by Sylvia Engdahl – A bit dated, as the author acknowledges in her afterword, this 1971 novel is the story of an alien federation attempting to learn what makes a developed world decide to focus its creative energies on either space colonization or nuclear war. The main characters are two young members of the federation’s anthropological service, who are among the eight (?) scientists how infiltrate the planet Toris to observe and learn… until the youngest of them, Randil, decides he must intervene to save the planet and sets into play events that might just cause the very nuclear war the federation hopes the planet will avoid. It falls on the second youngest (and our main protagonist) Elana to try to repair the damage
A bit redundant and wordy, the novel is not subtle. For example, the author repeats the word Youngling (a term the federation applies to those who inhabit worlds that have not yet advanced enough to join the federation) twice as often as necessary, which gives the narrators using it an unintended condescending tone. She also goes on far too often about the special training federation anthropologists have had to withstand circumstances that would surely overmatch the various Younglings of the universe. The final writing quirk that kept snatching me out of the story and into the role of critic is the author’s frequent use of the word “for” as a conjunction. It’s one of my pet peeves, so it might not bother you at all, but I find it archaic and lazy and usually unnecessary. I know, I know: it’s a small thing. But small things are what make the difference between average and superb writing. (finished 6/14/2012)
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