Clarion

by William Greenleaf

Clarion a planet hidden from the rest of humanity, a lost colony. For 200 years it has survived, alone and unaided. Suddenly mysterious men are willing to kill for its coordinates and the people of Clarion are dying to find one man. Dorland Avery is a psi-player, a master storyteller without words. Suddenly he is targeted for assassination and no one can figure out why. On Clarion a fanatical cult religion is tightening its stranglehold on the colonists. Lord Tem, the mystical deity of this powerful cult, may be a "gent"...a living member of an intelligent species...the first ever contacted by space-faring humanity. The First Speaker of Lord Tem possesses powers remarkably like those of Avery- and Dorland Avery may be the only man who can save the lost colony---Clarion

Genres: Science Fiction, Ebooks

213 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

Reviews

[Otis Campbell · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Our main fella is Dorland Avery, and he’s got a real unusual day job. He’s what you call a "psi-player"—basically a mind-reading entertainer who stands up on stage and manipulates the crowd's emotions without ever saying a single word. He’s a quiet, reclusive boy, and his business manager, Paul (who narrates the whole story), just thinks he's a talented city-slicker artist. But one night after a show, a couple of strange fellas ambush Dorland, and the truth comes out. Turns out, Dorland wasn't born around here. He was born on Clarion, a human colony planet that’s been totally cut off and missing from the galactic maps for over two hundred years because somebody went in and wiped the coordinates right out of the navigation computers. And why are the folks from Clarion looking for Dorland? Because the old hometown has gone completely to seed. A tyrannical, slick-talking preacher named High Elder Brill has taken over the whole planet. Brill runs a fanatical, iron-fisted religious cult, and he claims he’s getting direct revelations from a mysterious alien entity named Lord Tem. Brill uses these "holy orders" as an excuse to commit some absolutely terrible atrocities against the colonists. But the underground rebels on Clarion have a hunch that "Lord Tem" might actually be a living, breathing alien creature (a "gent") being used as a puppet, and that the High Elder's inner circle has mind-powers exactly like Dorland's. Since Dorland used to train to be a cult elder before he skipped town, he's the only one who can sneak back onto the property, read the bad guys' minds, and expose the whole crooked operation. Suddenly, hitmen are trying to take Dorland out, the secret coordinates to the planet are worth a killing, and Paul gets dragged along for a wild, space-faring ride to help his buddy overthrow a galactic cult. It's a mighty entertaining 1980s space adventure. If you like stories about sneaky mind-powers, underground rebellions, and taking down corrupt politicians who think they're gods, this one is worth digging out of the old paperback bin.