The mission was to Folsom's planet, the purpose to educate the native inhabitants and bring them within the Federation.Review by John Eke:But Commander Hans Folsom was worried. Something had happened on the voyage, but he could not remember what. A runic stone he had found on the planet seemed to have a power of its own. And now the messager from Earth were becoming meaningless.
Then there was the crew. Were they educating the natives correctly or were they traitors? Or was Commander Folsom going mad? Could it be that some unknown force was controlling his mind, a force that could bring disaster to the mission?
Or does it?
Of all Barry's novels, this is possibly the most
enigmatic. Several questions are left unanswered at the end; and yet the
book remains one of his most complete and satisfying works. Driven to madness
by conflicting emotions regarding his mission, his responsibility, and
the sheer enormity of
his situation, Captain Hans Folsom encapsulates all the elements of
the typical Malzbergian 'hero'. Paranoid, alienated, uncertain of his ability
and worth, he struggles to retain some semblance of who he is in the face
of betrayal, bureaucratic indifference, and strong temptation (the sly,
mysterious natives of Folsom's Planet regard him as a god, for instance.
How easy it would be to fulfil their expectations.) Vast, unknowable forces
appear to be at work throughout the novel, but how much of what happens
can be attributed to them, and how much to Folsom's growing insanity?
Some fine descriptive writing (in particular, Folsom's psychedelic
encounter with the mysterious runic stone), an eerie landscape of moonlit
forests, and a sense of the vast distances between the stars combine to
create a genuinely atmospheric backdrop to this neglected little gem. Anyone
who knows that it is the mystery that lasts and not the explanation will
find much to enjoy in this novel.
I give it 8.5/10.