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Stewards of the Flame

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This novel is very different from Sylvia Engdahl's previous novels, which were, somewhat misleadingly, marketed as young adult fiction. yet fans of the earlier works, especially the Children of the Star trilogy, will find some commonalities. In both fictional universes, a man finds himself seemingly alone facing an unjust system. Unlike the trilogy, though, in STEWARDS the system is not revealed to be a benign oligarchy doing what it has to do in order to save mankind, but a malignant surveillance society intent on controlling people and depriving life of its spontaneity and hope by enforcing a state of mandatory 'health' on all people. Jesse Sanders, threatened with being another passive victim of this monitoring regime, becomes determined to resist this evil by any means possible.

STEWARDS also joins the earlier trilogy in seeing space colonization as humanity's only hope, although just what `space colonization' consists of is defined far more elliptically in the current novel, and in seeing ritual as an important way to strive towards this hope.

Readers may have certain procedural issues with the book: the love of Jesse and Carla seems to flower too early (although revelations about Carla's past later somewhat explain this), female minor characters like Kira and Michelle sometimes seem interchangeable, the crucial Zeb subplot is introduced without adequate preparation, and the character of Ian is under-sketched. This is important as ian is a crucial precedent and inspiration for Peter, the compassionate, self-abnegating leader of the group, dedicated to the paranormal, that Jesse, joins after he realizes the totalitarian nature of those who control the planet Undine. If certain expository sections had been trimmed, there would have been more room to fully develop these characters' identity and motivaton.


But these lapses are more than made up for by Engdahl's unmatched ability to combine intellectual speculation, moral forthrightness, and narrative suspense. The book does not require the reader to assume Engdahl's own positions on certain aspects of contemporary life; though the author makes clear her stands, the reader can enjoy the book as narrative without adopting them. And the end is both exciting and searingly moving. Readers who enjoy the more adult works of Robert A. Heinlein or C. S. Lewis should enjoy this novel, though its atmosphere is more stark and bitter than either. The novel is eminently readable, indeed hard to put down.

Fans of the earlier books, perhaps themselves grown older, will enjoy this new Engdahl novel in a different way; it also has the potential to bring this undervalued author the wide reading public her talent merits.

It's been more than twenty years since Sylvia Engdahl last published a new novel, although her older ones have popped up more recently.

But she reenters the world of contemplative sci-fi again with "Stewards of the Flame," a slow-moving but rewarding novel about the power of the human mind and spirit. It takes a long time to really get moving, but it's pretty brilliant once it revs up -- an intense journey of impressive proportions.

Jesse is a newly-promoted starship captain... until he gets drunk on the planet Undine, and is imprisoned in the vast, dictatorial Hospital. On Undine, illness is a crime, and the doctors rule everyone. Jesse is forced through alcohol and psychiatric treatment, and used as a student guinea pig.... until a young technician, Carla, smuggles him out to a gathering of her friends, known as the Group.

The Group turns out to be more than just a collection of friends -- they are rebels, who have expanded their paranormal powers, and undermine the Hospital's attempts to put the dying into eternal stasis. Soon Jesse is involved deeply in their quiet rebellion, and acquiring the same powers. But he doesn't yet know how important he is to the Group's future...

"Stewards of the Flame" isn't your typical sci-fi novel, since the future here isn't too far ahead of our own, and little of the plot is spent in space. Instead, it's about a medical dystopia, and its story overflows with psychic explorations, true love, quiet rebellion, holistic healing, and a bit of Joseph Campbell.

It sounds a little dull, and admittedly it moves at a slow pace for awhile, as Jesse learns and explores his new powers. But Engdahl weaves a deceptively simple plot into a surprisingly complex storyline, with lots of secrets and counter-conspiracies from the Hospital. And, of course, the mysterious Ian's plans for the Group.

And in the final quarter the secrets are revealed, Jesse is seemingly doomed, and Engdahl keeps throwing curveballs right to the finale. It's a pretty thrilling ride by the end, without losing the contemplative quality of the first parts.

Jesse seems to fall in with Carla and the group a bit too quickly, but otherwise is excellent as a rather cynical, embittered captain who finds out what his life could be. The other most powerful character is Peter, an enigmatic, charismatic junior leader whose plans and thoughts are kept hidden much of the time.

"Stewards of the Flame" is a solid, slow-to-fast sci-fi novel that contemplates what we could be -- and what the medical profession might become. An intriguing read.

