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Envoy
All Channa Harknell knows is war. Yet now, as Shavlan Envoy to the Confederation, she must negotiate peace.
The Galactic Confederation is determined to stop the war between the Shavlans and the Deorin. Its Mediator, Joran Lovrel, brings all his wiles and experience to beak down Chana's resistance to peace. But can Channa trust him?
Isolated in the neutral territory of the Confederation's base, Mediator and Envoy begin a battle of wits more demanding than any military campaign.
Meanwhile, in Shavla new allegiances are formed, fresh betrayals hatched. And in the name of peace Channa must face more danger than she has ever encountered in a lifetime of war.
The Galactic Confederation is determined to stop the war between the Shavlans and the Deorin. Its Mediator, Joran Lovrel, brings all his wiles and experience to beak down Chana's resistance to peace. But can Channa trust him?
Isolated in the neutral territory of the Confederation's base, Mediator and Envoy begin a battle of wits more demanding than any military campaign.
Meanwhile, in Shavla new allegiances are formed, fresh betrayals hatched. And in the name of peace Channa must face more danger than she has ever encountered in a lifetime of war.
290 pages
First published January 1, 1994
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 5, 2013
Reread every few years.
A fascinating look at how culture shapes how we view the world.
A fascinating look at how culture shapes how we view the world.
January 28, 2022
I found this book fairly slow starting and took a while to get into it.
However, it got to the stage where I was looking forward to getting home from work to read a few more chapters, which earns it 4 stars from me.
I found the central premise interesting enough:
Galactic confederation is judging whether (relatively) primitive cultures are capable of overcoming their "belligerent" nature and earning membership.
Two warring societies on the same planet send peace-negotiating envoys to the galactic representatives but are really only interested in faking peaceful intentions to gain whatever strategic advantages they can over their enemies.
The galactic representatives are well aware of this, and it soon becomes apparent that a genuine peace is their only acceptable option and the representative envoys are being individually tested and their whole society being judged on their performances.
Although I was expecting a lot of subterfuge, double crossing, etc, in the end there were no real surprises - no real twists or dramatic changes of direction and the conclusion was fairly obvious from early on, with just a few minor details of how the main character's personal situation would end up being unknown until the end.
However, it got to the stage where I was looking forward to getting home from work to read a few more chapters, which earns it 4 stars from me.
I found the central premise interesting enough:
Galactic confederation is judging whether (relatively) primitive cultures are capable of overcoming their "belligerent" nature and earning membership.
Two warring societies on the same planet send peace-negotiating envoys to the galactic representatives but are really only interested in faking peaceful intentions to gain whatever strategic advantages they can over their enemies.
The galactic representatives are well aware of this, and it soon becomes apparent that a genuine peace is their only acceptable option and the representative envoys are being individually tested and their whole society being judged on their performances.
Although I was expecting a lot of subterfuge, double crossing, etc, in the end there were no real surprises - no real twists or dramatic changes of direction and the conclusion was fairly obvious from early on, with just a few minor details of how the main character's personal situation would end up being unknown until the end.
September 11, 2019
An interesting world and ideas but I didn't love the concept of manipulation in the way it was presented. Kept hoping it would take a turn for the better but it never eventuated. I think I picked this up as it featured a female protagonist as when I was younger the scifi/fantasy world only had male protagonists. It feels dated now.
August 24, 2025
Re-reading a childhood favourite is fraught with the possibility of discovering that an old friend is really a bore and a simpleton. I was so pleased to rediscover this book was just as wonderful as I had remembered it to be. I might have grown up, married and become and mother in the meantime, but I was quite sure Channa was still railing against the patriarchy that was expecting her to give up her career and settle down to make babies.
A wonderful book offering the truest of sci fi's experiences - the opportunity to place people in to novel environments and then see how it tests their humanity. The only reason this review lost its fifth star is that in the 22 years since this book was published, our society has done some evolving of its own too, making it unimaginable for me to imagine an advanced society could consider the sexual assault of an Envoy as harmless fun (sure it was only a kiss, but every adult is entitled to bodily auotonomy) and that abortion requires a fathers consent. I understand it was a key requirement of the plot...but surely no civilised society would force a woman to bear a child against her will...then again, our supposed most advanced democracies seem to behave in similar ways today seeing woman as little more than breeding vessels. Still a wonderful and relevant book!
A wonderful book offering the truest of sci fi's experiences - the opportunity to place people in to novel environments and then see how it tests their humanity. The only reason this review lost its fifth star is that in the 22 years since this book was published, our society has done some evolving of its own too, making it unimaginable for me to imagine an advanced society could consider the sexual assault of an Envoy as harmless fun (sure it was only a kiss, but every adult is entitled to bodily auotonomy) and that abortion requires a fathers consent. I understand it was a key requirement of the plot...but surely no civilised society would force a woman to bear a child against her will...then again, our supposed most advanced democracies seem to behave in similar ways today seeing woman as little more than breeding vessels. Still a wonderful and relevant book!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews