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Coyote Jones Series #4
Star-Anchored, Star-Angered
Coyote Jones, secret agent for the Tri-Galactic intelligence service, had a strange handicap. In a universe where every normal being is telepathic, he suffered from almost total mind-deafness. He can project, but he can't receive. When the social system of the planet Freeway began to reel under the force of an alleged female Messiah, Coyote's handicap made him the perfect choice for the assignment: FIND, is she a fake or isn't she?
If Drussa Silver is projecting telepathic illusions instead of performing miracles, Coyote would be immune to them. Since using religion to defraud is a criminal act, he could then bring her back to Mars-Central for trial. If she's the real thing however, the situation would be utterly different...
If Drussa Silver is projecting telepathic illusions instead of performing miracles, Coyote would be immune to them. Since using religion to defraud is a criminal act, he could then bring her back to Mars-Central for trial. If she's the real thing however, the situation would be utterly different...
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
2 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Suzette Haden Elgin
87 books186 followersSuzette Haden Elgin was an American science fiction author. She founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and is considered an important figure in the field of science fiction constructed languages. Elgin was also a linguist; she published non-fiction, of which the best-known is the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense series.
Born in 1936 in Missouri, Elgin attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the 1960s, and began writing science fiction in order to pay tuition. She has a Ph.D. in linguistics, and was the first UCSD student to ever write two dissertations (on English and Navajo). She created the engineered language Láadan for her Native Tongue science fiction series. A grammar and dictionary was published in 1985. She is a supporter of feminist science fiction, saying "women need to realize that SF is the only genre of literature in which it's possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [X], where [X] is filled in with any of the multitude of real world facts that constrain and oppress women. Women need to treasure and support science fiction." [1]
In addition, she published works of shorter fiction. Overlying themes in her work include feminism, linguistics and the impact of language, and peaceful coexistence with nature. Many of her works also draw from her Ozark background and heritage.
Elgin became a professor at her alma mater's cross-town rival, San Diego State University (SDSU). She retired in 1980.
Born in 1936 in Missouri, Elgin attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the 1960s, and began writing science fiction in order to pay tuition. She has a Ph.D. in linguistics, and was the first UCSD student to ever write two dissertations (on English and Navajo). She created the engineered language Láadan for her Native Tongue science fiction series. A grammar and dictionary was published in 1985. She is a supporter of feminist science fiction, saying "women need to realize that SF is the only genre of literature in which it's possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [X], where [X] is filled in with any of the multitude of real world facts that constrain and oppress women. Women need to treasure and support science fiction." [1]
In addition, she published works of shorter fiction. Overlying themes in her work include feminism, linguistics and the impact of language, and peaceful coexistence with nature. Many of her works also draw from her Ozark background and heritage.
Elgin became a professor at her alma mater's cross-town rival, San Diego State University (SDSU). She retired in 1980.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 7, 2019
Well...I loved it, but of all the five Coyote Jones books this one may be the hardest sell for other people, so let me tackle another long explanation of things I don't mind but other people do:
1. Although the series qualified as science fiction, and this was the breakthrough novel that achieved both hardcover and paperback editions, the emphasis was on the science. The linguistic science, and associated psychology. People who liked spaceship races or ray-gun battles or fantasies about weird alien sex tended to hate Elgin's science fiction; it mentions that sort of thing only as cliches in the jokes of a fictional future...
2. Of sophisticated people, because after going to the University of Chicago, throughout a career that involved marrying a Swiss-American diplomat, going to San Diego after his untimely death, working for the federal government, learning to speak two particularly alien languages fluently, writing slow steady bestsellers on the nonfiction side, and rearing children who moved in comparably sophisticated circles, Elgin never really looked back. She moved back to Arkansas to live in an underground house and raise guineafowl, but I'd guess that she always struggled to remind herself that anyone who scored below 750 on the verbal SAT might still be fully human. Her target audience were writers, linguists, psychologists, and diplomats. She thought wistfully about boosting sales but never seemed to think much about writing novels the rest of humankind might have been able to enjoy. Her characters speak from a background of information, and a fundamental quickwittedness, that can make their conversations opaque to young or uneducated readers; they're puzzles for sophisticates to solve.
3. Not only do readers need the talent and academic background to solve the puzzles that Elgin's novels were; they also need to be able to appreciate her sense of humor. If you lack those things, the novels might feel as if the whole long elaborate joke were on you. It wasn't really. In constructing the Communipath Worlds, Elgin imagined how humankind, in evolving telepathic powers as people thought might be possible in the 1960s, might be able to achieve interplanetary communication beyond the speed of light (among very powerful telepaths) and, as a side effect, lose the ability to appreciate Romantic Love (because, duh, couples shared each other's feelings, so if your best buddy and working partner was madly attracted to someone else, you'd feel the passion too, and understand and forgive all; and also AIDS never happened in this future). The whole premise for the whole series was a joke. People who were meant to enjoy solving the philosophical and logical puzzles were laughing.
4. Elgin was a Christian. Brought up a Southern Baptist, she later embraced ideas from other religious traditions--some serious, some speculative--but she was, in a sort of New Age way, a very sincere Christian. Very honest; very generous; very kind, to the extent that she knew how to be kind to people who scored less than 750 on the verbal SAT. But not devout, or reverent, in the way her sophisticated friends scorned. She had no problem with "playing God" to the extent of speculating about how God might have sent a different kind of Messiah to a different planet. In Star-Anchored Star-Angered all the major characters in the novel agree that Drussa Silver (a blonde, as shown in this cover picture, rather than the future-triracial-and-possibly-part-alien character on the paperback) is the new Messiah sent to her world and thus to the Tri-Galactic Federation. (Cool your jets, fundamentalist friends. "Messiah" means "anointed" and in the Hebrew Bible it's used to refer to most of the mortal priests and kings, not exclusively to Jesus at all.)
5. So Coyote Jones, whose job is to investigate rogue telepaths, is sent to find out whether Drussa Silver is a fraud. And, being Coyote Jones, forever naive (some readers find that sweet), he disguises himself as a student (he's been doing this for years) and falls for her like a child. His fans knew that was going to happen. The suspense is how the Judas Paradox--it takes a basically good person to kill Drussa's physical body--is going to play out in this novel. We knew Coyote was going to go home a convert to Drussa's religion. And no, fans of the series did not imagine that this meant Elgin meant us to convert to it; rather, to consider, with awe and reverence, what a true religious revelation of the future might be. (We're not given enough religious teaching to convert to Drussa's religion, although Elgin also published a newsletter for "Lovingkindnessers" who accepted the principle of "verbal nonviolence" as a valid addition to their religions.)
6. So why did Doubleday choose this novel to publish as a hardcover book, when The Communipaths was a much easier introduction to the series--even "average" students can follow its plot--and Furthest was the story most likely to appeal to "average" science fiction readers? Because they expected that hint of religious controversy to sell. Urgh. The book's hard cover did, all by itself, boost sales to libraries, but anyone looking for an ordinary space opera with anti-Christian snark was greatly disappointed. Frankly it surprised me that Elgin admitted reading, and liking, science fiction that could be confused with ordinary space operas. Her own work couldn't, and her favorites might be confused with ordinary space operas but weren't.
7. Basically, if your 750+ verbal SATs got you into a big-name school and you liked the academic work there, you'll love this series. Otherwise you probably won't. Elgin's nonfiction appealed to a less rarefied audience, but it still demands a certain amount of linguistic talent from those who find it useful or enjoyable. She thought about writing a mainstream novel, in old age, or maybe even a romance; I know of no evidence that she ever even outlined such a thing, or that, if she'd written it, the result would have been accessible to the average romance reader. Her novels are all addressed to people who mostly prefer either nonfiction or substantial science fiction.
(8. And furthermore, as I've mentioned about the rest of the series, because people so often mention it...there's no explicit sex and only one violent act in this book, and it's described in very mild inoffensive ways, but all the sex and violence in all of Elgin's chastely written stories tends to be imagined much more vividly than it's written. This is not one of the novels that include a throwaway line that lingers in my memory as saying a great deal more, in context, than the words literally say. The murder scene consists of one line that's a cliche, followed by its emotional aftermath for two of the characters. Without the scenes that tell us how those characters felt, my guess would be that the actual narration of Drussa's death would make people laugh. It's the way people remember Drussa that matters...raising the question, though Drussa's anointing is not to be the spiritual savior of humankind and we don't see her rise from the dead, to what extent that factor matters in Christianity. This makes the book either an inspiring read, or a very uncomfortable one, depending on readers' point of view.)
I'm in the intended audience, and when I was in college I absolutely loved poring over Elgin's novels, putting together bits of linguistic and psychological education to solve the puzzles in them. And I love them still, after almost forty years. But I don't claim that everyone else will. A lot of people won't, and, as I suspect Elgin would have agreed (ruefully, after wistfully warbling about how to boost their sales), there's no shortage of fiction Out There for them to read.
