This a reading copy. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, there is not a Kindle version available of this semi-cult classic (although there are recent print editions). That's a shame.
(minor spoilers follow)
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The story itself is a bit dated. Like many Farmer books of the time it's got a few problems with sexism, racism, and stereotyping. But overall, if you can overlook these faults as artifacts of its time (or whatever rationalization makes you comfortable), it's not a bad story. The backstory of the aliens picking up Earth life for recolonization needs more exploration. And I could have done without the convenient timing of the rediscovery. But these are not major impediments to what's at its core a basic Romeo-and-Juliet SF variation. If for no other reason it's worth reading to see Farmer's progression as a writer and how he ties sex into his stories even during this fairly early tale.
I've love to see a new (preferably dual print and electronic) edition with a discussion of the context of the publication timeframe and how this book overlaps style and themes with some of Farmers others works such as The Lovers, Inage of the Beast/Blown, and his Lord Grandith series.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2007
I read the 1965 Ballantine paperback with the surprisingly racy pink cover.
159 pages of inter-species love (good), racism (bad), and war (ugly)
By Mitchell Glodek on October 27, 2007
In the sixteenth century some English colonists and American Indians were kidnapped by space-faring aliens called the Arra and put on a planet inhabited by another race of aliens known as the hostrels. The hostrels look like the fauns and satyrs of Greek myth and are far more sensitive, ecologically aware, and peace-loving than the humans. It is suggested that the two races have been thrown together by the Arra as an experiment to see if human beings can learn to not be so violent, greedy, and racist as they are on Earth. The reader will not be surprised that the wealthier humans form a KKK-style organization and conspire with the human government to launch a genocidal war on the hostrels, nor will the reader be surprised, if he is at all familiar with Farmer's oeuvre, that, Romeo and Juliet fashion, a human and a hostrel fall in love. About half way through the novel Farmer switches gears a bit, and we shift from the anti-witch hunt/anti-racism theme to something akin to an adventure story and then a military story that addresses issues of imperialism and technological change. Not bad.By Mitchell Glodek on October 27, 2007
I read the 1965 Ballantine paperback with the surprisingly racy pink cover.
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