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"We are not superhuman, but we're finding ways to develop what some would call superhuman powers...We're a vanguard...but we are also stewards of something in humankind that our civilization no longer fosters: the awareness that we are more than our bodies, that the human mind and spirit is a tangible force that is no less real for being nonphysical. This awareness is a flame that must not be allowed to die...We resist not because there's anything wrong with medical treatment where it's truly needed, but because the right to free choice is denied us--and even that isn't the main thing we're fighting against. The underlying issue is that our culture's attitude toward health is based on a distorted view of life."

This is what a respected member of a rebel health Group says to "offworlder" starship fleet officer Captain Jesse Sanders in this intriguing novel by established science fiction author Sylvia Engdahl. This is Engdahl's first adult science fiction novel.

Sanders is being treated at and is detained on a space colony where health considerations are elevated above all other human values. You're not even allowed to die on this world but instead you're placed in "stasis" in vaults where your heartbeat is artificially induced to continue...forever.

Sanders becomes a member of this rebel Group where he is taught paranormal powers. However, the dictatorial medical regime on this planet threatens to expose the Group. Eventually, Sanders, who has come to care about the Group members, must take responsibility for their lives and preserve their hopes for the future of humankind.

After the novel ends, Engdahl includes an interesting and brief after word section. She begins it with these ominous words:

"We are closer than you may think to the things described in this [novel]--both the good and the bad."

Engdahl continues: "The so-called 'paranormal' powers in this story are exaggerated only with respect to the characters' conscious control over them. These abilities, with the exception of [two of them], have been confirmed by a vast amount of scientific evidence, albeit evidence that is ignored by too many orthodox scientists."

Note that this novel is more than your standard science fiction novel. Yes it's set in the future on another planet yet I feel a general audience would appreciate what it has to say than just those with an extensive science fiction background.

For example, this novel inspires many thought provoking "what if" questions about modern orthodox medicine. Thus, it could be used to spark stimulating discussions on bioethics.

Be aware that the novel begins slowly and the reader has to have patience. This patience is rewarded as it gradually picks up speed and leads to an exciting conclusion.

Finally, Engdahl states that there will be a sequel to this novel. Personally, I can't wait to read it.

In conclusion, this is a different kind of science fiction novel about a future space colony in which the trend toward medicalization has been carried to its ultimate logical and frightening conclusion.

(first published 2007; 6 parts or 68 chapters; main narrative 455 pages; afterword; about the author)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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Sylvia Engdahl's new book leads the reader into life on a planet where medical science has "banished" illness through required medical care. Not everybody welcomes this invasive level of treatment, including the hero, an "off-worlder" freighter captain, who gets picked up and treated against his will. Then he begins to meet individuals who oppose the system and seem to draw their strength from a source he cannot quite fathom. It's an enthralling story, but it also poses a series of provocative "What if?" questions, as great science fiction or futuristic writing always has:
What if the medical community could require us to be treated? What if - in the interests of never accepting the reality of death - medical science could keep the shells of our bodies functioning with pumps and machines long after our spirits have departed? Would we want to live in such a world? On a more positive note, what if we all have innate mental capabilities that we have not yet developed? Would we embrace them or shy away from them? The author writes that she is working on a sequel. I want to read it!

I first disovered Engdahl when I was 13, with Enchantress from the Stars. That was a REALLY long time ago. I thought she had stopped writing, and was overjoyed to discover that after 26 years she's written another novel.

It's a horrible shame and a slam on the publishing industry that an author of Ms. Engdahl's skill and accomplishment have to self-publish, but we're the better for it. Were it not for her tenacity we wouldn't have this book.

Stewards of the Flame is another mind-turning concept novel. As Engdahl herself has noted, she is a writer of themes, not stories. As such, this novel is one h*** of a theme and, as usual, Engdahl takes us in directions that are completely counter-intuitive yet flawlessly logical. Her characters serve as vehicles for the themes she's working out, and in this book there are echoes of Enchantress. . . and her other books.

This time, however, Engdahl takes on a very current-events idea and turns it on its head: health care and "universal" health care. Her ideas are fresh, exciting, and had me scratching my head and saying, "Of course!" all at the same time.

For Engdahl fans this is a jewel. For those who've disdained her prior novels as "young adult" fiction (which they're NOT, but that's a discussion for some other time), maybe they can put down their preconceptions and just read a rip-roaring good story.

Final Note: This is NOT a "young adult" novel. The themes are for grown-ups and some parts of the storyline aren't suitable for less mature readers (some icky medical stuff, serious discussions of death and coma states, etc.). This is for adults. Buy it, and ENJOY!

Lately, I've been thinking about how "universal health care" or socialized medicine could conceivably lead to the complete loss of personal liberty. Bear with me for just this paragraph and consider my reasoning. When taxpayers are paying for everyone's health care, how long will it be before "the majority" start to resent having to pay for the health problems of cigarette smokers? Can you see where this might lead to the outlawing of cigarette smoking for everyone? Sure, we'd be better off without cigarettes, but this loss of personal liberty would set a precedent for further restrictions on your choices. Won't my liberal hippie friends be dismayed when "the majority" also decide pot smokers shouldn't be eligible for universal health care when a little THC is found in their bloodstream? I can easily imagine, in a world of universal health care, these lifestyle choices disappearing over time. There's evidence that your mental outlook also affects your physical health, so I can imagine that to continue receiving "free" health care, a "depressed" person will be forced onto psychological drugs. And who would define conditions such as depression? Not you and your doctor, but some government health care bureaucracy that will eventually be controlled by the big-money in health care, namely the pharmaceutical industry. Treatments will all be drug based rather than alternative treatments that target the source of illness rather than just the symptoms. Won't my compassionate natural-healing friends who support universal health care be surprised then?

OK, so what does this have to do with "Stewards of the Flame"? In this novel, author Sylvia Engdahl imagines a society that has taken medical well-being to the extreme; where it has become the highest priority of government and, thus, government and the orthodox medical community are one and the same. She describes such a world with much less political soap-boxing than I have written above, you might be relieved to know. In this world of medical tyranny there is a group of people who have non-orthodox ideas about how to be healthy and what makes a vibrant life worth living, with risks and self-responsibility. Of course, these people are criminals and have to live a life of secrecy and subterfuge to survive, pursue their own interests, and hopefully win their freedom. And that is the setting for the characters and the plot of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Stewards of the Flame". In addition to medical tyranny, it delves heavily into subjects such as psi powers, civil disobedience, overcoming fear, and even some intergalactic space travel and planet colonization! Without being religious in any way, the novel might make you think about spiritual or religious questions, such as when does your spirit or consciousness leave your body (if at all) if you are brain dead but kept physically alive on life support. I also found one of the characters (Ian) to be kind of a religious figure; which really isn't important except that, to me, it added even more depth to the book especially at the end where his mysterious actions earlier in the story became explained in some very heavy revelations!

I highly recommend "Stewards of the Flame" and I'm hopeful a sequel will be published soon!

If you are new to the writing of Sylvia Engdahl, you might well experience Stewards of the Flame as overly-cerebral and somewhat daunting, or you could end up joining the ranks of her admirers in finding her work an inspiring and stimulating celebration of human good-will, intelligence, courage and love.

Stewards of the Flame requires you to pay attention. It isn't formulaic, nor is it flawless. Reading it is a bit like watching an Andrei Tarkovski movie... if you sit back expecting to get carried along for an easy ride, you will soon get left behind and lost. This is a book with high expectations, of its characters and its readers. You may not get very far with this book if you're not interested in carefully following through the logic of choices, where the personal is intensely political (in the widest sense).

The quality of (the possibility of) goodness in this book is somewhat like that found in the writing of Charles Williams, or Edgar Pangborn, and like the work of those authors, this is not flavour-of-the-month, style-driven writing. The `action' of the book is found mainly in the conversations and the thoughts of the characters. The characters struggle to know themselves and each other. Integrity and honesty are deeply challenged within the gloom of a "benign" dystopian society. The price of daring to hope for `something beyond' is ruthlessly demanded, and paid knowingly.

There are happy endings to Sylvia Engdahl's books (and there is happiness in the end of Stewards of the Flame) but it isn't the convenient, comfortable gratification of having your whims and superficial inclinations easily met. It is a profound happiness, because things have integrity, have been worked through until they are as they should be, and until the characters have committed themselves wholly to the course required by their hard-won and thoroughly-tested convictions.

Stranded on a remote Earth colony under suspicious circumstances, Jesse - the captain of a deep space cargo vessel, finds himself in the clutches of a global "benevolent" totalitarian government bent on "saving" him from himself - by force if need be. In this colony the health of the public is guarded so jealously that except for the rare case of accidental death, all individuals are kept alive forever - whatever the cost. Drugged and confused, Jesse is befriended by Carla, a member of a mysterious underground resistance movement. Jesse soon finds to his horror that the price of the "immortality" that this civilization takes for granted - is an eternity of entombment in the freezing insect-like embrace of an artificial intelligence guided stasis unit - "the Vaults"
The Stewards of the Flame chronicles Jesse's journey as fate chases him from the numbing regularity of deep space travel into the challenge of a lifetime that he had almost stopped looking for. Jesse learns his own value as he becomes aware that a life is only meaningful lived with honor, duty, fearlessness and above all love. With the help and growing love of Carla and the Group, an unlooked for, fantastic talent latent in Jesse begins to stir and unfold. The members of Carla's group have unleashed an awesome evolutionary force for the future development of humankind - but should they be discovered - it would mean the vaults for all of them.

