Golden Witchbreed

Science fiction, despite the misleading title: an ambitious alien-contact travelogue/ melodrama, flawed but well-handled and mostly convincing. The planet Orthe is home to humanoid, Goddess-worshipping aliens who live in ostensibly primitive, independent, pueblo-like tribal enclaves under a chosen monarch; they have a hereditary fear and hatred of the "Golden Witchbreed," godlike ancestors who destroyed themselves in a huge war. Then, when earth envoy Lynne Christie soon becomes involved in a struggle between alien factions with opposing views on contact with Earth, she's forced to flee through the wilderness. She's summoned to a meeting with the mysterious immortal Hexenmeister, who possesses some of the knowledge and technology of the vanished Goldens. She allows him to take a copy of her Earth memories in exchange for selected memories of Orthe. And finally Lynne becomes more and more Orthean in outlook, helping the pro-contact faction to unmask a murderous conspiracy by the anti-contact faction. The novel's opening is boggy; the vigorously plotted narrative is cluttered with alien vocabulary and characters with overcomplicated names. But the alien society is well thought-out - making this an appealing, often absorbing, and exceptionally promising debut. (Kirkus Reviews)