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The People
Pilgrimage: The Book of the People
255 page mass market paperback science fiction masterpiece.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
21 people are currently reading
1819 people want to read
About the author
Zenna Henderson
124 books93 followersZenna Chlarson Henderson was born on November 1, 1917 in the Tucson, Arizona area. She graduated from Arizona State in 1940 with a Bachelors degree in education and worked as a teacher in Arizona throughout her life. She died on May 11, 1983, at the age of 65, in Tucson.
Henderson is known almost entirely for short stories about "The People." The People are a race of sensitive, human-looking aliens with psychic abilities who are separated after crash-landing on Earth but come to find each other over a period of many years.
Publishing her "People" stories in the leading science fiction magazines of the 50's, 60's and 70's, Henderson became a pioneer in many areas of science fiction literature. She was one of the first female science fiction writers, and was one of an even smaller number who wrote openly as a woman, without using male-sounding pseudonyms or initials (James Tiptree, Jr.; C.L. Moore; etc.).
Henderson was one of the first in science fiction to truly take young people seriously and write expressive, mature stories from their point of view. She drew on her experience as a teacher of young people, and was able to bring a rare level of insight to her use of young characters. Henderson's youthful protagonists are neither adults forced into young bodies, nor are they frivolous caricatures. They are very human, complete souls, yet marked by authentic signs of youth and innocence. Interestingly enough, Lois McMaster Bujold and Orson Scott Card, both of whom mention Henderson as an important early influence, have also been among the most successful chroniclers of young people, with such Hugo- and Nebula-award winning novels as Falling Free and Ender's Game.
Her books and stories about The People were the basis for the movie
The People, 1972, starring William Shatner and Kim Darby. Despite similarities, both Escape to Witch Mountain, 1975, and Return to Witch Mountain, 1978, were a result of books by Alexander Key.
Henderson is known almost entirely for short stories about "The People." The People are a race of sensitive, human-looking aliens with psychic abilities who are separated after crash-landing on Earth but come to find each other over a period of many years.
Publishing her "People" stories in the leading science fiction magazines of the 50's, 60's and 70's, Henderson became a pioneer in many areas of science fiction literature. She was one of the first female science fiction writers, and was one of an even smaller number who wrote openly as a woman, without using male-sounding pseudonyms or initials (James Tiptree, Jr.; C.L. Moore; etc.).
Henderson was one of the first in science fiction to truly take young people seriously and write expressive, mature stories from their point of view. She drew on her experience as a teacher of young people, and was able to bring a rare level of insight to her use of young characters. Henderson's youthful protagonists are neither adults forced into young bodies, nor are they frivolous caricatures. They are very human, complete souls, yet marked by authentic signs of youth and innocence. Interestingly enough, Lois McMaster Bujold and Orson Scott Card, both of whom mention Henderson as an important early influence, have also been among the most successful chroniclers of young people, with such Hugo- and Nebula-award winning novels as Falling Free and Ender's Game.
Her books and stories about The People were the basis for the movie
The People, 1972, starring William Shatner and Kim Darby. Despite similarities, both Escape to Witch Mountain, 1975, and Return to Witch Mountain, 1978, were a result of books by Alexander Key.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
May 21, 2007
As far as I'm concerned, Zenna Henderson was one of the most gifted (though not prolific) authors of science fiction of all, and I've read just about every sci fi book there is. This book, and its sequel, "the People: No different Flesh" are and will remain among my top 10 sci fi favorites of all time. Her books have a magical combination of power and wonder. Complex plotting, fully realized characters, and a completely believable alternate world, which becomes a vehicle for the author's exploration of the nature and consequences of prejudice against and fear of "the other" - the unfamiliar, that which is not ourselves, that which we do not understand.
January 19, 2019
"Utopia" is a a bookshelf that I've shelved this book in, but it is a much more complicated situation here with Zenna Henderson's "Pilgrimage". This book is not an utopia per se, but I've simply have no idea which genre it could be considered, so.. Here we are.
This is a really warm, unrushed soft sci-fi story. Nothing bad happens in this book and in those few cases there are shades of unhappiness, misery, accidents or pure bad luck, everything turns out to be well and fine. People in this book are (mostly, except for some secondaries) nice, smart, loving and carefree, and everything is all right for them and then the book ends. Maybe qualifying this book as an utopia isn't so very wrong then, huh?
The plot is quite simple, really. A starship crashes on Earth some hundred or so years ago, The People of that starship fleeing their own planet because of some unspecified cataclysm. The lifepods fire away at few different locations, meaning there are few diverse groups of The People on Earth now, unnecessarily aware of the other groups also surviving. Oh, and they - The People, as they call themselves - just happen to look like us. Exactly like us. To the extent of interbreeding with us. And they have some minor supernatural powers, like levitation, superempathy, telepathy, etc. And they live here, happily, hiding their capabilities from The Outsiders - thats us - because they (us) are not very kind with those, who are different. Thats it. Thats the story in a nutshell, which consists of six loosely intertwined stories that mostly depicts the lives of The People and a few Outsiders that came into contact and know of their special powers.
Despite being quite simple, this book still has lots of charm. I can't divulge much about it without spoiling, but know this: if you look for light, fun, heartwarming story with a dash of science fiction or maybe even fantasy, but you don't want the usual components like evil warlords, supervillains, wars, catastrophes, blasters, FTL, deep space, drama, yada yada yada, look no further, this is a perfect read for you.
This is a really warm, unrushed soft sci-fi story. Nothing bad happens in this book and in those few cases there are shades of unhappiness, misery, accidents or pure bad luck, everything turns out to be well and fine. People in this book are (mostly, except for some secondaries) nice, smart, loving and carefree, and everything is all right for them and then the book ends. Maybe qualifying this book as an utopia isn't so very wrong then, huh?
The plot is quite simple, really. A starship crashes on Earth some hundred or so years ago, The People of that starship fleeing their own planet because of some unspecified cataclysm. The lifepods fire away at few different locations, meaning there are few diverse groups of The People on Earth now, unnecessarily aware of the other groups also surviving. Oh, and they - The People, as they call themselves - just happen to look like us. Exactly like us. To the extent of interbreeding with us. And they have some minor supernatural powers, like levitation, superempathy, telepathy, etc. And they live here, happily, hiding their capabilities from The Outsiders - thats us - because they (us) are not very kind with those, who are different. Thats it. Thats the story in a nutshell, which consists of six loosely intertwined stories that mostly depicts the lives of The People and a few Outsiders that came into contact and know of their special powers.
