Customer Reviews

Promise of the Flame

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This book fulfills the promise of the psi society of the earlier book who called themselves the "stewards of the flame". This group had escaped from an Orwellian planet where every aspect of a person's health is monitored, to create their own psi civilization on an uninhabited planet. They realized that a culture of emerging mind powers would not reach its true potential as a subset of an archetypal technological society modeled after Earth, where psi powers were disbelieved or treated as mental aberrations. Their plan was to develop their culture for two hundred years in isolation before regaining contact with others. Their founder's vision was also contingent upon the advancement of technology along with psychic powers so that their civilization would be seen as a culture to be emulated, not as a backward society to be studied by anthropologists. In many ways, the technological advancement is even more difficult to achieve than either the development of a viable society or of their mind powers but as Peter, their charismatic leader, points out, "Evolution means moving forward on all fronts."

"The long-range goal has always been to demonstrate that psi and volitional mind control can improve people's lives without lowering their standard of living."

Because of their need for secrecy and haste, the new planet is not a terraformed paradise prepared for normal colonization. The pioneer group must work hard, with many setbacks, to create a comfortable living out of an undeveloped planet. Some of the most enlightening scenes occur in the footsteps of a disaster that is used to further understanding and progress. These surprising twists are well done, embracing the good while dealing with the bad. There is a lot of introspective analysis, understandable as we're dealing with powers of the mind and creating a culture with no precedent, so some parts might be considered slow to people who are used to reading a fast-paced adventure story. This edition also needed a better editor. However, the story is thought provoking and well-worth reading more than once.

Sometimes one needs to read the entirety of a multi-book series to see its full accomplishment; Sylvia Engdahl's diptych, here concluded with PROMISE OF THE FLAME, is just one example. The gripping drama of the first volume, STEWARDS OF THE FLAME, continues; the standard science-fiction template of a band of rebels seeking out new terrain in outer space as a response to injustice at home is depicted with unusual realism (what happens to the dead bodies in the first chapter). Much like Ursula K. Le Guin's THE DISPOSESSED, this is a book written by somebody at once holding firm convictions as to the potential human life can have but with enough political intelligence to note that even a society far improved over its predecessor will have its own problems, will be only a half-utopia. But even a half-utopia equipped with freedom and the possibility for optimal human interconnection is better than a society that disciplines and denies these. For Engdahl, there is such a thing as a fairer and wiser sense of life, which can be at least partially realized by thoughtful cognition and spirited hope. Engdahl embodies this dynamic in characters that we care about and whose different individual temperaments and abilities contribute to the suspense of the story. An added pleasure is the clear resemblance of the quest of the colonies to the history of the United States; Engdahl's measured patriotism sounds an apt tone at a time of national reconsideration, and shows that space exploration is not a budgetary frippery, as so many have recently cast it. As with all of Engdahl's work, science-fiction fans will recognize the tropes she uses, but it is not just `for' them, no more than the work of a great artist who happens to work in, say, ceramics is just for adepts of that medium. Engdahl has produced high-quality work over a forty-year period, but this is one of her finest achievements.

I was so happy to find out that there was a follow on to Stewards of the Flame, it was a great book, and this was a great way to get closure on the original story. As always I won't say much about the content, as some folks don't want to have the story given to them, but perfer to savor it as they read it, but I highly recommend it if you enjoyed Stewards of the Flame. Thanks Sylvia!

I just finished "Promise of the Flame" and all I can feel right now is "wow!" What a great story with thought-provoking themes and heroic characters. The suspense is so much fun, I couldn't put the book down through the last couple of hundred pages when the action and pacing really picked up!

What a pleasure it is to read science fiction that doesn't deal with dark and depressing subjects like warfare and end-of-the-world scenarios, like most SF. In this book, characters strive to create a new world and a new society, overcoming tremendous odds and demanding the best of human thinking and action. Evil and enemies also exist, and must be dealt with for the survival of the new civilization, and these conflicts raise interesting moral questions.

Although I suppose you could read this book without reading the prequel first, I think you would regret doing so. I'm sure you'll enjoy "Promise of the Flame" so much that you'll surely want to read the prequel "Stewards of the Flame", so why not start out right and read them in the correct sequence?

Highly recommended!

I am more than pleased that Sylvia Louise Engdahl has returned to fiction with a new series. I have her earlier books and have read and re-read them.