Set in the far future, RECLAMATION centers on The Realm of the Nameless Powers, a world so ravaged by age that only a portion of underground canyons is habitable. The Realm has degenerated into a harsh caste system and Middle Ages technology. Their religion strictly enforces the castes who can marry, and which children are allowed to live. Eric Born is a lapsed priest and a son of one of the noble families. Like all members of the priesthood, he is a very precise telekinetic, but he also has the rare gift of healing. Stifled by the backward ways of The Realm, he escapes to make a new life among the stars. Since then, he has established himself as a freelance computer engineer. He is employed by the Rhudolant Vitae, space traders who travel between star systems trading their technological and management skills for raw materials and political influence. The Vitae's deepest desire is to find their native world, from which they were forced to flee many centuries ago. When Eric Born discovers that The Realm is that very world, his loyalties are split.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Imagine a distant future where human groups have colonized the galaxy, but where the earthly origins of the human race have been mysteriously forgotten. Several groups are pursuing a quest for the mythical "Home Ground," where human life began. Sarah Zettel's intriguing premise has a vital element of the best science fiction: it invites reflection on present reality while discussing an imagined future. Eric and Arla, migrants from a planetary backwater called the Realm, become central to the revelation of the truth, and their personal histories shed light on humanity's strange amnesia.
From Publishers Weekly
Zettel's debut novel breaks little new ground, but SF fans will still enjoy it. Her heroes, telekinetic Eric Born and mysterious pariah Arla Stone, must save their home planet from factions trying to tear it apart. This quest places them directly in the path of the Vitae, one of the most powerful races in the galaxy. Zettel's writing is crisp, and the story moves at an appropriately rapid pace. Although the reader may occasionally get the sense that the dramatic situation is familiar, Zettel's deft action scenes and wry humor help smooth out the trouble spots.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent first effort,
By A Reader (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Reclamation (Mass Market Paperback)
I thought this was actually a pretty gripping read but I'd have to agree with the 1-star people about some of its flaws. It took a while to get going (which I didn't mind because it was setting out background) but the ending was really abrupt, and I can only assume that the writer was setting up for a sequal. The basic story about people discovering that they've been genetically engineered for a specific purpose, is a really interesting one in terms of their reactions. I imagine that it would be something that took a bit of coming to terms with, but the authoress makes very little of what it might feel like to be the product of laboratory experiments. I would have liked to see deeper into the main characters' minds. There were also one or two characters who disappeared without having their stories properly wound up. I thought that the villains were great - they had no redeeming features whatsoever, completely evil infact. I got really in to hoping they'd come to a very nasty end. In fact, it was their extreme wickedness rather than the hero and heroine that made me want to see the Realm safe at the end. (Incidentally, Ivy obviously didn't understand what was going on; Arla left the Realm because she wanted to know what the outsiders were up to. She insisted on going back when Eric and she had discovered that the Realm was under threat). Personally, I love attention to detail, so I quite appreciated Miss Zettel's attempts at describing her galaxy (although I would have liked a bit more detail about the Realm and its workings). I'd really like to see a follow-up about the Realm coming to terms with its new knowledge, and its future interaction with other humans in the galaxy.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding first science fiction novel,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Reclamation (Mass Market Paperback)
I received this book in the mail at the end of last week, and it ran away with most of my 4th of July weekend. I barely got my laundry done!
It is hard to believe that this is a first novel, but considering the fact that Zettel has, apparently, been writing since the fourth grade, I guess it's not really her first novel -- just her first published one. I'd love to read some of what didn't make the cut. It probably surpasses a good percent of what gets published as science fiction these days.
The excellence of this book covered all the bases -- good writing, decent character development, complex and fully-realized cultures and universe, interesting and truly alien alien creatures [those Shessel! ;-) ], and interesting plot lines that gradually all distill down into one. On top of that, it has what I think I like most in science fiction: exploration of the relationship between myth/religious ritual and ancient scientific/historic truth.
I'm looking forward to reading her next.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best, but perhaps judged too harshly,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Reclamation (Mass Market Paperback)
I agree with much of the drift of some of the other criticisms among these reviews, i.e., that the book is not overly original and that the characters are somewhat shallow. I feel the need, however, to respond to some of the "1 star" reviews and mediate their more intense dislike of this novel. I found the Rhudolant Vitae (the main villains of this book who are compared to the Borg in other reviews) to be very interesting villains; they are not simply black-robed automatons or some kind of hive-mind like the borg (nor are they aliens like those of Dark City). What I found interesting about the Vitae was that they were very human; this society, faced with the loss of their homeworld, became a very conservative and static entity centered around the religious/messianic goal of finding and reclaiming that homeworld. I find this interesting and all-too-human, considering that messianic religions consistently arise out of troubled political climates. I feel the need to point out also that the Vitae are not just a black-robed collective, but, indeed, their society is a complex interrelationship between various functionaries (which wear different colors) including engineers/scientists, administrators, diplomats, and a kind of historian/judicial class which records the activities of everyone else. One of the more interesting characters is one of the Vitae himself, and his machinations for the benefit of himself and his family in this strictly policed society also give it the necessary humanity to avoid falling into communist-paranoia SF cliches.
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