The cover blurb says, "On the planet Snare, the descendants of Islamic fundamentalists war with the descendants of scientists, and the alien natives, for the fate of a planet." Let this be a warning to you against reading cover blurbs.

It's not 100% false. We do have the descendants of Islamic fundamentalists. We do have the descendants of scientists. We do have the native intelligent species--though something in me balks at describing beings living on their own planet where they evolved as "aliens." We even have a fourth group, a third human population, a nomadic culture technologically more primitive than either of the other two human populations. We even have some degree of conflict which could have major consequences for the fate of the planet--after all, with no conflict, and nothing important at stake, where's the story?

What we don't have is a war amongst these groups--especially not between the descendants of the Islamic fundamentalists and the descendants of the scientists. In fact, the only war is a civil war amongst the Islamics, in which the issue is responsible government, not religious purity. What we do have is a much more interesting story.

It's ten years after the accession of a new Great Khan, Gemet, amongst the Kazraks, and he has proved to be both paranoid and repressive. One of his first actions was to kill all his brothers and other close male relatives who are khans, i.e., recognized as legitimate possible heirs. Taxes are so heavy they're grinding the population down into poverty. The army and the upper levels of society go in fear of a secret police-like group called the Chosen. In this atmosphere, a sorceror arrives from the Cantons, bringing word to cavalry officer Idres Warkannan and a few of his friends that one of Gemet's brothers, Warkannan's good friend Jezro Khan survived and escaped, eventually reaching the Cantons, where he has lived lived for the past decade. The sorceror, Yarl Soutan, has a letter from Jezro, and a plan for bringing him back to Kazrajistan to overthrow Gemet. It's not long before Warkannan, Soutan, and two younger men are traveling across the plains and the Rift towards the Cantons. Meanwhile the Chosen Ones, acting on the word of an informant that Warkannan's "investment group" is plotting against the Great Khan, have sent one of their own onto the plains, under the cover of being a cashiered cavalry officer (complete with very real public flogging in a market town where lots of comnee tribesmen will witness it). Zayn Hassan has volunteered for this duty because he knows Idres Warkannan can't possibly be involved in treason, and wants a chance to prove it.

As the two groups cross the plains and the Rift, it becomes clear that Soutan has an agenda beyond being the powerful advisor of the new Great Khan, and that a lot of his "magic"--identical to the "magic" employed by the Spirit Rider of the comnee tribe Zayn has hooked up with--is simply solar-powered advanced technology. What's this technology doing on a planet that's otherwise at a 16th- or 17th-century level? Why do the comnee tribes have it when the more advanced Kazraks don't? Why are the tribes longer-lived and healthier than other humans on the planet? And where did Zayn's "demonic" powers of memory, which damn him to Hell after death, and in life mean that the only real fellowship he can have is with the other similarly-damned Chosen Ones, really come from? Along the way, both groups have encounters with some of the lizard-like natives, the Cha'Meech, and more questions also suggest themselves. It's not until they reach the Cantons that some answers start to present themselves, and Warkannan and Zayn each start to find out what real trouble is.

This is a more complex story than is apparent from initial examination, and an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. ( )

Some good character work (especially for spirit rider Ammadin, although I could have done without the romance plot; Loremaster Loy and heir-in-exile Jezro Khan), clear definition of 4 cultures on an alien world (3 human, 1 alien) including different takes on gender and sexuality, and some interesting ideas (cultural isolation, culture exchange, managing the impact of high tech on low tech society, and re-casting science as magic). On the down side, it's flabby, I couldn't help but feel it was lazy in the world-building (it's a little too easy to draw parallels to the Deverry races, right down to the way in which their Snare counterparts speak), and overly simplistic in its conclusions. Ultimately entertaining but not on par with the rest of Kerr's work.

More detailed review here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/185601#5152484 ( )

Unusual, somewhat slow, but an interesting take on the far future of humanity. I don't think I'm in agreement with the central tenants of the author's arguments, but she's had fun imagining some possibilities nevertheless. In places the arguments are spelled out rather more clearly than would be ideal in a fictional novel - it is very clear that the author is driving an agenda - but this doesn't distract too much from the story. It is fairly confusing at first, but the grand reveal at the end explains it all. I'm pretty sure that if you could pick any tribe to be your ancestors I wouldn't have made the choices that were chosen here.

A fey question of many SF stories is what to do when you meet aliens. This story, although it doesn't initially feel like it, is a look at the result 800 years on. Wakeman is the cavalry guard captain, contemplating mutiny and a search across strange lands for the Great Khan's nephew - if the word from the foreign sorcerer Soudan is to be believed that he's still alive. Amminalain is a Spirit Rider, chief women of the commee - a tribal horse based people living ritualised lives in the plains. She has growing doubts that it is her gods performing the miracles she asks of them. And finally Zayhe is spy from Wakeman's country, investigating the rumours of treason in the air. Needing an excuse to reach Soudan's country he is publicly thrown out of the army, and collected by the commee, with whom he can travel. The intersection of these quests is somewhat predictable, but no-one had reckoned on the six limbed ChaMeesh who share this purple based world. Seen by all as little more than beasts, their culture has also come to a point of change. WaterWoman is able to contact Amminalain through her crystals leading all the characters to a decisive meeting.

Note that this is a meeting, not a fight or argument or indeed anything involving high tensions at all. There is remarkably little action or passion within the story which is not to it's benefit. It isn't that the characters have evolved in this manner (although they've changed in a many other ways as becomes clear), it is just a slow style of story telling. Not helped by a very long first part when all the characters are doing little but travelling to various destinations. Even with the useful jumps of days and weeks (which isn't always as clear as it should be) it is still very slow. Some of the descriptions of the technology occasionally assume the characters to have too much knowledge, or to accept something beyond their capabilities too quickly.

This is also very much the case with the key religion theme that runs through the book. It is as is expressly commented upon in the author's Foreword - a matter of Islam and (slightly) Christianity in the future. But this is where I feel the book is at it's weakest. The chances of recognisable (or indeed any) religion surviving beyond Earth let alone further seems so unlikely. And even if it does the form that it arrives at by the time of the story still doesn't work for me either. It either isn't strict enough, or it is strict in the wrong areas, with the characters either accepting or changing too much to be fully believable. But maybe that's me. It is an interesting look at religion and worth reading, but could have shorter, and more dynamic. ( )

Set in the far future, 800 years after three disparate human groupings accidentally planted on a world with a sentient species. Two of the groups have forgotten their origins, the third has had to learn to cope with a far lower level of technology than they were formerly used to.
Ms Kerr writes a high fantasy quest novel in a new setting, far removed from her epic fantasy Deverry, building believable multi-dimensional characters and cultures as the questors move across the three human nations and beyond.
A slightly slower start than many of her novels (I'm usually aware that I'm hooked within the first two dozen pages, this tme the hooks were more subtle and took a little longer to set.
If the Deverry series appears daunting, this is a good introduction to her work

A very interesting book, which has something to say about problems in our society. ( )