm (they know the planet has normalized humans after a few human visitors during the passage of ten thousand years, or at least they believe so). But after Eric responds to what Eric believes is another file-stealing job - he is attacked by the Vitae! Instead of working on a computer system or robot, they force him to translate questions and responses for a prisoner they are holding captive in Ambassador Basq's quarters in Haron Station.

The woman is Stone in the Wall dena Arla Born of the Black Wall, a Notouch. Eric is extremely reluctant to be involved with her interrogation. First, he does not like that the Vitae are forcing him to translate under threat of torture along with holding him captive. Second, he escaped ten years ago from the planet 'Realm of the Nameless Powers' where she has been kidnapped from. His real name is Teacher Hand kenu Lord Hand on the Seablade dena Enemy of the Aunorante Sangh. The circumstances of his leaving will have had him declared a heretic in the extremely religious culture of the Realm. He is of a higher caste then her, so she should be totally obedient to him, or she would be, if he hadn't had the markings of his caste removed from his hands.

As Eric reluctantly speaks to her, establishing his rank and birth, Arla demands her namestones before she will answer any questions. When the Vitae give the stones back to her, she quickly wraps them in her head scarf. Another Vitae comes into the room distracting everyone. WHAPP! She has spun her head cloth with her namestone and knocked out a Vitae!

Time to run...

I really enjoyed this novel! To me, it was interesting and exciting. However, there are some confused transitions in the plot, a fault in the architecture, maybe. Also, as I said Zettel's books are an acquired taste. Readers have to tolerate dense Alien world-building, politicized cultural discrimination and religious realpolitik violence - much of the story echoing our real civilizations on Earth and our past.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen.” “You say this like it’s a new thing.”

Science fiction debut novel. Published in 1996. Reads like a space opera for young adults, which may be good. Filled with shards of humanity as well as believable aliens races. Complete with juvenile SF standard android. A touch of humor.

If you believed in conspiracies, the formula made too much sense, and if you’d ever seen the Vitae organize a project, you believed in conspiracies.

Awkward start. Zettel jumps between point of view characters before readers can determine who they are and why we should care about them. However, she has a method—slowly building personalities, worlds, and future history. Since this was her debut novel, perhaps she overworked the opening. Once the train is out of the station, it builds momentum.

“You’re telling me not to be blinded by superstition and you refuse to look into the Words and see that there might be truth under there.” She stabbed a finger at him. “What is that if it isn’t blindness?”

Extra credit for first work. Third time’s a charm. Love the cover art.

“This is what the [redacted] cannot understand. Life cannot be controlled. Trying to keep your grip on it will break your own hand.”

[Mary JL · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have now finished Reclamation and it gets a good solid three stars. Sarah Zettel has a good feel for creating future socities.

This is her very first novel, which shows. It is why it only gets three stars not four. The characters rate a four but the story is a bit uneven. The ending was a bit rushed I felt. It is not nearly as compact as her other book I have read--Fool
s War.

Still, a very well done job for a first novel and as I said the characterization is good. Sarah Zettel is well worth a try if you've never read her.

[Andreas · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a lot of interesting ideas to be found in this book, but at least in my humble opinion, they have not been assembled into a very convincing story. The mechanisms that advance the plot are much too obvious to be satisfying. For example, there are some really interesting aliens, but as soon as they have served their purpose, they are never mentioned again. It is of course completely acceptable for an author to invent some way to get a protagonist out of a difficult situation, but this did not seem to be very elegantly done to me. There is also a certain "landing" on a planet that almost made me stop reading this book because it was utterly improbable, so do not expect physics to be a very strong point of this story. There were also too many factions that at first are quite difficult to keep apart and I have the suspicion that getting rid of one or two of them would have resulted in a better book. As this is the first work of the author, I might try one of her later books at some point, but I will certainly not do that right away.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Large book about larger space empires that felt small - only a few locations were visited. Aliens who felt very alien, but mostly humans. Psychic powers, exiles, politics, genetic manipulation, slavery, and a hidden planet. Pick a few of these for an episode of Star Trek; this novel picks them all and feels crowded.

Reclamation is Sarah Zettel's first novel, and was nominated for the 1997 Philip K Dick award. It won the 1997 Locus First Novel award and is included on a list of the defining science fiction of the 90s. Summarizing the plot would take more characters than I have remaining, so I'll just finish with a rating - somewhere between "ok" and "good".

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reclamation starts off in what appears to a futuristic society with what appear to be smugglers and large empires in what is described as being set in what is known as the quarter galaxy! :D Reclamation starts with the seizure of Aria Stone by the Vitae who are the kind of 'bad guys' that you love to hate! :D Lol Though the Vitae do not see themselves in this light and as you would expect of a self righteous society and go about doing whatever they want with an ends justify the means kind of policy! :o But even in this society there are factions and infighting that form much of the plot of Reclamation and the reasoning of why they do some of their actions! :D

We are then introduced to the character of Eric Born who is called into translate for the Vitae so they can question her but he as well as she a target! :D The Vitae have identified them as coming from the Homeground that they were forced to flee three thousand years before and see them not as technology and artefacts to be used at will by themselves but also as a way back to the Homeground and the technologies that are there as well! :o :D The actions that the Vitae undertake throughout out the book will have you fuming at the Vitae but at the same time the group known as the Human Family will also provoke a similar reaction as the two main characters are caught between them which add another great tone to events that unfold throughout the book! :D

Reclamations plot moves along at pretty fast clip but still manages to haves time to portray the galaxy through which the characters are travelling! :D Reclamation features multiple POV's from a multitude of characters as well as the two main ones which of course leads to some times when you almost tell the 'good guys' not to do a certain action as you can see that things are not going to brilliantly for them! :D Lol

Characterisation is also really excellent with every character feeling three dimensional and showing their own motivations and the reasons for why they are doing the actions that they are undertaking! :D There are plenty of scenes though that you do not see coming which keep you guessing as to what will happen and who the winning side will be! :D

There are plots within plots and conspiracies abounding as well throughout the book and this also has a an undercurrent that goes throughout the books as you don't know how these will play out and if the certain agents are actually working for one team or another! :D the action throughout Reclamation is also very fast with some ingenious tactics displayed such as hiding your ship in a comet and then crashing it into a planet! :D Lol

The geography of May 16 and the Homeground and their connection are also cleverly handled through the book though you are likely to guess the major mystery and identity of Homeground before the end of the book as the clues are there! :D

The ending of Reclamation is brilliantly handled and many of the mysteries are answered though as the same time raising more that you have you speculating but these are left as a bit of a great mystery! :D Though at the end the questions about where the Vitae fit in overall human picture as the galaxy exists at the end of the book could warrant a sequel if the author ever wants to right one! :D

A very clever book with protagonists you will cheer and hate in abundance! :D Alien sentient life is present in the book but the human and alien cultures are only beginning to mix adding another tone to a brilliant book and some dramatic scenes which perform a great role in showing Aria Stone as the kind of character she is but also leaving room again for a sequel and an expansion of the ideas touched upon! :D

Brilliant stuff and highly recommended! :D

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up Reclamation and immediately wished I could just sit and read it all the way through.

It is an interesting, engaging, and well written book. There are a "cast of thousands" of species, names, and planets that does take some work when reading the book as Zettel jumps around between people and places.

While I would love a little more "hard science" in her books, her writing, interesting characters, unusual situations, and new slants and points of view make up for this to a large degree.

Something I enjoyed in her book Playing God, that she returns to here, is looking at negative human traits, such as dishonesty, deception, anger, and manipulation both through the eyes on and in the psyches of alien. Looking at ourselves through others' eyes and looking at our own traits in others certainly is illuminating.

Looking forward to reading The Quiet Invasion next.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you like your SF to be full of big ideas and culture clashes, Zettel's 1997 Locus award winner may well be worth checking out. There's a backwater planet with precisely engineered human inhabitants, an evolving AI, fascinating gender-switching multi-part centipede aliens, and a desperate contest to find and possess the lost origination planet for all of the scattered human race. Each of these pieces were individually well-developed enough to want to have their stories told... and throwing them all into the mix was what lost me. There's really only 2 or 3 characters in here that I care about, and spending long chapters away from them while a different culture/species/business entity crafts conniving plans was a drag. Fans of hard SF who read for worldbuilding and concept will be happy here, readers who crave plot and character less so.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humans, both natural and descendants of constructed ones, clash on various planets and finally go head to head on an old, nearly uninhabitable one with a few surprises in its history. Very good world and culture building, the two lead characters are well worth cheering on, many of the others are understandably motivated, and both the nonhuman aliens and the noncorporeal ones in the supporting cast are terrific. I think there are a few too many POV characters to give this a top rating, but a fine epic adventure nonetheless. A- to B+

Excellent phrase award goes to: Reference to a hacker's portable "virus apiary"

[Kathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.5/10
What an amazing book—thought-provoking, complex, and satisfying. Not a 10/10 score because the first quarter or so of the book was a bit confusing to follow since the information needed to understand the worlds and their inhabitants was doled out in small doses.

[Anny · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I ever saw telekinesis used to hack into systems, ingenious application! Other than that, this book shared many similarities with her other SF books, multiple POVs, complex alien societies, politics, and complex characters. Too bad she didn't write more SF books.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am giving this four stars because I read it once long ago but found that I remembered the story as I went along, and that doesn’t happen much in my old age. So this was memorable.

For the rest, I would give it three stars. The concept is interesting, but some things could have been made clearer. Many of the characters were likable, but there were too many of them. Some characters appeared briefly and, then, vanished, so we never found out what happened to them. And one group had some political divisions, and I really couldn’t understand what the difference was and kept forgetting who was on which side.

Overall, however, I enjoyed this.

This is a standalone novel.

[Maria Longley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humanity has lost its original home to the mists of time and various people are looking for it. Two refugees from a mysterious planet cross paths and get entangled in the political manoeuvring. There's plenty going on, at a decently rapid pace, as we whizz across the universe trying to work out what is going on.

I enjoyed reading science fiction again. There were some fun aliens.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific first novel, plenty of extraordinary world-building across the galaxy, following two intriguing leads—and a host of minor characters with too-easily-confused 'alien' names—and a huge space opera MacGuffin. Packed full of incident and invention, but lost me a little during the climactic scenes, which seemed rushed.

[Ansate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zettel's first novel - her amazing world building is in place, and her complex but functional plot, but it takes a long time to warm up the characters for me, so I think I will pass it along. Glad I found it!

[Jane J. Savova · Rating 5 out of 5]

One heck of a story .... !!!!!

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complex & intriguing. Good solid story. =)

[Jean Corbel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish it. Characters, plot and style need to improve - be kind to a a first book.

[Lijadora del Prado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing page turner. It has continuously switching perspectives over all parties in the conflict - and I liked that a lot.

[Ted Manahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a big, sweeping space opera. Sort of ponderous, and at times confusing. Good world-building and pacing. Now I want to find more of her books!

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Realm of the Nameless Powers was hidden away thousands of years ago and had no contact with the rest of the Quarter Galaxy. The same power that hid them was also responsible for there strangely shortened DNA that has no redundancy. Eric Born left the Realm 10 years ago. For a few years he worked with the people who took him from the Realm. When he learned what Tasa Ad and Kessa were doing was more like slave trading than saving refugees he rebelled against them. For the past six years he has been an information systems specialist working mostly for the Rhudolent Vitae. They have a new job for him which turns out to be trying to get Arla Stone to work with them. She was taken from the Realm on a Unifier ship and then abducted by the Vitae. The Vitae think of her (and Eric Born) as genetically engineered artifacts not people. The Vitae have a legend of looking for Home Ground and think that the planet of the Realm is it, and they lay claim to the planet and claim the "artifacts" as their possessions.

The Vitae aren't the only people in the Quarter Galaxy, but their economic power extends quite deep. The Vitae is a rigid society, but there is a secret faction of Imperialists. On one front we have Eric and Arla that are fugitives from the Vitae, on another they are trying to take over the Home Ground. By instigating hostilities between between First City and Narroways, and using the technology of the Ancestors.

