Ancient Light

Golden Witchbreed and Ancient Light, Orthe books 1 & 2, by Mary Gentle

A sprawling epic of a story dealing with culture clash and colonialism in space. Earth has survived the bad times of the twentieth century and discovered FTL travel, and is busy exploring the galaxy, exploiting other worlds. The balance of power has shifted from Europe and America to the Pacific Rim cultures, with Europe now being clients of Pacifica. The books are set on the world of Orthe, home to a humanoid race. Initially thought to be primitives, the Ortheans are in fact the descendants of a post-holocaust civilisation. They are split into two major groupings; the Northern continent population being fanatically anti-technology, very much psychically attached to show more their birth land and have racial memory, and the Southern continent living in and with the ruins of the Golden Empire.

Golden Witchbreed opens with the arrival of an Earth envoy, Lynne de Lisle Christie, who is trying to open up the planet to research and development teams. This is based on the mistaken premise that Orthe is a primitive civilisation, and that the dominant grouping is the Northern Ortheans. Given permission by the ‘High King’ of the north, Christie leaves the major city to travel in the hinterlands. Here she encounters the anti-technology predjudice held by the Northerners, and falls foul of it and the Northern political situation, not helped by interference from the South. She escapes her captors and travels trying to return to the embassy, on the way encountering the pre-holocaust ruins and going to the South. In the South, she meets the Hexenmeister of the Brown Tower, and understands that some of the ancient technology still exists - in the hands of the Tower and the half-breed descendants of the Golden, the Golden Witchbreed.

Ancient Light is set some 8-10 years later. Christie returns to Orthe, this time as a representative of the Pan-Oceania Company who want access to the old technology in order to exploit it. The fragile balance of power between North and South is disrupted by this, especially when some of the Company people start smuggling Earth technology to the Southerners, who eke out a precarious existance on the Desert Coast. Armed with the smuggled weaponry, the Southerners invade the North under the auspices of the Golden Witchbreed whose aim is to re-establish the Golden Empire or, failing that, to complete the destruction of Orthe that their ancestors started (which is held in check by the Brown Tower).

Both books are long and complex, and it can be difficult to keep track of who is who and who they are currently allied with, especially as Orthean politics are reminiscent of Sengoku period Japan. They also make for some uncomfortable reading, given the culture clash between Earth and Orthe; I was reminded of the history of the East India Company in India and the Opium Wars, along with US Cold War neo-colonialism. Along the way, we have the love that Christie has for Orthe and the friendships and betrayals she encounters.

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This sequel to 'Golden witchbreed' came out four years after the original novel. Because of the way my TBR pile works, my copy disappeared into limbo, and resurfaced about ten years after I'd read the first novel. It is a tribute to Gentle's writing that I rapidly re-acquainted myself with the situation, characters and events without going back over the original novel. (We still traipsed all over that bloody map, though.)

The sequel to Golden Witchbreed. Gentle develops the alien society very well. Her people are real aliens, not humans in an exotic society. Also the novel is about the clash of 'advanced' Earth culture led by all powerful companies against the native people who are post technological.

I don't want to include spoilers, but suffice to say this novel has one of the most downbeat endings ever. Gentle destroys the whole set up she created in the first book.

Amazing. A meditation on an author's love for a created world, and the necessity to destroy it to protect it from turning into an endless set of sequels. The one and only sequel to Golden Witchbreed.

Diplomat Lynne de Lisle Christie returns to the alien planet Orthe ten years later as a PanOceania company representative. Caught between corporate interests exploiting Orthe's lost tech and her loyalty to native friends, Christie attempts to avert a civil war exacerbated by high-tech weapons.

Christie battles to stop the conflict, ultimately leading to her becoming a new Hexenmeister, ruler/custodian of history, to preserve Orthean society.