Stewards of the Flame is the long awaited adult novel by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, the multiple award-winning science/fiction writer perhaps best known for her much beloved and deeply original young adult novel, Enchantress from the Stars. When i was a young i was utterly fixated by Enchantress from the Stars - and then it's sequel The Far Side of Evil. Part of what attracted me to the books was a a sense of belonging to something that mattered, something solid that you could know was worth living, working and dying for. Engdahl provided a welcome hardheaded humanism that acknowledged danger, sacrifice - even failure, while saying with a secret smile that it was somehow all worth it. She made me feel it - believe it. In Sylvia Engdahl's hands, human consciousness glitters with half glimpsed potential and ironic destiny drives dreamlike perilous voyages between fire & ice - with only the power of growing self-knowledge holding the course - the universe reveals it's secret plans for us.
Readers who enjoy watching a carefully reasoned philosophy outlined and then put to the test will be fascinated by the dismaying and joyous twists that confront Engdahl's characters as their strengths are revealed to be weakness and their weaknesses drive them to understand the strengths they almost betray. With an almost sadistic precision Engdahl intermingles joy and dread - annealing the souls of her characters and then beating and folding them until their motivations are as sharp and intricate as damascus steel.

Tucker Stilley - The Permanent Record of NewJack Rasputin

If you liked Zena Henderson's People and Andre Norton's telepathic cats, you'll love Sylvia Engdahl's new book Stewards of the Flame. Thanks to her long experience as a writer of Young Adult Sci-Fi, Engdahl is well-equipped for crafting a taut, well-paced science fiction work -- this time for adults -- that transcends the genre's traditional subdivisions and leads us into a world as relevant as today but as enthralling as tomorrow. There is action to be found on the planet of Undine. But what really drives the plot is the drama and tension developed as a small resistance movement tries to circumvent the benevolently evil consequences that come of an oppressive, omnipresent medical establishment that won't just not allow you to become sick -- ever! -- it won't even let you die. This novel literary device is surprisingly chilling. Equally novel is the means the resistance employs to thwart the designs of a popularly-supported tyranny that schemes to grind the last spark of what makes us distinctly human from the spirits of its unsuspecting population. The phrase "It's all in your head" takes on a whole new meaning...

Jesse, a fleet captain who spends most of his life in space, is off duty on a small colony called Undine. Like usual, while he is grounded he decides to have a drink, no harm in that right? Well, unfortunately Undine considers drinking an illness. It could lead to alcoholism, and anyone who subjects themselves to such things surely must be mentally unstable. This is Undine's way of thinking, health care is valued above everything, even to the point where the police (who are actually healthcare workers who drive ambulances) will arrest anyone doing anything that could cause potential harm to themselves, to be carted away to the hospital for 'treatment,' where they will be detained against their will until the hospital decides they are 'well,' even if the dangerous activity was sailing a boat and their treatment invoves taking drugs that cause brain damage. (But atleast they won't endanger their health anymore, right?)

As scary and extreme as Undine sounds, the more and more I read, the more and more I began to realize...Undine isn't so unrealistic after all. I started making connections with the real world, and it dawned at me that Undine could very well be the future of our own planet. Worse, after I finished the book, I discovered that some of the things that I thought far too horrific to ever be true, were not only plausible, but actually practiced today! The potential of an Undine-like Earth is quite scary, and I found this aspect of the book to be an eye opener.

The plot was very good once it got started, but for me, I had a very hard time connecting with the characters in the beginning. Perhaps at first I was too distracted by the authors descriptions of Undine and its practices, but I realized during Jesse's first stay at the lodge that I had no connection and cared very little about the main characters. In fact, at that point in the book I found myself more frustrated with Jesse than anything, with his constant mood switching and indecisiveness on whether or not he belonged on Undine, with Carla and her group, or not. I got a little bored during this period, but fortunately it was only a brief section, and afterwards I began to enjoy the book immensely.

The book hooked me with it's setting and kept my attention with a story that was both addicting and thought provoking, and while the ending left the story hanging a bit, I was very excited to see in the author description that a sequel may be in the works. I will look forward to a continuation of the story. In the meantime, I'll try to decide if I should label this as science fiction now or wait a few years and call it a historical fiction novel...