1. Although the series qualified as science fiction, and this was the breakthrough novel that achieved both hardcover and paperback editions, the emphasis was on the science. The linguistic science, and associated psychology. People who liked spaceship races or ray-gun battles or fantasies about weird alien sex tended to hate Elgin's science fiction; it mentions that sort of thing only as cliches in the jokes of a fictional future...
2. Of sophisticated people, because after going to the University of Chicago, throughout a career that involved marrying a Swiss-American diplomat, going to San Diego after his untimely death, working for the federal government, learning to speak two particularly alien languages fluently, writing slow steady bestsellers on the nonfiction side, and rearing children who moved in comparably sophisticated circles, Elgin never really looked back. She moved back to Arkansas to live in an underground house and raise guineafowl, but I'd guess that she always struggled to remind herself that anyone who scored below 750 on the verbal SAT might still be fully human. Her target audience were writers, linguists, psychologists, and diplomats. She thought wistfully about boosting sales but never seemed to think much about writing novels the rest of humankind might have been able to enjoy. Her characters speak from a background of information, and a fundamental quickwittedness, that can make their conversations opaque to young or uneducated readers; they're puzzles for sophisticates to solve.
3. Not only do readers need the talent and academic background to solve the puzzles that Elgin's novels were; they also need to be able to appreciate her sense of humor. If you lack those things, the novels might feel as if the whole long elaborate joke were on you. It wasn't really. In constructing the Communipath Worlds, Elgin imagined how humankind, in evolving telepathic powers as people thought might be possible in the 1960s, might be able to achieve interplanetary communication beyond the speed of light (among very powerful telepaths) and, as a side effect, lose the ability to appreciate Romantic Love (because, duh, couples shared each other's feelings, so if your best buddy and working partner was madly attracted to someone else, you'd feel the passion too, and understand and forgive all; and also AIDS never happened in this future). The whole premise for the whole series was a joke. People who were meant to enjoy solving the philosophical and logical puzzles were laughing.
4. Elgin was a Christian. Brought up a Southern Baptist, she later embraced ideas from other religious traditions--some serious, some speculative--but she was, in a sort of New Age way, a very sincere Christian. Very honest; very generous; very kind, to the extent that she knew how to be kind to people who scored less than 750 on the verbal SAT. But not devout, or reverent, in the way her sophisticated friends scorned. She had no problem with "playing God" to the extent of speculating about how God might have sent a different kind of Messiah to a different planet. In Star-Anchored Star-Angered all the major characters in the novel agree that Drussa Silver (a blonde, as shown in this cover picture, rather than the future-triracial-and-possibly-part-alien character on the paperback) is the new Messiah sent to her world and thus to the Tri-Galactic Federation. (Cool your jets, fundamentalist friends. "Messiah" means "anointed" and in the Hebrew Bible it's used to refer to most of the mortal priests and kings, not exclusively to Jesus at all.)
5. So Coyote Jones, whose job is to investigate rogue telepaths, is sent to find out whether Drussa Silver is a fraud. And, being Coyote Jones, forever naive (some readers find that sweet), he disguises himself as a student (he's been doing this for years) and falls for her like a child. His fans knew that was going to happen. The suspense is how the Judas Paradox--it takes a basically good person to kill Drussa's physical body--is going to play out in this novel. We knew Coyote was going to go home a convert to Drussa's religion. And no, fans of the series did not imagine that this meant Elgin meant us to convert to it; rather, to consider, with awe and reverence, what a true religious revelation of the future might be. (We're not given enough religious teaching to convert to Drussa's religion, although Elgin also published a newsletter for "Lovingkindnessers" who accepted the principle of "verbal nonviolence" as a valid addition to their religions.)
6. So why did Doubleday choose this novel to publish as a hardcover book, when The Communipaths was a much easier introduction to the series--even "average" students can follow its plot--and Furthest was the story most likely to appeal to "average" science fiction readers? Because they expected that hint of religious controversy to sell. Urgh. The book's hard cover did, all by itself, boost sales to libraries, but anyone looking for an ordinary space opera with anti-Christian snark was greatly disappointed. Frankly it surprised me that Elgin admitted reading, and liking, science fiction that could be confused with ordinary space operas. Her own work couldn't, and her favorites might be confused with ordinary space operas but weren't.
7. Basically, if your 750+ verbal SATs got you into a big-name school and you liked the academic work there, you'll love this series. Otherwise you probably won't. Elgin's nonfiction appealed to a less rarefied audience, but it still demands a certain amount of linguistic talent from those who find it useful or enjoyable. She thought about writing a mainstream novel, in old age, or maybe even a romance; I know of no evidence that she ever even outlined such a thing, or that, if she'd written it, the result would have been accessible to the average romance reader. Her novels are all addressed to people who mostly prefer either nonfiction or substantial science fiction.
(8. And furthermore, as I've mentioned about the rest of the series, because people so often mention it...there's no explicit sex and only one violent act in this book, and it's described in very mild inoffensive ways, but all the sex and violence in all of Elgin's chastely written stories tends to be imagined much more vividly than it's written. This is not one of the novels that include a throwaway line that lingers in my memory as saying a great deal more, in context, than the words literally say. The murder scene consists of one line that's a cliche, followed by its emotional aftermath for two of the characters. Without the scenes that tell us how those characters felt, my guess would be that the actual narration of Drussa's death would make people laugh. It's the way people remember Drussa that matters...raising the question, though Drussa's anointing is not to be the spiritual savior of humankind and we don't see her rise from the dead, to what extent that factor matters in Christianity. This makes the book either an inspiring read, or a very uncomfortable one, depending on readers' point of view.)
I'm in the intended audience, and when I was in college I absolutely loved poring over Elgin's novels, putting together bits of linguistic and psychological education to solve the puzzles in them. And I love them still, after almost forty years. But I don't claim that everyone else will. A lot of people won't, and, as I suspect Elgin would have agreed (ruefully, after wistfully warbling about how to boost their sales), there's no shortage of fiction Out There for them to read.
April 4, 2026
hell yeah, mind deaf
January 12, 2011
What did I think? I think out hero has a terrible name, and the book talks way too much about his scrotum.
Ok, the plot, Our hero, the lackluster and cardboard "Coyote Jones" is yet another in a long long line of mildly bumbling interstellar secret agents who get bussed in to Planetoid X to solve massive social problem Y to save the federation of humans and humans with funny hats z, by mostly doing jack squat. This particular one, as you can see in the plot synopsis above, has to do with religion (joy. ugh. I cant remember if there was ever a sci-fi novel that had religion as a main theme, and was actually good, prolly cause i stumbled on a string of sci-fi novels that had religion as its main theme and were kick in the balls terrible. This isn't that bad in comparison to some, but it is bad.) And massive spoiler, [which is not a massive spoiler cause you see it coming on page 5, but still hold hope it isn't] the messiah in question, is actually the messiah, cause this is that sort of book.
So, our hero has to disguise himself as a grad student as cover. Which seems surprisingly reasonable, except, there is only one university with a thousand students in the whole federation of humans and humans with funny hats, these said students like to cover themselves with flowery tattoos and prance around nekkid, and are sort of mysterious celebrities and the source of all learning or something. Yes, this makes no sense, but let it go. So our tattooed bespangled hero gets shipped to the planetoid, which has two societies, a technologically advanced but distinctly medieval one who has a religion very strongly exactly similar to catholism, and then the the other one where people hang out in trees and dance in circles and live in a hippy pagan paradise (except they have just one living female messiah) Somewhere in there it feels like there once was some pop-feminist message, that kind of got lost on the editing room floor.
Of course, there is the standard political intrigue, our hero abandons his mission, and the standard plot devices are paraded out. Which sort of seems sad really, it seems that somewhere in this book there was a kernel of interesting weirdness, a glimmer of writing ability, that got shoehorned into a 170 pages of pulp hackery.
Ok, the plot, Our hero, the lackluster and cardboard "Coyote Jones" is yet another in a long long line of mildly bumbling interstellar secret agents who get bussed in to Planetoid X to solve massive social problem Y to save the federation of humans and humans with funny hats z, by mostly doing jack squat. This particular one, as you can see in the plot synopsis above, has to do with religion (joy. ugh. I cant remember if there was ever a sci-fi novel that had religion as a main theme, and was actually good, prolly cause i stumbled on a string of sci-fi novels that had religion as its main theme and were kick in the balls terrible. This isn't that bad in comparison to some, but it is bad.) And massive spoiler, [which is not a massive spoiler cause you see it coming on page 5, but still hold hope it isn't] the messiah in question, is actually the messiah, cause this is that sort of book.
So, our hero has to disguise himself as a grad student as cover. Which seems surprisingly reasonable, except, there is only one university with a thousand students in the whole federation of humans and humans with funny hats, these said students like to cover themselves with flowery tattoos and prance around nekkid, and are sort of mysterious celebrities and the source of all learning or something. Yes, this makes no sense, but let it go. So our tattooed bespangled hero gets shipped to the planetoid, which has two societies, a technologically advanced but distinctly medieval one who has a religion very strongly exactly similar to catholism, and then the the other one where people hang out in trees and dance in circles and live in a hippy pagan paradise (except they have just one living female messiah) Somewhere in there it feels like there once was some pop-feminist message, that kind of got lost on the editing room floor.
Of course, there is the standard political intrigue, our hero abandons his mission, and the standard plot devices are paraded out. Which sort of seems sad really, it seems that somewhere in this book there was a kernel of interesting weirdness, a glimmer of writing ability, that got shoehorned into a 170 pages of pulp hackery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2013
Sadly, this isn't one of Elgin's best works; instead, it's very much a work of its time, with the author trying to shoehorn what interests her--heavy feminist and spiritual ideas--into the sellable quick read mid-70s cop/spy genre fiction. The thing that makes this worth it is that one can see the glimmerings of many concepts she explores to far better effect in her later works (Native Tongue, of course, but also the Ozark Trilogy--precocious politically cunning young teen girls, postmodern feudalism, ecologically interesting colonies).
If I'm being honest, Elgin does far better with a female narrative voice. Those parts of the book read more comfortablely...fortunately she realised as much as she went forward with her career.
If I'm being honest, Elgin does far better with a female narrative voice. Those parts of the book read more comfortablely...fortunately she realised as much as she went forward with her career.
January 19, 2020
Sometimes I feel lukewarm about something until I am finished with the story, and then I gain a stronger appreciation for the themes and message. I know it's completely unrelated, but the game Death Stranding gave me a similar feeling, going along through the motions and enjoying myself, but only upon uncovering the messages the author intended, gaining much more appreciation for it as a whole.
Sometimes I find Suzette books hard to read because of perspective shifts (especially in Native Tongue), and perhaps it is because I'm relatively novice at reading fiction for enjoyment. Despite this discomfort, as the story went on I found myself hypothesizing what was going to happen and the reasons behind the events.
I felt like the transitions in the story were much less abrupt than in Furthest, where I felt a bit of whiplash once the story ended.
Finally it is time to tackle the fifth book! I am excited, since I enjoyed the Ozark trilogy.
Sometimes I find Suzette books hard to read because of perspective shifts (especially in Native Tongue), and perhaps it is because I'm relatively novice at reading fiction for enjoyment. Despite this discomfort, as the story went on I found myself hypothesizing what was going to happen and the reasons behind the events.
I felt like the transitions in the story were much less abrupt than in Furthest, where I felt a bit of whiplash once the story ended.
Finally it is time to tackle the fifth book! I am excited, since I enjoyed the Ozark trilogy.
March 26, 2025
Coyote Jones, secret agent for the Tri-Galactic intelligence service, had a strange handicap. In a universe where every normal being is telepathic, he suffered from almost total mind-deafness. He can project, but he can't receive. When the social system of the planet Freeway began to reel under the force of an alleged female Messiah, Coyote's handicap made him the perfect choice for the assignment: FIND, is she a fake or isn't she?
If Drussa Silver is projecting telepathic illusions instead of performing miracles, Coyote would be immune to them. Since using religion to defraud is a criminal act, he could then bring her back to Mars-Central for trial. If she's the real thing however, the situation would be utterly different...
If Drussa Silver is projecting telepathic illusions instead of performing miracles, Coyote would be immune to them. Since using religion to defraud is a criminal act, he could then bring her back to Mars-Central for trial. If she's the real thing however, the situation would be utterly different...
November 13, 2022
You've read the publisher's intro, right? This book, fourth in the Coyote Jones, Secret Agent series -- well. It starts out pretty well, and then starts meandering. A book of its time, back when telepathy and psi powers were a popular theme in the SF/F paperbacks of that era. Elgin writes well, but by the book's end I was happy to be done with it. And it's a short book! 2.5 stars, rounded down. Not recommended. My copy, stamped "bargain," is headed for recycling . . .
February 17, 2018
I picked up this book at a second hand sale because I loved Native Tongue. This was not the same. This was concise and well written, and an excellent example of the genre. I just didn't really like it.
Read
July 8, 2011Star-Anchored, Star-Angered by Suzette Haden Elgin. 160 pages. SF/Classic. In a universe of telepaths, Coyote Jones, secret agent, is mind-deaf but a super-strong at projecting his thoughts. So he’s the logical agent to investigate a planet whose rulers are complaining that a woman is using illusions to claim to be a Messiah. Things grow complicated when she turns out not to be a fake. I like her Ozark series better.
January 3, 2011
Well, that was lousy.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews