Sydney J. Van Scyoc

Bluesong only: This is the second book of Van Scyoc’s Daughters of the Sunstone trilogy, which I have in the SFBC omnibus edition. I’ve been a fan of Van Scyoc’s fiction for a long time, and I’m not entirely sure why. Or rather, I hadn’t remembered why until I started reading this trilogy, beginning with Darkchild (see here), and now Bluesong. She was genuinely good. She built strange worlds and set stories in them that were predicated on that strangeness and yet had plots which show more explained the cause, and sometimes cure, of the strangeness. She was never especially popular, but I think I’d rate her one of the best female US sf writers of the 1980s. Sadly, her last novel appeared in 1991 (although she apparently had a couple of stories in F&SF about ten years ago). The Sunstone novels are set on the world of Brakrath which, although mostly low tech, was settled from another world centuries before and remains aware of them. The planet is a bit too cold to be comfortable for humans, so they hibernate during the winter. Even during the spring, the valleys would be too cold for agriculture… but for the barohnas, the female rulers of each valley, who have the power to focus and direct the sun’s rays… to defrost the land and provide sufficient warmth to grow things. In Bluesong, a young woman realises she is not one of the river people among whom she lives, runs away, and eventually ends up finding her father among the desert people… But she is actually a daughter of a barohna, and so will change into one herself. Van Scyoc draws her alien societies well, and this series is particularly good at dropping hints toward a story arc. I liked Bluesong more than Darkchild, but they’re both pretty good. Cherryh may have received more love during the 1980s, and, er, since, and was hugely more prolific, but Van Scyoc was just as good. show less

My younger sister, being made of awesome, of course found me several of Scyoc's books recently (see my latest In My Mailbox post) that I had thought lost to time and space (thanks to a mishap during a move almost a decade ago that resulted in me losing an entire box of books). I hadn't read Sunwaifs before it was lost so I was excited to read it now.

The one thing you have to understand about Scyoc's books is that they tend to involve very little aggressive conflicts. More often then not the show more conflicts arise from a miscommunication of beliefs/lifestyles or lack of harmony. From the four books I've read of hers previously the most violence I've come across has been in Darkchild (Book 1 in the Darkchild Trilogy) and again that was because the people that Darkchild was sent from were a people of conquerors invading a relatively more passive race.

Sunwaifs begins at the end, sort of. Nadd is our first narrator and he begins by telling us about how he worries for the new generation. He recounts the hardships the original colonists had to endure their first years on Destiny--a planet that had seemed at first so perfect, but quickly proved itself to be anything but. His intentions is to leave a logbook for the next generations so that they may be able to avert the disaster he sees brewing. To this end he asks an...aquiantence of his for help in writing the log book. I hesitate to call them friends, or companions, because in truth the six original 'Sunwaifs' aren't really.

Each original Sunwaif has an extraordinary gift, bestowed upon them while in the womb by the radiation of Destiny's sun. This both saved them and cursed them, marking them as different in a world of dogmatic people who had given up hope and nutured their bitter, hard lives.

As the story unfolds we meet the other four Sunwaifs--Feliss, Trebble, Ronna and Herrol--and watch as each matures and wants different things. But always are they connected, by a bond they can't break no matter what.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I'm glad I'm reading it now, since I think the pacing and narrative style would have irritated me when I was younger and first bought it. My tastes have matured and I appreciate novels that build a world so intricately and expand about characters so deeply. The chapters alternate between Nadd and Corrie as they discuss important events and happenings during a year or stretch of years. While both have a similiar yearning undertone to their 'voices' in all other mannerisms they are different. Nadd has a faintly pessimistic quality to his narrative, as if he's resigned to the failure of the plan, but will persist anyway. Corrie is more pragmatic--believing in the force of their wills and strength of their bond to make a difference. In no way is she optimistic--even she thinks things may have been left too long.

While we don't 'hear' things from the other four's first person voice, their feelings and personalities are saturated in the narrative. Trebble who disappears now and again, Ronna who heals others, Feliss who is mischievous and inquisitive and Herrol who is steadfast and sure. You can feel the affection each feels for the others, but also the irritation that the bond forces onto them.

Definitely a book to read whether you are a teen or an adult--also a good way to begin your journey into Sydney J. Van Scyoc's worlds! show less

This book was really a huge disappointment. I've read (nearly?) all of VanScyoc's published work, and her 'Darkchild' trilogy is one of my all-time favorites. Admittedly, this was one of her first novels, but it's really just not very good.
The protagonist, Tollan Bailey, is an Earthman who lives in a place where labor unions have made sure that everyone has a cushy position and works very little for a comfortable life. He's not happy with this, because he has a "Protestant Work Ethic."
A show more random lottery sends him to a planet on a supposed assignment, which he is expected to treat as a vacation. Instead, he takes the job seriously, and ends up trying to solve the problem on a stagnant alien culture.
The problem here is not just the unoriginal theme of "Ingenious Earthman to the Rescue!", or that the "alien" culture functions only as a clunky allegory of our society, or the weird bashing of labor unions and artistic personalities (ok, we need them, but they have to be kept in check), but the character of the protagonist.
The whole time, I was like, "whoa, this guy needs some anger management classes!" His immediate reaction to anything is to lose his temper. (whether he's winning a contest or having his luggage searched in a routine customs check, he's always about to assault someone.) And the book treats this as normal. It's never even acknowledged, let alone addressed. He's crazily, horribly sexist, with rigid ideas about gender roles. The book dismisses this as "part of Human culture" even though the Human woman who's a character in the book doesn't really fit these stereotypes. Possibly worst, the conflict in the book arises when Tollan, in an accident, kills a citizen of the planet he's visiting. Absolutely no sympathy for the victim is had by anyone - the only focus is on how unfair it is to blame him for something that was an accident. OK, fine. It was an accident. But still, how about a smidgin of empathy for another sentient being!?
Overall, it's just really a very problematic book. show less

Interesting world-building and a variety of characters make this book intriguing. Set on a dismal world three centuries after the arrival of human colonist, Jahna comes in response to a mysterious demand from the current inhabitants. VanScyoc does an excellent job of creating a miserable culture, split between the pious settlers and the strange mutations born of them. With only a few paragraphs, VanScyoc can tell what other authors take pages to tell. She does an excellent job of creating show more tension and mystery, keeping you with the story until the end.
My qualm is the ending. Despite finding out what the big mystery is, the story ends with a feeling of incompleteness , as if there ought to be a sequel or at least, an epilogue. Additionally, VanScyoc used the stock aboriginal character – the grass-hunt dance-to-drums native that appears in much of the action-adventure pulp stories of the 60s and 70s – which makes sense as this was published in 1974. Still, this was a tiresome trope then and it hasn’t improved any.
While I enjoyed the world she built and the mystery (and science) used for the plot, it was somewhat spoiled for due to the above. However, this is a classic vintage science fiction novel, with a female author, and worth reading for the story and the history. show less