Despite being quite simple, this book still has lots of charm. I can't divulge much about it without spoiling, but know this: if you look for light, fun, heartwarming story with a dash of science fiction or maybe even fantasy, but you don't want the usual components like evil warlords, supervillains, wars, catastrophes, blasters, FTL, deep space, drama, yada yada yada, look no further, this is a perfect read for you.
March 20, 2016
A series of short stories set in the same world and a connecting story outside them all. Most of the stories are excellent, but the last is not as strong and the connecting thread remains unresolved. Perhaps this tale continues in the second volume The People: No Different Flesh. Each of the episodes would stand alone, and each contains a little more about The People than the previous entries. Each has a slight religious overtone, though no overt discussion of or comparison to any earthly religion ever occurs. Has many similarities to Escape to Witch Mountain.
The only other Zenna Henderson I read was more than 30 years ago, The Anything Box. This book was chosen on a list of Defining Books of the 60s, and is also included in Ian Sales list of Mistressworks. For me, this was a solid 4 stars.
The only other Zenna Henderson I read was more than 30 years ago, The Anything Box. This book was chosen on a list of Defining Books of the 60s, and is also included in Ian Sales list of Mistressworks. For me, this was a solid 4 stars.
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April 23, 2015It's funny that people identify Henderson as sympathetic toward people who are different. True, she sympathetically delineates their plights--but then she undercuts it by arguing that nobody has the right to feel sorry for themselves. There's far too much of a 'pull your socks up and proceed undaunted' attitude.
Still, the stories are rich and (much) better written than other versions of the same story.
The stories in question are:
Preface and Bridge: The story of the heavily depressed Lea, who is convinced that "There is for me no wonder more/except to wonder where my wonder went/and why my wonder all is spent". (Yes, that's really the quote. I remember it as '...and how my wonder came to be all spent.', because it scans better that way. So I always check the exact wording. I have no idea where Henderson got it from. Maybe she made it up herself, in a tossed-up period in her own life?). Lea is forcibly made into a spectator of the sufferings of others, as (apparently) a form of therapy. Seems too likely to boomerang, to me. If the superhuman PEOPLE can't even make it on Earth, what hope has a mere mortal?
(1) Ararat: This is the first of Henderson's stories I ever read. It was widely anthologized. I once memorized it for a storytelling class, and thereby proved the uselessness of memorization, because the only part I really remember is the first paragraph or so "We've had trouble with teachers in Cougar Canyon. It's just an accommodation school anyway, isolated and so unhandy..." And that's as far as I can get, and I'm not sure THAT'S exactly right. But the main thrust of the story is the beginning of the Ingathering, in which the isolated 'Groups' of the People (scattered by the somewhat chaotic landing of people who had never landed a spaceship before) began to realize that they needed to reconnect with each other more than they needed to stay unobtrusive.
(2) Gilead: Readers who go on and read The People: No Different Flesh will recognize the Mother in this story as the same Eve who is about 10 years old at the time of the Crossing. The stories in this volume are set (on average) about 50 years after the Crossing, so Eve probably dies at about the age of 60. The narrator in this story is probably one of the first of the 'Blends'. Once he learns to hide his extraordinary abilities from his neighbors, life is not so bad for him. But for his sister Bethie, a Sensitive who can't help feeling the pains of those around her, and who can't Channel them away when she's successfully identified them to a Healer (and doesn't have a Healer around anyway)...? She's driven so to distraction that she sees herself as having only three options: to suicide, to retreat into madness, or to find the other Groups to get schooling in how to cope. This story starts in Socorro, NM (which Peter characterizes as "So this is Socorro, wasn't it?" It's grown some since). Cougar Canyon is evidently not so far away as the People fly--but until the Ingathering begins, Eve is unable to make contact with the Home crowd--and by that time she's settled with two children...and is not sure how her halfling children would be welcomed by 'pure' People. So she keeps putting off the trek until it's too late for her, and only passes on the directions to her children after she herself has been Called back to the Presence. The rest is the story of the (possibly hopeless) journey.
(3) Pottage: Given what's described in horrific detail of the way the humans in Bendo treated the castaways of the People, it's not surprising that the Old Ones in the Group commanded the first generation of the Group to keep their feet on the ground. They survived by means of the 'hidey-holes' that became such an abuse for later generations. It's perhaps not surprising that they feared to come out of hiding even after the mining town of Bendo was abandoned by humans when the ore veins ran out. But the failure of the traumatized Old Ones to recognize that establishing taboos describing what are quite normal abilities in the People as 'evil', and not to be permitted, is destructive to all concerned, is a good indication of why the modified gerontocracy of the People is not any kind of ideal government. The young people may in fact be wiser than their elders, as in Bendo. The sale of not only the Old Ones' own birthright, but those of generations to come, for a 'mess of pottage' is a desperation measure--but elders are not necessarily the best judges of when the emergency is over--or at least less severe.
When the time comes to stop shuffling up dust, it's the youngsters who realize it and begin to rebel--and who are immured in the now-unneeded shelters to 'punish' them and 'teach' them 'how a hunted animal feels'. Nobody is left to play the part of the 'hunters'--but ironically, the 'Group memory' insures that trauma CANNOT be forgotten or consigned to the past without at serious effort which too many are too terrified to make. It's sheer luck that it hadn't reached fatal levels of injury long before.
(4) Wilderness: If the People are 'no different flesh' (and they must be, if they can mate fruitfully with humans), it follows that some humans might have taken the same trail (or similar ones). It's interesting that the human who has some of the Persuasions of the People (and others they don't have) is named 'Perdita' (the lost girl). Isn't it just possible that some members of that long line of dusty Earthlings were likewise blessed. and lived a lifetime of denial because they found no companions before the People arrived?
(5) Captivity: All the Francher Kid wants is a musical instrument. Is that so much to ask? Is it a reason he should be driven to desperation and the verge of lawlessness? I disagree, by the way, with the contention that in order to be superhuman. you have to be the best a human can be, first. This is tantamount to arguing that in order to be an ape, you have to be a really good monkey, first. Most apes CANNOT live the kind of life many monkeys live. They're too heavy, for one--few monkeys bulk as large as the great apes. But are they also to deny their skills at brachiation, because no monkeys can do it? In a way, the notion is based on a chain-of-being theory (each species has its place in the hierarchy, and one species advances to a higher level by doing better at what its peers can already do). But this concept is false. One might even say fraudulent, if it were consciously falsified. But for too many, it's a genuine belief. Darwin knew that natural selection can't (in itself) lead to 'progress', since the forces doing the selection aren't directional. This is why he introduced the concept of a plenum (his own metaphor was of a log filled to capacity with wedges, so that a new wedge couldn't be introduced without dislodging at least one other). But this metaphor is, at the very least, not universal. Brachiation is an example of where a new capacity opened up new niches without displacing anything. If you can swing from branch to branch, you can get a better hold on the tree, and be less likely to fall--an important safety feature for the more massive apes, who are less likely to survive a fall than smaller animals. It also has other potential uses, as the more fatty humans learned when they developed the Australian crawl, and didn't have to dogpaddle anymore.
