Judgements of Dragons

Traversing time from a Polish shtetl at the end of the last century, to a time in the distant future when a thousand worlds and species gather together in a Galactic Federation, "A Judgement of Dragons" follows the starfaring couple Khreng and Prandra-two Ungrukh, aliens best likened to large, red, telepathic cats from a people who speak only in the present tense and a planet where old superstition mixes uneasily with GalFed technology-with adventure, humor, and some serious provocation of thought. Not to mention through one of the most original future universes ever created.The book is really four short novels, tied together by the common theme of Khreng and Prandra's travels and the machinations of an ancient, mysterious race known only as the Qumedni. While all four of these novellas are excellent, my personal favorites are the first and the fourth. The first deals with Khreng and Prandra's first encounter with the renegade Qumedni whose actions will continue to have repercussions throughout the entire story: fallen through a time-vortex left by the Qumedni as they pass Earth, the two Ungrukh find themselves in the 19th-century village of Kostopol, where Reb' Elya, the harried and self-doubting rabbi, is trying to deal with what he sees as demonic possession-and what Prandra the ESP recognizes as Qumedni manipulation. To avert a pogrom, Khreng and Prandra must assume forms not their own and confront the Qumedni renegade on his own ground, all without jeopardizing Kostopol's safety or Reb' Elya's sanity. In the fourth novella, set on the cold red desert world of Ungruwarkh, tribal customs change slowly as increased contact with GalFed is forcing the Ungrukh to adapt to survive. Even while Khreng and Prandra struggle with the change, their two children, reared in this new world, are being given chances and choices of their own: Emerald, their daughter, has crossed tribal boundaries to find a lover in a clan long enemy to her parents' own; meanwhile, their son Tugrik the Stiller loves a woman who cannot bear him children and is being asked to marry, in the clan's name, a woman he does not love. The next to last thing the parents-cum-planetary-heroes need is a Qumedni on Ungruwarkh, fanning the new struggle brewing between GalFed and the Ungrukh...and the very last thing they need is *two* Qumedni on their planet. In "A Judgement of Dragons," Phyllis Gotlieb creates a future history rich with detail; there is always the feeling that events she hints at, or casually refers to in passing, have their own complex stories behind them. Her Galactic Federation is populated by a varied blend of humans and aliens, from the feline Ungrukh to the reptilian Khagodi, from sea-dwelling Yirln to humans from Solthree itself-and, of course, the Qumedni, creatures of pure energy who have no true shape but what they choose. When her characters delve into each other's minds, the tapestries of texture and imagery are absorbing,