Rating: 
Summary: nothing special, but enjoyable
Review: A good read, but nothing special. The story seems to have been influenced somewhat by LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness", and perhaps Tolkien, but is different enough from either of those to be interesting in its own right. The writing is capable, but not superb; the story and characters are what hooked me. Average, but enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: nothing special, but enjoyable
Review: A good read, but nothing special. The story seems to have been influenced somewhat by LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness", and perhaps Tolkien, but is different enough from either of those to be interesting in its own right. The writing is capable, but not superb; the story and characters are what hooked me. Average, but enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Close to classic, but not quite there
Review: A huge journey across a vast alien world is a theme more consistent with fantasy than SF but Mary Gentle brings it off beautifully. Her aliens have a lot of 'classic' features but they still seem very fresh and real. She makes the journey emotional without ever making it sentimental, we are engaged by the envoy's travails but are still uplifted by them and personally, I found myself envious. The more she travels, the more about the history of the world we find. It's a fascinating journey, albeit a long one.
If you enjoyed this, you might also like "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin, which shares many features with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad!
Review: Checked this book out of the library because I was intrigued by the cover art. What's inside is pretty good, too. It has a nice, complex political plot -- lots of intrigue and treachery, lots of characters. It's about an envoy from Earth to a pre-technological planet. Her job is to convince these people to trade with Earth. But there have been some very basic misunderstandings on Earth's part about the aliens' culture, and their reactions are quite different than expected. I would have liked the book if the aliens were just a little more ALIEN, if you know what I mean, but the author has created a very convincing world. "The Golden Witchbreed" is a pretty good read.
Rating:
Summary: A blast from the past!!
Review: Here's another book I checked out of the library about 15 years ago! I really liked the plot and the way the inhabitants of the planet were described and how the main character interacted with them. There should be a sequel to this one. It's a pretty good book!
Rating: 
Summary: Golden Witchbreed, A Great Book
Review: I absolutely love this book. It's the kind of book that will suck you right in as soon as you start reading. Golden Witchbreed is complex in its construction, but easy to follow because of how information is doled out one piece at a time. The planet on which the story takes place seems to come to life in front of the reader. The author did an excellent job in that respect. Irregularities in grammar from the standard American English (as well as British English) crop up on a regular basis in this book, but in general they don't interfere with the reading. The front flap says something comparing Golden Witchbreed to Frank Herbert's Dune, but it's not a valid comparison because the world of Mary Gentle's book is so much more complex and vividly described than Dune ever was. A wonderful book for any Sci Fi fan, or anybody else, no matter what they generally read. The book pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. I think everyone else who takes the time to find Golden Witchbreed will have the same experience.
Rating:
Summary: Golden Witchbreed, A Great Book
Review: I absolutely love this book. It's the kind of book that will suck you right in as soon as you start reading. Golden Witchbreed is complex in its construction, but easy to follow because of how information is doled out one piece at a time. The planet on which the story takes place seems to come to life in front of the reader. The author did an excellent job in that respect. Irregularities in grammar from the standard American English (as well as British English) crop up on a regular basis in this book, but in general they don't interfere with the reading. The front flap says something comparing Golden Witchbreed to Frank Herbert's Dune, but it's not a valid comparison because the world of Mary Gentle's book is so much more complex and vividly described than Dune ever was. A wonderful book for any Sci Fi fan, or anybody else, no matter what they generally read. The book pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. I think everyone else who takes the time to find Golden Witchbreed will have the same experience.
Rating:
Summary: Startlingly original
Review: I've loved this book ever since it first appeared back in the 1980s. Mary Gentle keeps the suspense going well and her level of control is startling for a (then) tyro writer. At the time of its publication serious xeno-anthropological SF was unusual - we now have C J Cherryh's 'Foreigner' series and others - and even today the book stands out as one of the best of its kind. The sequel (Ancient Light), unusually, is spectacularly good, and is a remarkable deconstruction of all that was built up in Golden Witchbreed. I've been disappointed by several other books by Mary Gentle, but the recent novel "Ash " is a return to form.
Rating:
Summary: Golden
Review: This is the story of Lynne de Lisle Christie, the first of Earth's envoys to Oerthe, a primitive world on a planet half a galaxy from Earth. Presenting herself at the court of the Crown of the South, Christie's life quickly teeters into the hands of those motivated by beliefs, assumptions and thoughts alien and unknown. Factions in the Southland would rather that she were dead, or defamed never to return. Others feel that now that Earth has visited Oerthe, there is no way that the clock can be turned back. But all are quite wary of Earth and its technologies, and a current of hostility runs deep. As events unfold, at one point Christie finds herself among the ruins of Oerthes anchient civilization and realizes that Earth has made a very, very large mistake. This is a fun, engaging story. And to one of the readers who posted earlier, there IS a sequel to this book. It is called "Ancient Light", and was published in 1987 by Arrow Books, from London, England. I didn't see it listed at all on Amazon, though....
Rating:
Summary: Golden
Review: This is the story of Lynne de Lisle Christie, the first of Earth's envoys to Oerthe, a primitive world on a planet half a galaxy from Earth. Presenting herself at the court of the Crown of the South, Christie's life quickly teeters into the hands of those motivated by beliefs, assumptions and thoughts alien and unknown. Factions in the Southland would rather that she were dead, or defamed never to return. Others feel that now that Earth has visited Oerthe, there is no way that the clock can be turned back. But all are quite wary of Earth and its technologies, and a current of hostility runs deep. As events unfold, at one point Christie finds herself among the ruins of Oerthes anchient civilization and realizes that Earth has made a very, very large mistake. This is a fun, engaging story. And to one of the readers who posted earlier, there IS a sequel to this book. It is called "Ancient Light", and was published in 1987 by Arrow Books, from London, England. I didn't see it listed at all on Amazon, though....
|
