Where the Ni-Lach

"Where the Ni-Lach" by Marcia J. Bennett, © 1983 This is such an odd story. At first you feel you are in an alternative world type of story, then, it talks of people coming from another world, so you feel it is space story. The confusion does not end there: the hero is magical, as are his people. He travels to find them, but when he finds them they are not really there. The story is enjoyable. It is oddly written and definitely confusing, but, as in most science fiction stories, there is a certain amount of credibility that you have to suspend, or the story just becomes stupid. Dhal is one of the Ni-Lach, a race of this new world. They have certain abilities, like healing, that normal people want, but more importantly, power cells that seem to be crystals of some sort. The Ni-Lach were hunted down and about exterminated. Now Dhal is discovered and people are hoping that he will be able to lead them to a hoard of those crystals. He can and can not: the Ni-Lach have moved space and time to be somewhere else where people, and Dhal (except in dreams or some such), can not get to.

This book is the first in the Ni-Lach series (followed by Shadow Singer, Beyond the Draak's Teeth, and Seeking the Dream Brother -- if there are more, I don't know about them). The story gets off to a good start and gets pretty well into the character development and fantasy setting, keeping it believable and pretty fast-paced. The other books continue the storyline and delve more into Dhal's past.

Although the book starts off a little slow the overall plot and theme is quite interesting. Many times I have stayed up that extra hour at night to finish one chapter. After I have finished one though, I have to find out what happens next so I end up losing sleep to find out what happens to Dhal next.