Diadem from the Stars

This novel was clearly written as the first in a multi-volume saga, barely getting started within the scope of its overtly projected story of interstellar quest and redemption. (There were eventually nine books in the Diadem series, with nearly as many more in related series with a shared narrative continuity.) In this book, a space opera backstory frames a sword-and-planet yarn of self-discovery and growing personal power.

The book's use of local languages belonging to the peoples on the world Jaydugar (planet of a binary star system) is extensive, to the point of frequently courting readerly confusion, and there is no glossary. The untranslated words are all fairly believable, though. The language of the Raqsidan people in the first show more part of the book seems to have Semitic inflections, while the language of the later medwey nomads has an Amerindian flavor. I wonder if this use of opaque language was intended to foster identification with the confused and persecuted empath protagonist Aleytys. She, however, has no problem with languages at all.

The book is full of sexual motives and tactics, many of them abusive. Aleytys manages to keep a fairly reasonable (if a little surprisingly frank) carnal appetite, despite her experiences of abandonment, exile, enslavement, and invasive alien super-technology.

The Michael Whelan cover art on my DAW paperback copy is a pretty faithful representation of a scene from roughly the midpoint of the book, although the spaceship in the background is a creative liberty. show less

I have a few books in this series lurking on my shelves and I'm not sure I really want to continue with this series now. It's not a long read at around 250 pages but it packs a lot of abuse, both physical and mental into those pages. If I had read it in my heyday of reading sff in my teens a lot of this would have been pretty normal but I'm not up for this any more. As a child Aleytys is an outcaste as the daughter of an outsider, an outsider that happens to be from a powerful alien tribe, giving her lots of bonus powers, and treated badly which probably set her up for accepting the bad treatment at the hands of others. When she finds out that the tribe she's grown up with plan to sacrifice her she runs away, into the hands of a man who show more rapes her, physically and psychically (even though she's quite a powerful psychic herself) She escapes him only to end up in the hands of a man who demands payment for use of his hut with sex. Now pregnant she ends up being given a powerful artifact that levels up her abilities quite a lot and eventually gets off the planet.
Made me wistfully think of similar plots without all the abuse from Andre Norton. show less

Aleytys is a witch's daughter, hated but grudgingly cared for by her community for fear of activating a curse. When a terrible fate threatens her, she flees and must learn to survive out in a wild world she's never seen.

I suppose one would classify this as science-fantasy, if there is such a term. It's definitely on the softer side of SF. Spaceships and aliens bookend the tale, but the bulk of it takes place in a more primitive environment, and there is "magic" (or at least what appears to be.) I really liked Aleytys as a character. She's a horny adolescent who's generally good and smart but makes a lot of mistakes, as one would expect from the unfamiliar situations she finds herself thrown into. Stylistically, the book reminded me of show more Anne McCaffrey's earlier, better work, though a bit sexier.

My only criticism is that it upon reaching the conclusion it felt more like a first act than a complete story. Fortunately, I already have the next installment, which I am very much looking forward to.

(As an aside, this was apparently a favorite novel of comics writer Chris Claremont, who took the protagonist's name for one of his X-Men supporting characters in the early 80s. It seems like he also drew a lot from the naming conventions Clayton used as well.) show less

If you like a quick and easy read, this one is not for you. Dense with lyrical descriptive language and an immersive alien environment and culture, it's sometimes a struggle to understand what's happening.

Pros: A very well-developed protagonist with a refreshingly alien outlook on the world. Well thought-out cultures. You can practically smell the dust and grass. Psionics and myth plausibly intertwined.

Cons: It's great that there are words in other languages, and alien creatures and plants with their own names, but it would be more great if they were, at least at some point, defined or explained. All too often, inference is not enough, and this book is thick with mysterious terms that are about three miles long and nearly impossible to show more pronounce. I was expecting a giant feline companion, and was more than a bit disappointed when it didn't happen, lol. show less

The "pilot movie" for the Diadem series. Nominally science fiction, but apart from the prologue and conclusion, more feminine-oriented fantasy. All the usual tropes: on a planet with two suns, Aleytys is the outsider in her village, the only person with bright red hair and green eyes, everyone knows some secret about her but no one tells, her father fears her, her stepmother beats her. Eventually she is given a message left behind by her mother who was stranded on this planet, captured, raped, and but used her witch powers to survive long enough to escape. Aleytys belongs to a secretive powerful race. The message includes clues on how to get away. The rest of the book is a long flight with witches, torture, telepathic magic battles, a show more bath in a stream every chapter, sex whenever a man strokes her, and frequent scenes with paragraphs like this: something...happening...fear...running...escape...

There are so many exotic names, it's hard sometimes to know if something being referred to is a plant, animal, place, or ritual. All the world-building seems odd in that Diadem, much like the Dumarest series. appears to be just a springboard for a sequence of adventures on other planets.

Provisional recommendation on this. If the next book, Lamarchos, repeats the cliches and repetitiveness, then don't bother. If it's a more mature entry, then this is OK for background. show less

I had heard really good things about this book. Unfortunately I did not care for it.

While there was some intensive world building (which I generally like) it was very hard to pick out the details of what was going on for the early part of the book. I stopped to check if there was a glossary in the back or an earlier book. You are expected to understand what is going on with the world and setting already with very little explanation.

There were also some other portions of the book that were deeply unpleasant.

Overall I am fairly disappointed.

I first read the paperback book about a year after it came out (it was first published as a paperback January 1, 1977). I waited with breathless anticipation for each of the subsequent books. I recently decided to reread the books and see if I still like them.