There's also too much of a tendency at this point to justify suffering. The Francher Kid's mother who endured a lifetime of hiding and of panic places had a dream for herself and her son--and it's not a recompense for her suffering if her son finally finds the portal to that dream. Her suffering is still unjustifiable. Any deity that would inflict such suffering on its People is unworthy of even respect, much less worship. Henderson clearly struggled with this problem, and tries to plea-bargain for 'the Presence'--but she's still evidently uneasy and defensive.
(6) Jordan: The bridge story is essentially abandoned in this final story. Lea is paired off, and makes a tremulous attempt at a restart--but there's no indication whether she will succeed. And once the story begins, she's just dropped. This last story deals with why Lea couldn't go over the ridge beyond the schoolyard, and also with the problems of castaways for whom rescue arrives a generation or more too late, when most of the lost have become naturalized, and would be tearing UP their roots to go to the 'New Home'. It's not really precise, but the evidence indicates that it was about 75 years between the Crossing and the arrival of the ship from the New Home.
Still, the stories are rich and (much) better written than other versions of the same story.
The stories in question are:
Preface and Bridge: The story of the heavily depressed Lea, who is convinced that "There is for me no wonder more/except to wonder where my wonder went/and why my wonder all is spent". (Yes, that's really the quote. I remember it as '...and how my wonder came to be all spent.', because it scans better that way. So I always check the exact wording. I have no idea where Henderson got it from. Maybe she made it up herself, in a tossed-up period in her own life?). Lea is forcibly made into a spectator of the sufferings of others, as (apparently) a form of therapy. Seems too likely to boomerang, to me. If the superhuman PEOPLE can't even make it on Earth, what hope has a mere mortal?
(1) Ararat: This is the first of Henderson's stories I ever read. It was widely anthologized. I once memorized it for a storytelling class, and thereby proved the uselessness of memorization, because the only part I really remember is the first paragraph or so "We've had trouble with teachers in Cougar Canyon. It's just an accommodation school anyway, isolated and so unhandy..." And that's as far as I can get, and I'm not sure THAT'S exactly right. But the main thrust of the story is the beginning of the Ingathering, in which the isolated 'Groups' of the People (scattered by the somewhat chaotic landing of people who had never landed a spaceship before) began to realize that they needed to reconnect with each other more than they needed to stay unobtrusive.
(2) Gilead: Readers who go on and read The People: No Different Flesh will recognize the Mother in this story as the same Eve who is about 10 years old at the time of the Crossing. The stories in this volume are set (on average) about 50 years after the Crossing, so Eve probably dies at about the age of 60. The narrator in this story is probably one of the first of the 'Blends'. Once he learns to hide his extraordinary abilities from his neighbors, life is not so bad for him. But for his sister Bethie, a Sensitive who can't help feeling the pains of those around her, and who can't Channel them away when she's successfully identified them to a Healer (and doesn't have a Healer around anyway)...? She's driven so to distraction that she sees herself as having only three options: to suicide, to retreat into madness, or to find the other Groups to get schooling in how to cope. This story starts in Socorro, NM (which Peter characterizes as "So this is Socorro, wasn't it?" It's grown some since). Cougar Canyon is evidently not so far away as the People fly--but until the Ingathering begins, Eve is unable to make contact with the Home crowd--and by that time she's settled with two children...and is not sure how her halfling children would be welcomed by 'pure' People. So she keeps putting off the trek until it's too late for her, and only passes on the directions to her children after she herself has been Called back to the Presence. The rest is the story of the (possibly hopeless) journey.
(3) Pottage: Given what's described in horrific detail of the way the humans in Bendo treated the castaways of the People, it's not surprising that the Old Ones in the Group commanded the first generation of the Group to keep their feet on the ground. They survived by means of the 'hidey-holes' that became such an abuse for later generations. It's perhaps not surprising that they feared to come out of hiding even after the mining town of Bendo was abandoned by humans when the ore veins ran out. But the failure of the traumatized Old Ones to recognize that establishing taboos describing what are quite normal abilities in the People as 'evil', and not to be permitted, is destructive to all concerned, is a good indication of why the modified gerontocracy of the People is not any kind of ideal government. The young people may in fact be wiser than their elders, as in Bendo. The sale of not only the Old Ones' own birthright, but those of generations to come, for a 'mess of pottage' is a desperation measure--but elders are not necessarily the best judges of when the emergency is over--or at least less severe.
When the time comes to stop shuffling up dust, it's the youngsters who realize it and begin to rebel--and who are immured in the now-unneeded shelters to 'punish' them and 'teach' them 'how a hunted animal feels'. Nobody is left to play the part of the 'hunters'--but ironically, the 'Group memory' insures that trauma CANNOT be forgotten or consigned to the past without at serious effort which too many are too terrified to make. It's sheer luck that it hadn't reached fatal levels of injury long before.
(4) Wilderness: If the People are 'no different flesh' (and they must be, if they can mate fruitfully with humans), it follows that some humans might have taken the same trail (or similar ones). It's interesting that the human who has some of the Persuasions of the People (and others they don't have) is named 'Perdita' (the lost girl). Isn't it just possible that some members of that long line of dusty Earthlings were likewise blessed. and lived a lifetime of denial because they found no companions before the People arrived?
