Hellspark [Paperback]

Janet Kagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1998

Murder, Mystery, and Interstellar Intrigue! Hugo Award winner Janet Kagan's Hellspark is now back in print! Lassti, a newly discovered planet, is the center of political intrigue. Recently, Oloitokitok, the planet survey team's physicist was found dead. Was he killed? If so, by who? One of his fellow surveyors? Or by one of the Sprookjes, the birdlike natives of Lassti? Are the Sprookjes intelligent? If so, then parties that want the planet for development will lose it. Why is the survey team having so much trouble finding out? Into this situation arrives Tocohl, a Hellspark trader who just wanted to have a vacation on Sheveschke at the St. Veschke festival. After being attacked, rescuing a young woman, and going before a judge, Tocohl has learned all she ever wanted to know about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now she is on her way to find Lasti to find answers to the mysteries there.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wealth of unique imagery and rich characterization makes Hellspark a thoroughly satisfying book." -- Lawrence Watt-Evans

"Hellspark has some really fascinating settings, a familiar but well constructed plot, and good action scenes." -- S.F. Chronicle

"Janet Kagan writes terrific science fiction. Imaginative and insightful with characters you really care about." -- A. C. Crispin

"Kagan does have a dry and effective sense of humor, of the sort that I enjoy in Steven Brust's books." -- Amazing Stories

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing Inc.; 1 edition (January 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965834522
• ISBN-13: 978-0965834520
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,601,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Outsider (from the inside), February 17, 2000

By 

Kirsten A. Edwards "kannealmstedt" (Duvall, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hellspark (Paperback)

It is one of the pleasurable paradoxes of HELLSPARK that the protagonist Tocohl Sosumo's ability to get inside every human (and alien) culture also makes her the ultimate outsider. Hellsparks, the race of traders, diplomats, judges and free-wheeling adventurers from which the title is taken, want to communicate with everybody, no matter what it costs. They usually succeed, and always pay the price. Most teens I know empathize with the desirability of being part of an "in" group and the pains of having to stand outside. The teens with whom I've shared this book are no exception. HELLSPARK resonates with their experience. The characters, especially Tocohl, play with every gradation of belonging. Janet Kagan deftly mixes a fast-paced mystery, exotic, unique and alien cultures, and the fundamentally human question of where and how people fit together. It's well-nigh irresistable. But perhaps best of all is Kagan's authorial voice. Pure and simple, she's fun to read. Even her Star Trek novel (UHURA'S SONG) a type of book (media tie-in) for which I often have little patience, was a treat! Don't miss this one. (This review was excerpted and expanded from my review in The WASHrag, a review journal for Western Washington young adult services' librarians).

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More! More!, June 27, 2002

By 

"kangarex" (Keokuk, IA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hellspark (Paperback)

Hellspark is quite possibly my single favorite book - and I read an awful lot of books. All of Janet Kagan's books are wonderful, and my only gripe with her as an author is that she's only written three so far (Please Ma'am can I have some more?) Hellspark is a fascinating first contact book, with a crystal clear look at how our culture informs our assumptions, and the huge messes those assumptions can cause. Tocohl Susumo (our Hellspark protagonist) is wonderful as the only good cultural interpreter in a mass of surveyors from vastly different worlds, Maggy, her computer is a delightful mix of rapid thinking and small-child personality, and her aliens (the Sprookje) are truly alien without being unbelievable or trite. If you've already read this one, go on and try Mirabile and Uhura's Song, which are also wonderful reads.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science Fiction, Detective Stories, and a Comedyt of Manners, August 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hellspark (Paperback)

HELLSPARK is a wonderful detective tale that stays true to the detective tradition without letting the Science Fiction setting intrude. A death has occurred on the planet Lasti, or was it murder? Enter Tocohl a Ship's Captain, trader, and native Hell-spark/Hells-park, who has to determine if the death was a murder, and, if so, was it done by the natives, the Sprookjes, who seem to be intelligent & sapient, but have no language.

Tocohl has to walk a thin line, because if the Sprookjes are intelligent, then the people who want the planet for development will lose it. Tocohl is asked to be a by-world judge, and determine if it was murder, and it the Sprookjes are intelligent.

Kagan's HELLSPARK is also a comedy of manners, in which the cultural mores and taboos of several various and diverging cultures are thrown into conflict and confusion. I found Kagan's setting to be wonderful and thrilling, and well worth the reading. I am truly indebted to author Steve Miller for suggesting the book to me, and introducing me to such a captivating author. I had previously only read one book by Kagan, but have determined to find more of her works.