Commencement

I had to force myself to finish this book, which was too bad, because many elements of the story were nicely done. Rona, a young girl with the most potent sort of telepathic power her universe knows, has been trained since childhood in the use of that power by the dominant authoritarian government that rules many planets with an iron fist. But upon graduation, as she is ready to take up her role supporting that dominant paradigm, she suddenly finds herself crash-landed on a primitive planet with a male-dominant tribal system, with the most potent part of her power gone and no memory of what has occurred. Drama ensues, and not necessarily in a bad way, except for two crucial factors.

First, much has been made of our heroine's accumulated show more arrogance, not surprising in a young woman who believes she has telepathic power over just about everyone in the known universe. But within a couple of weeks of her arrival on this planet, she is quickly acquiescing to a society where men refer to their fiances as "my claim" and to their wives as "my bracelet." Rona is quickly referring to the man who has bascially bought her from another tribe as "my lord." She doesn't just call him that to his face in order to get along, she calls him that throughout the first person narrative. It's almost as if the author meant to write a regency romance novel but got a call from her publisher at the last minute asking her to switch to science fiction.

Second, there is a lot of flabby writing on the sentence level. Useless adverbs drive me nuts. You don't need to tell me "I was completely nonplussed." "I was nonplussed" is fine. I mean, has anyone ever been partially nonplussed? At one point we are told that a character is shaken by a piece of news. Well, but not quite. We are actually told he is "slightly shaken." Those are two words that don't go together, unless you're a martini, maybe. That sort of thing is extremely distracting to me, and it happens often enough to interrupt the flow of what could otherwise have been a good, nicely imagined story. If the sort of thing I've described does not seem like it would be as much of an irritant to you as it was to me, this might be a book worth trying. Bear in mind, though, that the book ends mid-story, and there is a sequel which, presumably, ties things up. I have to admit that upon finishing Commencement I was tempted to try to find the next book, for the plot had by this time become intriguing. I had to remind myself how often those adverbs and "my lord"s made me feel like I was being poked in the eye. show less

This book was part of the Del Rey Discovery series, which I am making a point of reading ALL of! The feel of this book reminded me of another in that series: Delia Marshall-Turner's 'Of Swords and Spells'. I'm not surprised that the same editors would have selected both. It also reminded me a bit, at first, of "The Blue Sword" by Robin McKinley - although not as good. Ronica, a self-important young woman brought up in privilege, in a starfaring society, because of her mental powers, is shocked to find herself stranded on a primitive planet, with no memory of how she got there., and without her most valued mental strengths. But soon, she finds herself in the tent of a strong and seductive primitive tribal leader, and begins to make show more herself a place in this new society. At this point, the romance element in the story gets a bit heavy, and the end suffers from a case of too-many-radical-revelations, too quickly - but overall, this was a good first novel, and an enjoyable sci-fantasy tale. show less