Darkchild

Sydney J. Van Scyoc is simply one of the best science fiction writers.

The planet Brakrath was settled accidentally during EarthExodus, by a starship strayed far off course; it's barely able to support human life, so its involuntary settlers had to adapt. Brakrath has harsh winters, and left to itself most of its solar energy is spread too thin to support much in the way of crops. Most of the people live in the mountain valleys; only their culture and that of the redmane guardians (women who follow the herds of horselike, intelligent redmanes native to the planet, with whom they can communicate) is shown in this book, although humans have spread to other areas of Brakrath and have different societies, shown later in the series. The valleyfolk, who have mutated slightly from the human 'norm' over centuries, are able to hibernate through the worst of the winters, but they'd still be hard put to it to survive if it weren't for another series of mutations among the redmane guardians' daughters, which produced the barohnas.When Brakrath was rediscovered and received a study team from the scholarly Arnimi, it unfortunately drew the attention of other organizations, such as Rauthfleet, always on the lookout for a vulnerable-looking world suitable for piracy and exploitation, and Brakrath's greatest strength and greatest vulnerability are the barohnas. When collecting data to be sold to the highest bidder, Rauthfleet's tactic is to plant the best tool possible among the people of a new world, to learn their language and their ways: an intelligent, appealing child with a drive to learn and explore (with posthypnotic commands to ensure that he or she can be retrieved), whose memory of previous assignments has been blocked. Such a one is the title character, a Rauthimage: illegal clone of the famous explorer Birnam Rauth. He's called 'Darkchild' by Khira, the barohna's daughter who finds him on Brakrath, not knowing what he is and still a child herself. The viewpoint changes between Khira, Darkchild, and 'the guide', the voice in Darkchild's mind that keeps him within the bounds of his assignment.The barohnas are immensely respected, since they have inherited abilities to manipulate sunstone; they collect and store solar energy in sunstone throughout the winters, and just as the valleyfolk wake from wintersleep, the barohna of a valley returns from her winter retreat with the collected solar energy to thaw and warm the soil, giving the valley a proper growing season. Barohnas are always female, live immensely long lives, and bear only daughters. (Mutations still crop up from time to time, and there are some variations; for example, there are men with some sensitivity to stone who can't actually use it; they find it and shape it into the tools used by the barohnas.) It's actually a complex system: a palace daughter is generally raised by her next eldest sister, and in turn raises the next in line, until finally a daughter bronzes: that is, upon coming of age, she goes hunting for bronzing prey, and the adrenaline stimulus of ne

What happens when an unknown element is cast into the ritual of 10,000 year old tradition? Darkchild is an excellent introduction to the "Daughters of the Sunstones" trilogy. With each page the reader is allowed a view into the characters' curious and often strange ways of life. Amazingly well thought out and a beautifully written story. I enjoyed every page and found myself reading very late into the night.

Probably her best work. A well-thought out alternate world and culture. Story is about two children from different backgrounds and their developing relationship. This is first of a trilogy. In all of her books she creates an unique culture. In several stories, the culture is evolving on a planet. Usually there is a well-realized heroine or hero who engages our interest. "Cloudcry" is my other favorite.