(5) Captivity: All the Francher Kid wants is a musical instrument. Is that so much to ask? Is it a reason he should be driven to desperation and the verge of lawlessness? I disagree, by the way, with the contention that in order to be superhuman. you have to be the best a human can be, first. This is tantamount to arguing that in order to be an ape, you have to be a really good monkey, first. Most apes CANNOT live the kind of life many monkeys live. They're too heavy, for one--few monkeys bulk as large as the great apes. But are they also to deny their skills at brachiation, because no monkeys can do it? In a way, the notion is based on a chain-of-being theory (each species has its place in the hierarchy, and one species advances to a higher level by doing better at what its peers can already do). But this concept is false. One might even say fraudulent, if it were consciously falsified. But for too many, it's a genuine belief. Darwin knew that natural selection can't (in itself) lead to 'progress', since the forces doing the selection aren't directional. This is why he introduced the concept of a plenum (his own metaphor was of a log filled to capacity with wedges, so that a new wedge couldn't be introduced without dislodging at least one other). But this metaphor is, at the very least, not universal. Brachiation is an example of where a new capacity opened up new niches without displacing anything. If you can swing from branch to branch, you can get a better hold on the tree, and be less likely to fall--an important safety feature for the more massive apes, who are less likely to survive a fall than smaller animals. It also has other potential uses, as the more fatty humans learned when they developed the Australian crawl, and didn't have to dogpaddle anymore.
There's also too much of a tendency at this point to justify suffering. The Francher Kid's mother who endured a lifetime of hiding and of panic places had a dream for herself and her son--and it's not a recompense for her suffering if her son finally finds the portal to that dream. Her suffering is still unjustifiable. Any deity that would inflict such suffering on its People is unworthy of even respect, much less worship. Henderson clearly struggled with this problem, and tries to plea-bargain for 'the Presence'--but she's still evidently uneasy and defensive.
(6) Jordan: The bridge story is essentially abandoned in this final story. Lea is paired off, and makes a tremulous attempt at a restart--but there's no indication whether she will succeed. And once the story begins, she's just dropped. This last story deals with why Lea couldn't go over the ridge beyond the schoolyard, and also with the problems of castaways for whom rescue arrives a generation or more too late, when most of the lost have become naturalized, and would be tearing UP their roots to go to the 'New Home'. It's not really precise, but the evidence indicates that it was about 75 years between the Crossing and the arrival of the ship from the New Home.
January 19, 2016
My original rating for this collection of stories, linked by a frame narrative, was five stars. On re-reading, I find myself dissatisfied with the frame enough to drop my rating. Lea's story, that of a profoundly depressed woman taken in by the People and invited to share in their storytelling, leaves a lot of questions unanswered. On the one hand, Henderson seems to take such black depression seriously, and Lea's wish for death is accurately and sensitively depicted. But her "cure" strikes me as being rather abrupt and ambiguous; it's never said what caused her to become so depressed, and the idea that all it took to cure her was being surrounded by caring, extraordinary individuals is a little off.
On the other hand, as a way to link the stories together, the frame is a clever one: the People, who are aliens forced to crash-land on Earth and survive undetected among normal humans (Outsiders), are in the process of recording their history because others of their People have found them. Now they have the chance to decide whether to stay on Earth, or go to the world the rest of their kind have inhabited. Henderson arranged the stories, which were all published independently, so the narrative shows why either choice would be reasonable. "Ararat," the first, is my favorite, even though it's predictable; one of Henderson's great gifts as a storyteller was evoking human character through only a few details.
Certain themes reverberate through the stories, particularly ones of family, of belonging, and of being different. Henderson was a teacher, and many of her protagonists are also teachers, which means most of her stories focus on children rather than adults. One of my favorites is the delinquent boy known as "the Francher kid," a lost boy with music in his soul. The story "Captivity" is about one woman's battle to save him, and it's quite a battle--the Francher kid is fighting society as well as himself, and the story comes late enough in the collection that the ending ties several other stories to it, which is extremely effective.
The book left me wanting to read more stories of the People, which I probably will soon, though I don't own Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson; I have all the old Avon paperbacks instead. And I invite you to take a closer look at the cover of this one. That farmer is seriously creepy.
On the other hand, as a way to link the stories together, the frame is a clever one: the People, who are aliens forced to crash-land on Earth and survive undetected among normal humans (Outsiders), are in the process of recording their history because others of their People have found them. Now they have the chance to decide whether to stay on Earth, or go to the world the rest of their kind have inhabited. Henderson arranged the stories, which were all published independently, so the narrative shows why either choice would be reasonable. "Ararat," the first, is my favorite, even though it's predictable; one of Henderson's great gifts as a storyteller was evoking human character through only a few details.
Certain themes reverberate through the stories, particularly ones of family, of belonging, and of being different. Henderson was a teacher, and many of her protagonists are also teachers, which means most of her stories focus on children rather than adults. One of my favorites is the delinquent boy known as "the Francher kid," a lost boy with music in his soul. The story "Captivity" is about one woman's battle to save him, and it's quite a battle--the Francher kid is fighting society as well as himself, and the story comes late enough in the collection that the ending ties several other stories to it, which is extremely effective.
The book left me wanting to read more stories of the People, which I probably will soon, though I don't own Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson; I have all the old Avon paperbacks instead. And I invite you to take a closer look at the cover of this one. That farmer is seriously creepy.
May 30, 2022
The first in Henderson's books about 'The People', aliens who crashlanded a spaceship on earth and had to fit in although they have psychic abilities such as telepathy etc. It is really a set of short stories given a connective frame - a depressed young woman, Lea, is saved from committing suicide by Karen, one of the People, and taken to their main settlement where every night community members share memories in preparation for some (unspecified till the last such sharing) event. Interesting in parts, but a bit repetitive in the sense that a lot of the tales centre around teachers in small isolated towns - wasn't suprised when I googled the author, to find that she was an elementary school teacher.
***** Re-read *****
My impression on the re-read is much the same. The best story is the one where a human woman called Dita (a teacher of course) is staying in a boarding house and gradually kindles a romance with a man who turns out to be one of the People who lost his parents when young and doesn't know how to find the settlement where most of them live. Dita herself is a misfit because she is a rare human who was born with psychic powers, although these differ from those of the People. That story was quite nicely prickly and natural in the development of the relationship and in the interaction with the curmudgeonly landlady of the boarding house.
The last story is confusing because it deals with People coming to Earth from another planet where they settled, to take away anyone who wants to go back with them - the framing structure is lost at that point because it seems the viewpoint character is departing on a spaceship at the end as if that has already happened rather than being impending. So the story of Lea is lost at that point. I think on balance the 'OK' 2 star rating stands.
***** Re-read *****
My impression on the re-read is much the same. The best story is the one where a human woman called Dita (a teacher of course) is staying in a boarding house and gradually kindles a romance with a man who turns out to be one of the People who lost his parents when young and doesn't know how to find the settlement where most of them live. Dita herself is a misfit because she is a rare human who was born with psychic powers, although these differ from those of the People. That story was quite nicely prickly and natural in the development of the relationship and in the interaction with the curmudgeonly landlady of the boarding house.
The last story is confusing because it deals with People coming to Earth from another planet where they settled, to take away anyone who wants to go back with them - the framing structure is lost at that point because it seems the viewpoint character is departing on a spaceship at the end as if that has already happened rather than being impending. So the story of Lea is lost at that point. I think on balance the 'OK' 2 star rating stands.
November 4, 2016
To find this book, I had to take one of the longest interlibrary loans yet. All the way from Greenville College in Illinois.
This book was written in 1961 and is - at its base - 4 short stories linked by a narrative. It is also -while not overtly Christian - very sensitive to an ethical and moral mindset. Third, it had me thinking of the 1975 Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain throughout.
We have a group of people - refugees, survivors, etc - who have crashed in the mountains of California and made a life there. These people - though human in appearance - are telepaths, telekinetics, and other various psychic gifts. They suppress these gifts and live in isolated valleys so that they do not come under the condemnation of their more mundane neighbors in California.
The book has an overriding theme of tolerance of the different, of the sanctity of life, love, and hope. Much better than I though it'd be, but not the best science fiction book I've ever read.
This book was written in 1961 and is - at its base - 4 short stories linked by a narrative. It is also -while not overtly Christian - very sensitive to an ethical and moral mindset. Third, it had me thinking of the 1975 Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain throughout.
We have a group of people - refugees, survivors, etc - who have crashed in the mountains of California and made a life there. These people - though human in appearance - are telepaths, telekinetics, and other various psychic gifts. They suppress these gifts and live in isolated valleys so that they do not come under the condemnation of their more mundane neighbors in California.
The book has an overriding theme of tolerance of the different, of the sanctity of life, love, and hope. Much better than I though it'd be, but not the best science fiction book I've ever read.
February 5, 2019
230817: series of linked short stories, 1952 to 1961, that probably has influenced, defined, expressed, our modern myth of aliens come to earth, of how different that is, how we and they might share this particularly American life of the era. only really incidental that they came, crashed, dispersed- the story is mostly about finding your place, being accepted for your difference. family, community, education, beliefs, all reconciled, all paralleled, with simple beliefs in something like god... these aliens have superpowers yes but only something they have to hide, not something to share or dominate, and their values and virtues are very human however distant the world they come from...
August 22, 2020
Re-read 2020
I've read this book and and the other 'People' novels and stories many many times over the years. Henderson's prose is perhaps in places a little 'sugary' for some modern readers, but reading them never fails to make me feel 'If only the People were real!'. This novel is constructed of stories with a framing device, and it mainly works, though I feel the framing story could have been fleshed out a bit more. The stories are on the theme of being lost and found, of not belonging and belonging, and for me, reading them is both an energising and comforting read.
I've read this book and and the other 'People' novels and stories many many times over the years. Henderson's prose is perhaps in places a little 'sugary' for some modern readers, but reading them never fails to make me feel 'If only the People were real!'. This novel is constructed of stories with a framing device, and it mainly works, though I feel the framing story could have been fleshed out a bit more. The stories are on the theme of being lost and found, of not belonging and belonging, and for me, reading them is both an energising and comforting read.
November 25, 2017
ספר קסום
June 15, 2011
The People #1 - Pilgrimage
The People #2 - No Different Flesh
Author: Zenna Henderson
I love this series - re-read it regularly! Most of the stories [but not the thread connecting them] have appeared independently in various science fiction and fantasy magazines and some short story collections. The two books have also been collected in the omnibus edition Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson.
Although she was not as well known [or as prolific] as Heinlein and Asimov and Norton, Zenna Henderson is truly one of the Golden Age masters. Like most great authors she uses her stories to ask - and answer - important questions. In the case of the People stories that question might be - what if alien people crash land on earth, and what if they are different - perhaps even better than us?
The People are a race from another planet who become marooned on earth, many injured and killed, most of them separated from each other and not knowing if they are the only survivors. The People have the very best of human qualities: love, gentleness, spirituality; and also special powers of healing, levitation and other frequently miraculous abilities.
Pilgrimage
Before talking about the story I want to give credit to her skills as a writer. Her setting simply glows with the color and heat of the American Southwest. Her people are fully visualized, their emotions vividly portrayed. The plots of the different stories are intense and page turning.
There is a thread which binds the short stories together - the story of Lea who is suicidal but is dragged back from the brink [literally] by a chance-met member of the people. The stories she listens to about their past, their Home, and the landing which scattered and shattered them slowly bring her back to feeling hope...
No Different Flesh
This book tells the story of a couple, Mark and Meris, who, one stormy night, find a young girl who has fallen in a capsule from the sky, and who has special abilities. Maris and Mark, still grieving the loss of their own baby, must come to terms with the emotional issues that caring for the young girl, Lala, creates in both of them. What follows is a plot that will involve the reader in the magic, compassion and sense of rightness that the People evoke.
In Pilgrimage, as in The People: No Different Flesh, the plot shifts between the present day story, and stories about the People from their past, which comprise the People's race memory. Included as one of these memories told to Mark and Meris is a short story, "Deluge", which has appeared in some short story collections. "Deluge" gives the reader a taste of the magical and deeply fulfilling way of life on the People's home planet and tells how the People came to leave it. Other memories tell us what happened to various individuals of the People as they arrived on earth. These add texture and interest to the present-day story, and include events of terrible persecution of the People as well as stories of personal tragedy and joy.
One of the continuing themes in these stories are teachers and teaching and just how much difference they can make in others lives. As a teacher myself, I reread these books to remind me why I was teaching and to refill the well of compassion which sometimes gets drained pretty dry in all of us.
If you're looking for Lara Croft or Indiana Jones - these books are not for you. They will never be made into summer blockbuster movies. These stories frequently require access to the kleenex box but still manage to provide an overall feeling of uplift and hope. And that's something we could all use a lot more of.
The People #2 - No Different Flesh
Author: Zenna Henderson
I love this series - re-read it regularly! Most of the stories [but not the thread connecting them] have appeared independently in various science fiction and fantasy magazines and some short story collections. The two books have also been collected in the omnibus edition Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson.
Although she was not as well known [or as prolific] as Heinlein and Asimov and Norton, Zenna Henderson is truly one of the Golden Age masters. Like most great authors she uses her stories to ask - and answer - important questions. In the case of the People stories that question might be - what if alien people crash land on earth, and what if they are different - perhaps even better than us?
The People are a race from another planet who become marooned on earth, many injured and killed, most of them separated from each other and not knowing if they are the only survivors. The People have the very best of human qualities: love, gentleness, spirituality; and also special powers of healing, levitation and other frequently miraculous abilities.
Pilgrimage
Before talking about the story I want to give credit to her skills as a writer. Her setting simply glows with the color and heat of the American Southwest. Her people are fully visualized, their emotions vividly portrayed. The plots of the different stories are intense and page turning.
There is a thread which binds the short stories together - the story of Lea who is suicidal but is dragged back from the brink [literally] by a chance-met member of the people. The stories she listens to about their past, their Home, and the landing which scattered and shattered them slowly bring her back to feeling hope...
No Different Flesh
This book tells the story of a couple, Mark and Meris, who, one stormy night, find a young girl who has fallen in a capsule from the sky, and who has special abilities. Maris and Mark, still grieving the loss of their own baby, must come to terms with the emotional issues that caring for the young girl, Lala, creates in both of them. What follows is a plot that will involve the reader in the magic, compassion and sense of rightness that the People evoke.
In Pilgrimage, as in The People: No Different Flesh, the plot shifts between the present day story, and stories about the People from their past, which comprise the People's race memory. Included as one of these memories told to Mark and Meris is a short story, "Deluge", which has appeared in some short story collections. "Deluge" gives the reader a taste of the magical and deeply fulfilling way of life on the People's home planet and tells how the People came to leave it. Other memories tell us what happened to various individuals of the People as they arrived on earth. These add texture and interest to the present-day story, and include events of terrible persecution of the People as well as stories of personal tragedy and joy.
One of the continuing themes in these stories are teachers and teaching and just how much difference they can make in others lives. As a teacher myself, I reread these books to remind me why I was teaching and to refill the well of compassion which sometimes gets drained pretty dry in all of us.
If you're looking for Lara Croft or Indiana Jones - these books are not for you. They will never be made into summer blockbuster movies. These stories frequently require access to the kleenex box but still manage to provide an overall feeling of uplift and hope. And that's something we could all use a lot more of.
August 3, 2015
*(Supongo que esto deberia llevar una advertencia por posible trigger de suicidio/depresión)*
Lea está a punto de tirarse por un puente cuando es rescatada por Karen, quien casi a empujones y sin dejarle salida la lleva con ella a una reunión-conferencia-congreso donde empiezan a contar sus experiencias y revelan que son The People.
The People son alienigenas que cayeron a la Tierra presumiblemente a principios del sigo XX, huyendo de un desastre planetario. La única diferencia con los seres humanos son sus poderes mentales: telekinesis, levitación, empatía, telepatía... y hasta algunos manipulan el clima. Genial ¿cierto?
Más que una novela se trata de un libro compuesto por varias historias semejantes narradas por diferentes personas. Originalmente éstas se publicaron en revistas como historias cortas, y fueron reunidas con un hilo conductor en la forma de Lea escuchando acerca de The People.
Las historias son: Ararat (1952); Gilead (1954); Pottage (1955); Wilderness (1956); Captivity (1958); y Jordan (1959). Mi favorita es 'Captivity' que fue nominada a un premio Hugo en 1959.
Casi todas las historias involucran profesoras y sus alumnos. Tratan temas de discriminación y prejuicio, problemas mentales, y problemas físicos. The People adolecen de ser todos demasiados buenos para ser verdad, vale unos santurrones. Tal vez a algunos les moleste que sean muy religiosos, a mi no. (Y en cuanto a como hablan inglés cofSTargatecof , para algo les debe valer que sean telépatas, ¿no?).
El otro lado de la moneda es POTTAGE
-que hicieron pelicula en 1972: "The People" (razón por la que probablemente se me hacian conocidos)- cuando llaman 'malvados' a sus poderes .
Y él unico que se rebela en la última historia: JORDAN, cuando Bram alega que están perdiendo el tiempo queriendo pasar desapercibidos y que deberian estar haciendo ALGO útil a gran escala con sus poderes, incluso llegando a mencionar ocupar puestos importantes, pero después se pierde en otras cosas .
Como decia antes, el que me gustó más fue CAPTIVITY, con Francher . Tal vez a mi me resulta más interesante ver un chico normal adolescente con problemas, resentido por ser juzgado por cosas ajenas a él. Y nah, lo que ama la MUSICA no tiene nada que ver jajaja.
“There aren’t any endings,” the Francher kid said. “Only new beginnings. When you going to get started?”
Lea está a punto de tirarse por un puente cuando es rescatada por Karen, quien casi a empujones y sin dejarle salida la lleva con ella a una reunión-conferencia-congreso donde empiezan a contar sus experiencias y revelan que son The People.
The People son alienigenas que cayeron a la Tierra presumiblemente a principios del sigo XX, huyendo de un desastre planetario. La única diferencia con los seres humanos son sus poderes mentales: telekinesis, levitación, empatía, telepatía... y hasta algunos manipulan el clima. Genial ¿cierto?
Más que una novela se trata de un libro compuesto por varias historias semejantes narradas por diferentes personas. Originalmente éstas se publicaron en revistas como historias cortas, y fueron reunidas con un hilo conductor en la forma de Lea escuchando acerca de The People.
Las historias son: Ararat (1952); Gilead (1954); Pottage (1955); Wilderness (1956); Captivity (1958); y Jordan (1959). Mi favorita es 'Captivity' que fue nominada a un premio Hugo en 1959.
Casi todas las historias involucran profesoras y sus alumnos. Tratan temas de discriminación y prejuicio, problemas mentales, y problemas físicos. The People adolecen de ser todos demasiados buenos para ser verdad, vale unos santurrones. Tal vez a algunos les moleste que sean muy religiosos, a mi no. (Y en cuanto a como hablan inglés cofSTargatecof , para algo les debe valer que sean telépatas, ¿no?).
El otro lado de la moneda es POTTAGE
-que hicieron pelicula en 1972: "The People" (razón por la que probablemente se me hacian conocidos)- cuando llaman 'malvados' a sus poderes . Y él unico que se rebela en la última historia: JORDAN, cuando Bram alega que están perdiendo el tiempo queriendo pasar desapercibidos y que deberian estar haciendo ALGO útil a gran escala con sus poderes, incluso llegando a mencionar ocupar puestos importantes, pero después se pierde en otras cosas .
Como decia antes, el que me gustó más fue CAPTIVITY, con Francher . Tal vez a mi me resulta más interesante ver un chico normal adolescente con problemas, resentido por ser juzgado por cosas ajenas a él. Y nah, lo que ama la MUSICA no tiene nada que ver jajaja.
