From: rmccutchan at caruspub.com <rmccutchan>
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 16:10:10 -0600

Linda Sue Park asked about the prologue and epilogue, setting the main action of the book up as Elana's "report." This is such a frequent device in sf that it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I liked the way Engdahl uses the device as a set-up for the three distinct narrative styles used for the protagonists from the three different cultures.

I managed to get through an sf and fantasy-filled adolescence without reading ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS. Coming to it as an adult, I found it a little old?shioned (this may have been shaped by my reading an older copy of the book, with very dated spot illustrations). I do find this is one difficulty in sf for younger readers, that it does feel watered down in certain examples (though the ones I'm thinking of are all backlist titles: JOURNEY TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET etc.). In the case of ENCHANTRESS, I think it's the flatness of the background characters that seems old?shioned. It seems somewhat appropriate for the more formal/folktale style of the medieval culture, but I heartily agreed with Elana about her father seeming overly dispassionate, and I kept wondering what the poor young doctor
(sorry--it's been about a month since I read the novel and I don't have my copy at hand) with all his feeling was doing stuck in a ship of one-dimensional space-suits.

On the positive side, the lovely thing about ENCHANTRESS is the way Engdahl plays with perception: we don't know which of the three cultures is supposed to be "our" Earth and how magic and technology fluctuate depending on the culture's sophistication. It brings to mind Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy, which I read initially as pure fantasy and was later charmed to see how she fit it into her sf universe.

Ron McCutchan Senior Art Director Cricket Magazine
Received on Mon 05 Nov 2001 04:10:10 PM CST