The characters of Eric and Arla are well done. Eric's back story is told very well, which included how he made friends with Perivar and Dorias. The allegiances and motivations of the other characters aren't always clear. Other things confused me. Eric goes to hack into the Vitae network and extracts data, he gets some, but we never learn what it is. At the end of that scene there is a battle which I thought was on the U-Kenai because he's in the engine room. It seemed like everyone was knocked out. Which is OK because it's his ship and it can just fly away. Later we find the ship did get away, but that Eric was captured. Fun read that didn't bog down. Three and a half to four stars.

[Jemima Pett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great piece of space opera. We move from scene to scene, switching across from one character’s story to another, with them all melding together into a complex plot… So what’s different? Well, I don’t believe I’ve ever switched to liking an antagonist quite as much as I did with this one!

The genius of Sarah Zettel’s work is that each character is supremely well-rounded in his, her or its own cultural context. As someone said in giving tips to authors: villains are just people with a different mindset and values from your heroes. As a result this book has a question for everyone. What are the rights of colonisation, or of those who desire to set things back to how they used to be? When would that be? Before a war? Before a country’s borders were redrawn? How far back in history do you want to go?

In this case, the space-faring races are interested in reclaiming their originating planet. It’s their heritage, after all.

Naturally, the incumbents, descended from those who didn’t go space-faring, don’t like it.

And there are plenty of other races who have a say in the matter, too.

It’s a brilliant set-up, superbly executed, and I loved it. More, please, Ms Zettel.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked most about this book is the alien cultures and diverging agency of even the minor characters. I like depth to the characters and the world they live in and Zettel definitely delivered there. I would love to read another book set in the same world.

I will say this, however. This book was not particularly science fiction-y. Zettel could have set it in a fantasy setting and it would have worked just as well because nothing really seemed to rely on it being sci-fi unless you count the aliens that did not really resemble any of your stock fantasy races. So, uh, if you need your reading to be super science-y with long elaborate descriptions of how the technology works, go elsewhere.

[Cindywho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd been planning to get back to Sarah Zettel and picked up her first published novel. The cover doesn't have too much to do with the story which was complex and exciting. Eric Sar Born is some kind of freelance hacker who had escaped a fundamentalist upbringing on a backwater planet. Two powerful groups have been looking for this planet and are ready to kidnap any of its inhabitants. Space travel, hacking, genetic manipulation and slavery are all touched upon - It's one of the better SF stories I've read in a while.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing Fool's War I decided to go back and re-read her first novel - Reclamation. And yes, it still stands the test of time. Great world and culture building and all the characters interesting - human and non. Lots going on and the ending not quite as satisfying as I remember on reading it 20 years ago. But a fine adventure story in a rich alien world. I shall have to remember to read it again in another 20!

[Jrubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

This suffers from the many usual flaws of a debut novel.

Zettel uses the typical tropes … cold opening, alienation of main characters, epic quest, protagonist against the world, etc. Really nothing new here at all. Mostly, there is a lack of experience in how to allow a story to unfold.

Then add the pedestrian writing, and this is a novel with good world-building but nothing to hold you in place.

I quit after 60 pages.

[Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whats not to like? Space-opera, some political intrigue and action, and a spot of romance. However, it was confusing and complicated to begin with, numerous factions all plotting various things. I almost lost interest in trying to keep track of various plot threads, when it finally gelled into a coherent narrative. Overall, an enjoyable fun read.

[Jim Mcclanahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting space opera. However, the number of characters to follow became burdensome after a bit. Some simply faded from view. Others took on more importance than expected. The main protagonists, Arla and Eric were well drawn, but their interactions often seemed forced. The overall "search for origins" arc of the story was fine, but perhaps overly elaborate. Still, not a bad read.

[Steve Kinsman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly long and convoluted. The style was patchy but not awful ... it just felt a bit amateur (perhaps because this was the author's first book). I wouldn't say the story exactly sucked me in but it did at least get me curious enough about the outcome to keep reading. I didn't enjoy it though so would have been better off just reading a quick plot summary somewhere to satisfy my curiosity. :)

[Koji Mukai · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong debut novel by Zettel ("excellent name for a science fiction author, since it means the author whose books are put next to Zelazny's") who will publish four more quality science fiction novels before turning over to the dark side.