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Legacies
Five generations after their ancestors had accidentally destroyed their home planet and fled to another world, Lian D'Halldt, Daisainia Travassa, and the other outcasts prepare to return to the lost world. Original.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
440 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 9, 1995
104 people want to read
About the author
Alison Sinclair
35 books82 followersAlison Sinclair is a science fiction and fantasy author.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 1, 2010
It is always a pleasure to read a new take on the space-op theme of return home.
In this novel, a sense of culpability and responsability mingled with daring curiosity motives descendants of settlers to return to their wasted (by the fault of their ancestors warp-drive test run) homeworld. There Lian and fellow travelers return, to discover that a society did indeed survive... under the strict rule of the Isk'dar, an a stern young woman bent on salvaging the ancients artifacts, and managing the protection against the inundation that threatened its survival.
Lian discovers more and more secrets as he is taken in by the settlement, while keeping his own secret from them... for a time.
Nuff for the main plot line. Lian is in himself a very arresting, unassuming character: a timid, empathic, stuttering guy, who was raised by his idealist father with a race of empaths. An accident damaged his brain, and his speech and memory suffered.
A lot of care was taken to describe the empath race and family dynamics, and their language (a short lexique is offered at the end). The three-gendered race talk by signs, (the third sex is referred as kin instead of he or she) as most adults stop talking with sounds as they mature and become fully empaths.
The responsability theme is the second best asset of the book, the first being the Kinder-eleen, and Lian. Because Lian, having grown up amonst the race, has developed feeling toward a "young" (they live longer than humans) female Kindereleen. As later, on Burdania, he finds hiself drawn towards the leader...
The Kindereleen interactions are original. The world building is strong. The problem is the drama progression - or the reader-retention indice.
The whole book alternates between two plot lines, "before leaving" and "on Burdania", constructing the suspense... too carefully. Some interactions between Lian and another character are less easy to follow. The interaction with his father, for instance. I found it easy to began and finish three other books while plodding along. It's a case of "I work hard to create this universe, so work hard too!"
I had to wait until around page 300 to get some paydirt, an emotional response, first when the empathic race find... something pivotal, by linking to Lian. And then a touching dialogue with an older woman.
In this novel, a sense of culpability and responsability mingled with daring curiosity motives descendants of settlers to return to their wasted (by the fault of their ancestors warp-drive test run) homeworld. There Lian and fellow travelers return, to discover that a society did indeed survive... under the strict rule of the Isk'dar, an a stern young woman bent on salvaging the ancients artifacts, and managing the protection against the inundation that threatened its survival.
Lian discovers more and more secrets as he is taken in by the settlement, while keeping his own secret from them... for a time.
Nuff for the main plot line. Lian is in himself a very arresting, unassuming character: a timid, empathic, stuttering guy, who was raised by his idealist father with a race of empaths. An accident damaged his brain, and his speech and memory suffered.
A lot of care was taken to describe the empath race and family dynamics, and their language (a short lexique is offered at the end). The three-gendered race talk by signs, (the third sex is referred as kin instead of he or she) as most adults stop talking with sounds as they mature and become fully empaths.
The responsability theme is the second best asset of the book, the first being the Kinder-eleen, and Lian. Because Lian, having grown up amonst the race, has developed feeling toward a "young" (they live longer than humans) female Kindereleen. As later, on Burdania, he finds hiself drawn towards the leader...
The Kindereleen interactions are original. The world building is strong. The problem is the drama progression - or the reader-retention indice.
The whole book alternates between two plot lines, "before leaving" and "on Burdania", constructing the suspense... too carefully. Some interactions between Lian and another character are less easy to follow. The interaction with his father, for instance. I found it easy to began and finish three other books while plodding along. It's a case of "I work hard to create this universe, so work hard too!"
I had to wait until around page 300 to get some paydirt, an emotional response, first when the empathic race find... something pivotal, by linking to Lian. And then a touching dialogue with an older woman.
June 20, 2018
Couldn't finish it.
Sounded interesting at first - but I found it slow. The story has two alternating timelines, a "present" and a "past" so you see both the scouting trip return to their home planet, and everyday life before the trip. I couldn't stand the exposition chapters - it's like the exposition was half the book. Eventually I gave up.
I understand why there were language and cultural differences between the colonists and the alien-yet-oddly-similar race where they landed, but how did new language structures evolve on the homeworld? They were gone like 60 years.
Sounded interesting at first - but I found it slow. The story has two alternating timelines, a "present" and a "past" so you see both the scouting trip return to their home planet, and everyday life before the trip. I couldn't stand the exposition chapters - it's like the exposition was half the book. Eventually I gave up.
I understand why there were language and cultural differences between the colonists and the alien-yet-oddly-similar race where they landed, but how did new language structures evolve on the homeworld? They were gone like 60 years.
January 16, 2020
A highly detailed structure with a complex plot and a set of revealed characters whose emotions and motives remain obscured by the author's style. The murky haze within which the protagonists threaded their way ensured that the final catharsis to overcome guilt was sapped of the power that it doubtless was designed to contain.
A strong but flawed novel.
A strong but flawed novel.
January 27, 2021
Not much to add to the other reviews here at goodreads. It's competent and the ideas are interesting, the combination of themes and tropes is unique: non-Terran humans, telepathic ETs, exotic physics, climate catastrophe, and survival after the loss of technology.
Alas, the execution is dry and the story tends to swirl down drains of emotionally-fraught verbiage.
Alas, the execution is dry and the story tends to swirl down drains of emotionally-fraught verbiage.
June 10, 2014
Sinclair’s debut novel is at first daunting, since its structure consists of a dual timeline, in that, in alternate chapters we are taken through events on one planet, while examining the events which led up to this point on another planet entirely. (Pohl’s ‘Gateway’ and Sturgeon’s ‘Venus Plus X’ employ the same device to a certain extent.) Also, Sinclair’s writing is deceptively simple, since much depends on the subtle interaction of characters.
In this novel we are dealing with two alien races. The Burdanians (essentially humanoid, but with properties concomitant with having evolved under a blue-white star) some seventy years ago developed a star drive. A renegade group dedicated to using the drive set off in their ships after the Burdanian government decides to confiscate the technology. Unfortunately, the Star drive is ignited by accident too close to the planet, and the explorers, unable to stop, set off across the galaxy not knowing how much damage they’ve caused to their Homeworld.
Landing on the planet of the Kind’er’lein, a tri-gendered spiritual and philosophical race, best described as long-lived grey-skinned empathic Buddhists, the Burdanian colony thrives. It is here the story begins when a decision has been made to send an expedition back to Burdania to discover whether life still exists on their home planet.
The Kind’er’lein, in contrast to the human analogue Burdanians, are alien in every respect, and in terms of character, are more highly developed with grater depth than the Burdanians. If I have one complaint it’s Sinclair’s rather cliched use of apostrophes in the Kind’er’lein names and language, which I thought to have been done to death in SF novels of decades before.
The Burdanians also suffer in this respect, and both races seem to have names overburdened with the letters ‘L’ and ‘N’. This is however, a minor niggle in this understated novel, rich with emotion and subtle moral questions.
It’s a book which shows Sinclair’s promise as a Science Fiction writer. ‘Blueheart’ her next novel, is a deeper work, tighter and more considered, and showing a strong degree of her ability to create solid characters and explore moral issues within a SF framework, while at the same time giving detailed attention to the scientific background.
‘Legacies’ is weak on science, to its detriment, since a greater degree of contrast could be achieved between the technologically advanced colonists and both the Kind’er’lein - who have transcended technology and now live a pastoral existence - and the Burdanians back on the Homeworld who have fallen into a Dark Age. In this sense, the colonists represent a middle stage between ignorance and enlightenment.
The central figure is Lian, a descendant of the Burdanian exiles, brain-damaged after falling through the roof of the council chamber, disrupting the debate on whether to return to the Homeworld. Lian is the bridge between all cultures, having been partly brought up the Kind’er’lein and now accidentally thrust into Burdanian Homeworld society, unable to reveal his identity.
In this novel we are dealing with two alien races. The Burdanians (essentially humanoid, but with properties concomitant with having evolved under a blue-white star) some seventy years ago developed a star drive. A renegade group dedicated to using the drive set off in their ships after the Burdanian government decides to confiscate the technology. Unfortunately, the Star drive is ignited by accident too close to the planet, and the explorers, unable to stop, set off across the galaxy not knowing how much damage they’ve caused to their Homeworld.
Landing on the planet of the Kind’er’lein, a tri-gendered spiritual and philosophical race, best described as long-lived grey-skinned empathic Buddhists, the Burdanian colony thrives. It is here the story begins when a decision has been made to send an expedition back to Burdania to discover whether life still exists on their home planet.
The Kind’er’lein, in contrast to the human analogue Burdanians, are alien in every respect, and in terms of character, are more highly developed with grater depth than the Burdanians. If I have one complaint it’s Sinclair’s rather cliched use of apostrophes in the Kind’er’lein names and language, which I thought to have been done to death in SF novels of decades before.
The Burdanians also suffer in this respect, and both races seem to have names overburdened with the letters ‘L’ and ‘N’. This is however, a minor niggle in this understated novel, rich with emotion and subtle moral questions.
It’s a book which shows Sinclair’s promise as a Science Fiction writer. ‘Blueheart’ her next novel, is a deeper work, tighter and more considered, and showing a strong degree of her ability to create solid characters and explore moral issues within a SF framework, while at the same time giving detailed attention to the scientific background.
‘Legacies’ is weak on science, to its detriment, since a greater degree of contrast could be achieved between the technologically advanced colonists and both the Kind’er’lein - who have transcended technology and now live a pastoral existence - and the Burdanians back on the Homeworld who have fallen into a Dark Age. In this sense, the colonists represent a middle stage between ignorance and enlightenment.
The central figure is Lian, a descendant of the Burdanian exiles, brain-damaged after falling through the roof of the council chamber, disrupting the debate on whether to return to the Homeworld. Lian is the bridge between all cultures, having been partly brought up the Kind’er’lein and now accidentally thrust into Burdanian Homeworld society, unable to reveal his identity.
September 17, 2016
I am sorry, but this book gave me not one single bit of pleasure. The best I can say about it is that the writing style was OK and that I was sympathising with the kinder'el'ein who had to put up with those unsufferable Burdanians. Everything else was a strange mixture of obscuring (made-up foreign language interspersed much too freely, the broken language of Lian) and at the same time dissecting both the minutest flashes of emotion and several sets of group dynamics. More than a few times I ended up simply not understanding what the author was trying to relate, both in small things like describing the interaction of body languages as in rather big things like Thovalt's encounter with the yellow poisonous gas. This last case is a good example: It is absolutely unclear where that came from, and we have to wait a hundred pages to get a hint that it might have been a suicide attempt (but why?), still cannot really be sure because of all those sentences left in a tangle. Besides, it is hard to find a character one would be willing to care for - Lian is intensity and vagueness incarnate, Thovalt a crisis in and of himself, Daisainia so harsh it is very hard to understand why so many people love her or let themselves be guided by her. There is simply too much detail and not enough clarity here, every small thing is presented as extremely dramatic, but in retrospect the plot is simple and not very appealing. I bullied myself into finishing this book, but have to say, regretfully, that it just wasn't worth it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2010
This wasn't a quick read--I think I'd started it several times but then got distracted--but it's still making me think even days afterwards.
The format of one chapter set on the colony and one set on the homeworld alternating through the entire book maybe wasn't the best decision, though both storylines managed to stay in sync for the entirety.
But having a disabled protagonist (brain damage due to a fall from a tremendous height that left him uncoordinated, lacking in focus, and unable to speak without stuttering) was a gutsy choice. All the characters, in fact, were well-rounded and flawed. All those hot-button issues that the Internet gets up in arms about seemed to be handled intelligently from my perspective. I'm still mulling it over.
The format of one chapter set on the colony and one set on the homeworld alternating through the entire book maybe wasn't the best decision, though both storylines managed to stay in sync for the entirety.
But having a disabled protagonist (brain damage due to a fall from a tremendous height that left him uncoordinated, lacking in focus, and unable to speak without stuttering) was a gutsy choice. All the characters, in fact, were well-rounded and flawed. All those hot-button issues that the Internet gets up in arms about seemed to be handled intelligently from my perspective. I'm still mulling it over.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2012
A complex and multilayered work, with a well-written disabled protagonist, several carefully-constructed societies and meaty themes of responsibility and loss. It reminded me in some respects of C. J. Cherryh's work, with its lucid intelligence and the emotional distance between reader and book. Not an easy read, but a haunting and rewarding one.
August 20, 2008
a bit weak really. Didn't find any of the characters very believable and much of the story pretty dull. However, the overall concept was good and I finished it in the end.
March 15, 2010
This book was too long to make the point although well written it oculd have been 100 pages shorter.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews