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Assignment Nor' Dyren
"An envoy on the alien world of Nor'Dyren finds out that the planet is ruled according to a very strict division of labour between the three native Allegon, Berregon and Gonnegon. The system seems however not to work properly, since Nor'Dyren is in decadence and paralyzed by an obtuse bureaucracy. Yet, the world was apparently in full development until a few centuries before. What's Nor'Dyren's secret? The final will be surprising."
- GenresScience Fiction
222 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 22, 2011
This book was really a huge disappointment. I've read (nearly?) all of VanScyoc's published work, and her 'Darkchild' trilogy is one of my all-time favorites. Admittedly, this was one of her first novels, but it's really just not very good.
The protagonist, Tollan Bailey, is an Earthman who lives in a place where labor unions have made sure that everyone has a cushy position and works very little for a comfortable life. He's not happy with this, because he has a "Protestant Work Ethic."
A random lottery sends him to a planet on a supposed assignment, which he is expected to treat as a vacation. Instead, he takes the job seriously, and ends up trying to solve the problem on a stagnant alien culture.
The problem here is not just the unoriginal theme of "Ingenious Earthman to the Rescue!", or that the "alien" culture functions only as a clunky allegory of our society, or the weird bashing of labor unions and artistic personalities (ok, we need them, but they have to be kept in check), but the character of the protagonist.
The whole time, I was like, "whoa, this guy needs some anger management classes!" His immediate reaction to anything is to lose his temper. (whether he's winning a contest or having his luggage searched in a routine customs check, he's always about to assault someone.) And the book treats this as normal. It's never even acknowledged, let alone addressed. He's crazily, horribly sexist, with rigid ideas about gender roles. The book dismisses this as "part of Human culture" even though the Human woman who's a character in the book doesn't really fit these stereotypes. Possibly worst, the conflict in the book arises when Tollan, in an accident, kills a citizen of the planet he's visiting. Absolutely no sympathy for the victim is had by anyone - the only focus is on how unfair it is to blame him for something that was an accident. OK, fine. It was an accident. But still, how about a smidgin of empathy for another sentient being!?
Overall, it's just really a very problematic book.
The protagonist, Tollan Bailey, is an Earthman who lives in a place where labor unions have made sure that everyone has a cushy position and works very little for a comfortable life. He's not happy with this, because he has a "Protestant Work Ethic."
A random lottery sends him to a planet on a supposed assignment, which he is expected to treat as a vacation. Instead, he takes the job seriously, and ends up trying to solve the problem on a stagnant alien culture.
The problem here is not just the unoriginal theme of "Ingenious Earthman to the Rescue!", or that the "alien" culture functions only as a clunky allegory of our society, or the weird bashing of labor unions and artistic personalities (ok, we need them, but they have to be kept in check), but the character of the protagonist.
The whole time, I was like, "whoa, this guy needs some anger management classes!" His immediate reaction to anything is to lose his temper. (whether he's winning a contest or having his luggage searched in a routine customs check, he's always about to assault someone.) And the book treats this as normal. It's never even acknowledged, let alone addressed. He's crazily, horribly sexist, with rigid ideas about gender roles. The book dismisses this as "part of Human culture" even though the Human woman who's a character in the book doesn't really fit these stereotypes. Possibly worst, the conflict in the book arises when Tollan, in an accident, kills a citizen of the planet he's visiting. Absolutely no sympathy for the victim is had by anyone - the only focus is on how unfair it is to blame him for something that was an accident. OK, fine. It was an accident. But still, how about a smidgin of empathy for another sentient being!?
Overall, it's just really a very problematic book.
July 14, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"Sydney Van Scyoc’s Assignment Nor’ Dyren (1973), inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), is a problematic yet generally enjoyable work. I found that Van Scyoc is unable to maintain the sense of [...]"
"Sydney Van Scyoc’s Assignment Nor’ Dyren (1973), inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), is a problematic yet generally enjoyable work. I found that Van Scyoc is unable to maintain the sense of [...]"
May 14, 2021
Das war ein klassischer Silver-age SciFi-Roman! Sehr menschenähnliche Aliens in einem fehlgeleitetem Sozialgefüge, Menschen aus einem ebenfalls dysfunktionellen Umfeld müssen alles richten. Interessant, es gelesenzu haben .
January 27, 2019
I enjoyed this novel both as an adventure story and as an allegorical exploration of an important question about human society: why do some humans seem to put their energies into creative endeavors rather than reproduction?
Nor'Dyren is a world where a human-like alien species has a more structured social system than is the case for human society. When humans arrive on Nor'Dyren, they discover that there are three specialized types of Nor'Dyrenese:
Allegon- specialized for performing services like cooking, raising children, selling goods.
Berregon- specialized for production of goods; heavy manual labor, factory work.
Gonnegon- specialized for administration and supervision.
This three-way division of labor does not seem to be working because nobody on Nor'Dyren knows how to repair broken machines and nobody ever creates anything new. Archeological investigation reveals that the world Nor'Dyren has been in decline for 200 years from its cultural and technological apex.
Much of the story has a mystery theme and depicts the attempt of two humans to discover what went wrong and what changed on Nor'Dyren 200 years earlier.
Eventually, the humans who are visiting Nor'Dyren discover that up until 200 years previously, there were four distinct groups of Nor'Dyrenese. The fourth group (Qattagon) had been specialized to perform all of the creative work of Nor'Dyrenese society and was very artistic. However, the Qattagon had gotten too wild and radical and had come into conflict with the Gonnegon. This conflict ended when the administrative Gonnegon engineered the Qattagon out of the social system. This was possible because the Qattagon were not capable of reproducing. Qattagon were the offspring of crosses between members of the other three groups:
Allegon mating with Allegon produces Allegon.
Berregon mating with Berregon produces Berregon.
Gonnegon mating with Gonnegon produces Gonnegon.
Qattagon- not fertile.
Allegon mating with Berregon or Gonnegon produces Qattagon.
Berregon mating with Gonnegon produces Qattagon.
To engineer Qattagon out of the society, the administrators decreed that members of each of the other three groups could only mate with other members of their own group. Under this imposed rule, none of the artistic hybrid Qattagon were born any more.
The reason that the Qattagon had gotten out of control and become a problem for Nor'Dyren was because the balance between the four groups had been engineered to be appropriate for worlds that were part of a large interstellar empire. But in the distant past, that empire had collapsed, leaving the planet Nor'Dyren isolated and unable to absorb the full force of the creativity of its Qattagon.
Assignment Nor'Dyren is a pleasant mystery novel set on an interesting alien world, but it can also lead the reader to think about some issues that are important on Earth.
The most interesting technical issue raised by this book concerns genetic engineering. The Allegon, Berregon, Gonnegon and Qattagon appear to be the result of genetic engineering, four specialized variations of the original species, rationally designed so as to form a stable social system. On Earth, humans now have the technology for genetically modifying our own species. We are also starting to explore space and confronting the problem of how to deal with the social changes that come with science and technology. Is any naturally-evolved human-like species biologically suited for dealing with the challenges of science, technology and space exploration? Is it inevitable that in order to survive its "technological adolescence", any species must get involved with genetically modifying itself?
A major social issue raised by this book is the relationship between creativity and human homosexuality. The hypothesis that human homosexuality can be associated with certain behavioral traits such as creativity remains a topic for further research, but Assignment Nor'Dyren explores this issue in the context of an alien culture where creativity was purposefully invested in members of the society who were not reproductively active.
Nor'Dyren is a world where a human-like alien species has a more structured social system than is the case for human society. When humans arrive on Nor'Dyren, they discover that there are three specialized types of Nor'Dyrenese:
Allegon- specialized for performing services like cooking, raising children, selling goods.
Berregon- specialized for production of goods; heavy manual labor, factory work.
Gonnegon- specialized for administration and supervision.
This three-way division of labor does not seem to be working because nobody on Nor'Dyren knows how to repair broken machines and nobody ever creates anything new. Archeological investigation reveals that the world Nor'Dyren has been in decline for 200 years from its cultural and technological apex.
Much of the story has a mystery theme and depicts the attempt of two humans to discover what went wrong and what changed on Nor'Dyren 200 years earlier.
Eventually, the humans who are visiting Nor'Dyren discover that up until 200 years previously, there were four distinct groups of Nor'Dyrenese. The fourth group (Qattagon) had been specialized to perform all of the creative work of Nor'Dyrenese society and was very artistic. However, the Qattagon had gotten too wild and radical and had come into conflict with the Gonnegon. This conflict ended when the administrative Gonnegon engineered the Qattagon out of the social system. This was possible because the Qattagon were not capable of reproducing. Qattagon were the offspring of crosses between members of the other three groups:
Allegon mating with Allegon produces Allegon.
Berregon mating with Berregon produces Berregon.
Gonnegon mating with Gonnegon produces Gonnegon.
Qattagon- not fertile.
Allegon mating with Berregon or Gonnegon produces Qattagon.
Berregon mating with Gonnegon produces Qattagon.
To engineer Qattagon out of the society, the administrators decreed that members of each of the other three groups could only mate with other members of their own group. Under this imposed rule, none of the artistic hybrid Qattagon were born any more.
The reason that the Qattagon had gotten out of control and become a problem for Nor'Dyren was because the balance between the four groups had been engineered to be appropriate for worlds that were part of a large interstellar empire. But in the distant past, that empire had collapsed, leaving the planet Nor'Dyren isolated and unable to absorb the full force of the creativity of its Qattagon.
Assignment Nor'Dyren is a pleasant mystery novel set on an interesting alien world, but it can also lead the reader to think about some issues that are important on Earth.
The most interesting technical issue raised by this book concerns genetic engineering. The Allegon, Berregon, Gonnegon and Qattagon appear to be the result of genetic engineering, four specialized variations of the original species, rationally designed so as to form a stable social system. On Earth, humans now have the technology for genetically modifying our own species. We are also starting to explore space and confronting the problem of how to deal with the social changes that come with science and technology. Is any naturally-evolved human-like species biologically suited for dealing with the challenges of science, technology and space exploration? Is it inevitable that in order to survive its "technological adolescence", any species must get involved with genetically modifying itself?
A major social issue raised by this book is the relationship between creativity and human homosexuality. The hypothesis that human homosexuality can be associated with certain behavioral traits such as creativity remains a topic for further research, but Assignment Nor'Dyren explores this issue in the context of an alien culture where creativity was purposefully invested in members of the society who were not reproductively active.
April 25, 2021
While unemployed, Tollan wins a trip to an alien planet. He gets sick and in a fever coma he kills a local. The family of the deceased demands that, according to local law, he must take the role of the one he killed.
This was actually quite entertaining. At least 2/3 of the book. I did not like the last third. And the end was so unbelievable that it spoilt the experience for me
This was actually quite entertaining. At least 2/3 of the book. I did not like the last third. And the end was so unbelievable that it spoilt the experience for me
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews