Darkchild

On the isolated world of Brakrath, human colonists have adapted to a bitter climate of mountains, deep winters and valleys that can support life only through the power of the Barohnas. These remarkable women channel sunlight into sunstones, warming the soil and making crops possible. It is an arrangement combining government, agriculture and central heating in a single hereditary office, which at least keeps the administrative structure compact.

Khira is the seventh daughter of a Barohna. To inherit her mother’s powers, a daughter must enter the mountains, hunt one of the dangerous predators that live there and survive the biological transformation triggered by the encounter. Khira’s six sisters have already attempted the test. None returned. Tradition remains firmly in favour of sending Khira next, demonstrating the remarkable resistance of established procedure to discouraging statistical evidence.

During the winter, when the valley people hibernate and Khira is left largely alone in the palace, she discovers a strange child unlike anyone she has ever seen. He cannot speak her language and remembers little about himself. She calls him Darkchild, unaware that he is a genetically engineered clone sent by an advanced spacefaring civilisation to observe Brakrath and assess its resources. His function is to gather information while being accepted by the local population—the interstellar equivalent of market research, although ordinary market researchers are seldom cloned and abandoned in snowdrifts.

Darkchild possesses powerful mental abilities and has been conditioned to carry out his mission without understanding its larger purpose. To his creators, he is a sophisticated instrument. To Khira, he becomes a companion at a time when she is isolated, frightened and facing an inherited destiny that has already killed every sister sent before her. Their developing friendship challenges the roles assigned to both of them: she is supposed to become what her society requires, while he is supposed to observe without becoming inconveniently human.

Sydney J. Van Scyoc builds a world in which forgotten science has hardened into ritual and inherited biological abilities are understood as sacred powers. Brakrath’s society appears to belong to fantasy, with sleeping valleys, mountain beasts and women commanding the energy of the sun, but beneath it lies a history of colonisation, genetic adaptation and contact with cultures among the stars. Technology has not disappeared; it has simply been operating so long that nobody remembers where to find the manual.

Originally published in 1982, Darkchild is the first novel in the Daughters of the Sunstone trilogy, followed by Bluesong and Starsilk. It combines planetary science fiction, coming-of-age adventure and a thoughtful examination of exploitation, identity and cultural interference. Both Khira and Darkchild have been created for purposes selected by others, and both must discover whether being designed for a role creates any obligation to perform it.

This 1984 Penguin Books edition is in Good condition. It shows the normal evidence of previous reading but remains sound, complete and ready to return to the frozen valleys of Brakrath. No sunstone is included, so purchasers will need to arrange conventional heating during the winter months.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where seventh daughters, mysterious clones and hibernating valley populations are all welcome, provided somebody remains awake to accept delivery.

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