“There aren’t any endings,” the Francher kid said. “Only new beginnings. When you going to get started?”
August 3, 2009
This is SF only really on the surface. It's about estrangement and about people who don't fit in with others. There are elements in the book that deal with prejudice. It's not normally my cup of tea but I enjoyed it. It's generally rather slowly paced. I haven't read the others from this series and I'd probably like them. But I don't terribly often feel the urge for something of this type.
October 9, 2017
I remembered this book from when I read it as a kid and I wanted to read it again. It's well written and the idea is captivating but it's a bit repetitive and The People are a bit too angelic, even if they are aliens.
September 24, 2022
The cover does injustice to a rather wholesome and poetic book.
Mysterious why the writing style surprises me, and that I kept thinking that this passes the Bechdel test. The characters are more human than what I usually see in sci fi.
In contrast to the last book I read, which was Robert Silverberg's Dying Inside, pleasantly, not a single unnecessary mention was there of sex.
Mysterious why the writing style surprises me, and that I kept thinking that this passes the Bechdel test. The characters are more human than what I usually see in sci fi.
In contrast to the last book I read, which was Robert Silverberg's Dying Inside, pleasantly, not a single unnecessary mention was there of sex.
Read
May 28, 2023Reading for my upcoming Catholic Women's Book Club.
May 6, 2017
This is a rather strange book, and not just because the framing story that nominally ties all the others together doesn't make much sense and is given no ending. The main characters are, mostly, members of the People, which means that they are aliens from another world, but not only do they look exactly like humans, they talk and act — even the adults, who were not born on Earth — precisely like stereotypical American frontier-dwellers. They even seem to be Christians, with each story that we are told (narrated by one of the People) given a Biblical theme. In other words, the powers that the People have — telepathy, telekinesis, etc. — seem to have made absolutely no difference to them, producing a culture and society that are essentially identical to that of ordinary humans. (Every once in a while we are shown a brief piece of their culture on their home planet, making their lack of one on Earth even more frustrating.) So, one wonders, why bother? What’s the point of this book? The answer may be found in the identity of almost all the protagonists: they are young female teachers who are dissatisfied. That is, they are women who achieved what was generally regarded as the maximum amount of education appropriate for a woman at the time (the late ‘40s and ‘50s), went on to what was, in most cases, the only job available to an educated woman, and ended up feeling that something was missing in their lives. (One of the narrators even talks longingly of the golden vistas that seemed open to her in college but have since closed.) What turns out to be missing is the powers of the People (the woman who is nostalgic for college had one of the People for a roommate), deliberately suppressed or never woken to allow the young women to fit into society, but it seems pretty clear that this is simply a metaphor for the desire of these educated young women to break out of the limited role that they had been forced into. (Not that there’s anything wrong with teaching, of course, but it’s not for everybody.) So “Pilgrimage” has some interest as a document of the development of feminist consciousness: unfortunately as a novel it’s mostly a letdown.
July 1, 2009
After having my mom repeatedly urge me to dive into my parents' vast collection of science fiction novels, I finally gave in and read this book. And I was not disappointed. It is essentially a collection of connected short stories about an alien people marooned on Earth and hiding their special abilities to fit in. The only thing lacking for me was the ending. It didn't give me the kind of closure I wanted for all of these characters I had grown to love. Especially Lea, the character who anchors the framework around the short stories themselves. I felt like a few more explanatory pages after the last story would have made things less open-ended. But that is a small quibble, as overall I found the book quite excellent.
June 14, 2018
Quite an imaginative take on the stranded alien story...this book is obviously mostly comprised of many previously written short stories but there is such commonality between them that ZH is able to embroider them in a very unique fashion. I loved the yesteryear western setting. Overall this is a very clever, easy read and certainly a pleasing discovery! Recommended for fans of Octavia Butler (though less dense and bizarre than anything in the Lilith’s Brood cycle) and Luis L’amour (though more dense and bizarre than anything I’ve ever read by him).
October 21, 2015
I just reread this book from my childhood. It was as wonderful as I had remembered. Yes, it's a bit sentimental and moralistic but that didn't bother me then and it doesn't bother me now. I'm going to reread all four of the Zena Henderson books I have...one after another...immersing myself in a more kind and sane world than the one around me.
November 27, 2010
A severely under-rated, under-remembered leader in the field, whose influence is quoted by authors as diverse as Connie Willis and Orson Scott Card. Just a seminal concept, written with elegance and wonder.
July 14, 2008
A classic of science fantasy, the tale of the gentle alien invaders known as "The People." Somewhat religious in tone, but less so than 'A Wrinkle in Time."
September 26, 2020
I loved re-reading this book. Great writing and lots of biblical imagery. Get yourself a used copy (it's out of print) and enjoy!
March 10, 2020
Six The People novellas in a fix-up novel. Karen saves Lea from committing suicide and brings her to a gathering of The People where first Karen and then others relate a story. With each story Lea feels more like life is worth living. I had read four of the novellas in F&SF, but months apart. The main characters of each novella change, reading them separately I didn't realize how often the characters (Karen, Jemmy, Valancy, Bethie, etc.) appeared in later stories.
Ararat
Very Good. Cougar Canyon a village of The People has had trouble keeping teachers. This year it’s Miss Carmody. The students need to behave, not show any powers. They don’t want to scare this teacher off.
Gilead
VG/Good. Peter has talents, flying and some telekinesis, that regular earthlings don't have. It took him some time to find out he was different, and that his mother was of The People. When his sister is born it's learned that she is a sensitive, someone that can feel others' pain. When their mother dies she senses that there are more of The People.
Pottage
Very Good. Melodye gets a teaching job in a remote school. She soon realizes that the children are of the People. What she can’t figure out is why is everyone so dour and why do they hide their powers even in private.
Wilderness
Very Good. Dita is a school teacher that has an overwhelming sense of isolation or not fitting in. She masks her differences as well as she can and gets along. Low's parents were killed in a crash when he was three and he was adopted. He knows what he is missing and is searching for traces of his real home. Both of them want to help Lucine, a retarded girl in Dita’s class. The story started slow, hard to understand, confusing, e.g. Dita referencing herself as a multiple entity. Once it got going it was much smoother and ultimately got pretty exciting.
