After the success in recent years of his mature work (the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning SF diptych Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead and the excellent fantasy, Seventh Son ), the energetic Card returns to his 1979 second novel originally titled A Planet Called Treason . Limiting his rewriting to presentation rather than plot, Card is left with a good story that looks forward to his better work. Arrogant, sophisticated Lanik Mueller, scion of a clan that can regenerate their bodies, learns humility and much else during his exile in "primitive" lands. With his new powers, including the ability to cause earthquakes and drain lakes, he leads his countrymen in revolt against their conquerors. As in his later, better known work, Card provides a colorful dramatization of ethical issues and questions of identity against a backdrop of bizarrely fascinating races from the tree-dwelling Nkumai to the time-manipulating Ku Kuei.
Cursed by the uncontrollable manifestation of his family's natural gift for self-healing and bodily regeneration, Lanik Mueller begins a planet-wide journey that reveals the mysterious origins of human existence on the planet Treason and leads him to challenge the assumptions of a society based on warfare and greed. This expanded version of A Planet Called Treason exemplifies Card's talent for creating disturbingly compelling, beautifully written stories. JC
Description:
After the success in recent years of his mature work (the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning SF diptych Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead and the excellent fantasy, Seventh Son ), the energetic Card returns to his 1979 second novel originally titled A Planet Called Treason . Limiting his rewriting to presentation rather than plot, Card is left with a good story that looks forward to his better work. Arrogant, sophisticated Lanik Mueller, scion of a clan that can regenerate their bodies, learns humility and much else during his exile in "primitive" lands. With his new powers, including the ability to cause earthquakes and drain lakes, he leads his countrymen in revolt against their conquerors. As in his later, better known work, Card provides a colorful dramatization of ethical issues and questions of identity against a backdrop of bizarrely fascinating races from the tree-dwelling Nkumai to the time-manipulating Ku Kuei. Cursed by the uncontrollable manifestation of his family's natural gift for self-healing and bodily regeneration, Lanik Mueller begins a planet-wide journey that reveals the mysterious origins of human existence on the planet Treason and leads him to challenge the assumptions of a society based on warfare and greed. This expanded version of A Planet Called Treason exemplifies Card's talent for creating disturbingly compelling, beautifully written stories. JC