Captivity
VG/Excellent. The Francher kid goes to junior high, a disruptive student in a non overt way. Miss Carolle tells Anna to send him to her with a note if she needs some relief. Carolle expects nothing of it, but Francher shows up a couple days later and they talk. We knew that he was in a foster home, it turns out he lost his mother a couple years ago. They used to travel with the circus where his mother was a mind reader. Miss Carolle has already witnessed Francher doing impossible sort of things like make a harmonica play by itself, but the kid also has some destructive impulses. Most of the town thinks of him as a juvenile delinquent. This is a tale of a woman crippled in an auto accident a year ago doing her best to give support to this My Child. One that she knows is different (we know that he is of The People) and is willing to give him a chance.
Jordan
Excellent. Bram is stoked by the arrival of a ship from The People. He is ready to go Home where he can explore his full potential. As the days go on and he is showing Salla what they've been doing he starts to gain a greater appreciation for Earth. Until the day comes when the ship is ready to go and he has to make a decision to stay or to go with it.
Ararat
Very Good. Cougar Canyon a village of The People has had trouble keeping teachers. This year it’s Miss Carmody. The students need to behave, not show any powers. They don’t want to scare this teacher off.
Gilead
VG/Good. Peter has talents, flying and some telekinesis, that regular earthlings don't have. It took him some time to find out he was different, and that his mother was of The People. When his sister is born it's learned that she is a sensitive, someone that can feel others' pain. When their mother dies she senses that there are more of The People.
Pottage
Very Good. Melodye gets a teaching job in a remote school. She soon realizes that the children are of the People. What she can’t figure out is why is everyone so dour and why do they hide their powers even in private.
Wilderness
Very Good. Dita is a school teacher that has an overwhelming sense of isolation or not fitting in. She masks her differences as well as she can and gets along. Low's parents were killed in a crash when he was three and he was adopted. He knows what he is missing and is searching for traces of his real home. Both of them want to help Lucine, a retarded girl in Dita’s class. The story started slow, hard to understand, confusing, e.g. Dita referencing herself as a multiple entity. Once it got going it was much smoother and ultimately got pretty exciting.
Captivity
VG/Excellent. The Francher kid goes to junior high, a disruptive student in a non overt way. Miss Carolle tells Anna to send him to her with a note if she needs some relief. Carolle expects nothing of it, but Francher shows up a couple days later and they talk. We knew that he was in a foster home, it turns out he lost his mother a couple years ago. They used to travel with the circus where his mother was a mind reader. Miss Carolle has already witnessed Francher doing impossible sort of things like make a harmonica play by itself, but the kid also has some destructive impulses. Most of the town thinks of him as a juvenile delinquent. This is a tale of a woman crippled in an auto accident a year ago doing her best to give support to this My Child. One that she knows is different (we know that he is of The People) and is willing to give him a chance.
Jordan
Excellent. Bram is stoked by the arrival of a ship from The People. He is ready to go Home where he can explore his full potential. As the days go on and he is showing Salla what they've been doing he starts to gain a greater appreciation for Earth. Until the day comes when the ship is ready to go and he has to make a decision to stay or to go with it.
September 5, 2024
Sci fi that is set in our world is always great. Author was very talented and writes
good characters. Their emotional experiences are reasonable and well described.
The story wasn't interesting in my eyes - there's lots of small side things happening and it felt like the main one never progressed.
Also there's an underlying message that doesn't sit right with me. Feels a bit biased towards a certain religious group and treating them as victims/the heroes.
good characters. Their emotional experiences are reasonable and well described.
The story wasn't interesting in my eyes - there's lots of small side things happening and it felt like the main one never progressed.
Also there's an underlying message that doesn't sit right with me. Feels a bit biased towards a certain religious group and treating them as victims/the heroes.
October 12, 2021
No ha sigut el que esperava. Tots els personatges són massa bons, les històries són un pèl massa lentes i, almenys en el meu cap, tot era una metàfora religiosa. No ho sé, alguna de les històries és interessant, però que sempre hagi de ser tothom tan bo em desconcerta i no et deixa veure altres matisos. També tinc un problema molt gros amb un altre tema però és igual.
August 7, 2021
I keep coming to this book over and over again. The story, the language beauty and imagery is mesmerizing.
Read
November 26, 2019This was a favorite book of mine. I encountered the stories of The People first, I think, in a literature book in middle school (junior high), but then ABC Movie of the Week blew me away by broadcasting "The People" with Kim Darby and William Shatner. I purchased this book as soon as Scholastic Book Service put it in their catalog, and have always been glad I did, even though I have no idea where that paperback book actually ended up later in my life.
December 5, 2017
סיפוריהם של ח��יזרים בעלי כוחות על מופלאים שנתקעו בכדור הארץ ואיך הם מנסים להסתגל ולהשתלב.
ספר קסום שקראתי פעמים רבות בתור נער וגם עכשיו כשמצאתי אותו וקראתי שוב הוא עדיין קסום ומרגש.
סיפור המסגרת, שמחבר את כל הסיפורים לספר אחד פחות טוב ולא תמיד ברור אבל לא פוגע בקסם כלל.
ספר קסום שקראתי פעמים רבות בתור נער וגם עכשיו כשמצאתי אותו וקראתי שוב הוא עדיין קסום ומרגש.
סיפור המסגרת, שמחבר את כל הסיפורים לספר אחד פחות טוב ולא תמיד ברור אבל לא פוגע בקסם כלל.
July 24, 2012
This qualifies as a novel, I guess, though really it's a set of short stories originally published separately and then rather loosely linked by a slight framing narrative that is eventually perfunctorily wrapped up before the final story begins. The stories all deal with 1) the People, humanoid aliens trapped on Earth after the (unexplained) destruction of their home world and possessed of abilities that are really no different from magic (levitation, telepathy, telekinesis, some sort of ability to grab up sunlight and do something or other with it that's never really clear, etc.), given that they remain utterly unrationalized; and 2) some tramuatized/alienated/isolated/otherwise sad character who eventually is made whole thanks to the wonderful alien powers, mainly those of empathy and telepathy, with a healthy leavening of true love thrown in for good measure (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it gets tired as a repeated go-to plot device). The general sameness of the stories rather diminishes their impact as one proceeds; they were probably more effective as individual short pieces than as parts of this patchwork whole. They're not helped by Henderson's occasional propensity for purple prose, either. If you like fairly saccharine SF tales of metaphorical wounded birds getting their wings healed, you'll like this book, and you may find other elements to admire if you have a relatively high tolerance for sugar, overwriting, and repetitive stories, but overall, I was disappointed. I hadn't read any Henderson in a long time and recalled her work rather more fondly. . . .
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