Georyn is the fourth son of a woodcutter. When they hear of a dragon terrorizing the lands, and that the king is offering a fabulous reward, the sons set off on an adventure. On their way they meet an enchantress who can help them defeat the dragon. Well, two of them go straight to fight the dragon, woefully unprepared, while the youngest two stick around to learn a secret magic.
But actually the magic is telekinesis, and the enchantress is Elana, the impulsive teenage daughter of an operative of the Federation. Their team has been sent to this 'Youngling' planet to save the native medieval humans from the invading Empire and their tree-chugging dragon-machine. A cinch? Not exactly, because they are forbidden from interfering directly and must keep the secret of their advanced civilization secret at all costs—from both the natives and the Empire (who are also a 'Youngling' people, as you can tell by their trying to violently colonize a planet with intelligent occupants!).

I loved the way this story was told. It switches points of view between Elana and her sci-fi psychic world, Georyn with his fairy tale magic/enchantress/demons, and Jarel who is a medical officer of the Empire (who objects to what his people are doing to the natives). It made the book soundly magical, while being thoroughly science fiction.

I think the main reason I couldn't give the book 5 stars (although I'd do 4.5 if I could) was I thought the Federation somewhat lacking in their planning. They basically train these woodcutter sons to levitate objects then expect them to 'defeat the dragon'. No other preparation/training or information. No actual plan for the poor blokes. I found this supposedly highly-trained advanced operative surprisingly short-sighted. (Like...their first predicament could surely have been avoided by some simple scouting of the area, right?)

Hey! This is my summer reading project, please bear with me :')

Personally, I would say that the genre of this book matches the genre of science fiction and fantasy. The book represents the "fantasy" element by the powers the main character, Elana has. Elana has powers and seems to appear as some magical person, making it seem like a supernatural plot. She also refers to herself as "enchantress" which seems pretty fantasy-ish to me. A part that represents scientific fiction would be the advanced technology and mechanics represented throughout the book. (I'm unsure if they're really called mechanics, though!)

As all books, all readers will have their ups and downs of opinions on them. One thing I do appriciate about this book is that they represent the problems about issues similar to colonization (I'm really unsure of what you call it but this is the closest word I found). Colonization really affects the way cultures change, and I think it's a good representation. On the downside though, it feels like a slow-burn romance without the romance. The plot is great, but it's really slow. A reason to read this book would be because of the unique plot it has. It's like many genres combined– a whole new experience, if you'd say. But if you're into fast moving, action stories, this might not be in your interest. Give it a try though! For which ages are suitable for this book, I would say anywhere above 10-ish? I really don't know, as long as you understand some big words, you're all set. If your interests are scientific and/or dilematic, you might be pleased with this book. (I gave it 3 stars because I'm a fast-paced genre type of person)

To get to the point, here's a brief non-spoiler-one-paragraph-summary: The main character, Elana, is from some advanced civilization. She has a mission– and it's to stop this planet from being colonized by a bunch of big technologic people. Now, the story does convey some real life dilemas like I said earlier, colonization. Elana's team works to stop this colonization and she has powers of… I can't spoil it! Go read it.

I first read this book when I was in the sixth grade, and it changed my life. Not only was this the first science fiction story I'd ever read, it was my introduction to the idea that where you come from shapes how you see and interpret the world.

The story is presented as an intersection of fairy tale and sci-fi adventure, with the medieval residents of the planet Andrecia interpreting the high tech tools of an advanced civilization as a "dragon".

Elana, the story's heroine, is a somewhat rash but deeply principled young woman who accepts the consequences for all her actions and who faces the conflicts between heart and duty with a clear vision. The two other two p.o.v. characters share her idealistic qualities, each expressing them through the lense of his own unique background.

So I didn't realize till just now that this book was written in the 70's, which changes my opinion somewhat.

First of all, I really like the idea of this story-- that ancient myths and legends could actually be the product of a more advanced alien race's interaction. It's clever and unique, and now that I know it's been around 30+ years, I'm kind of surprised no one has stolen it.

However, Elana is a twit, and though she acts more like an authentic teenager than most other books, that also means she is annoying and foolish like an authentic teenager. Kind of a catch-22 there.

Her dad is way too easy on her, her boyfriend calls her "darling" (!?!), and I have a hard time believing that the doctor is the one who thinks telepathy might be possible.

The native guy is the only interesting one and he's almost underutilized.

Up until a minute ago, I was ready to write this book off as a promising concept with mediocre execution, probably by some newbie writer. But again, given when this was written, my perspective is altered-- this is pretty mind-blowing for its time. It's akin to several recent books and entirely on trend. And 30 years-- there's been a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars in between then and now and it still holds its own. Totally impressive.

As someone who has watched way too much Star Trek, this book is basically an exposition on the Prime Directive. Elena is a trainee about to enter the service which protects "younger" civilizations from self-destruction or domination by other species. She becomes entangled in a tricky situation where she must teach Georyn to use his innate psychokinetic powers to fight off the "dragon" of another humanoid species without revealing her true nature. They of course fall in love, which is what gives Georyn the strength to finally complete his quest. At the end Elena must leave Georyn behind to protect his species.

The story is good, and the book is well written. I've never liked books written in the first person, and the dominant story line is told in the first person. I might have given it 4 stars, if it weren't in the first person.

I do not enjoy sci-fi. I never have and I don't know that I ever really will.

But I LOVED this book.

I asked my mom one day what her favorite book had been as a teenager, and she ended up ordering this for me. I read it not out of an actual desire to read the book, but rather because I love her and wanted to talk with her about it.

The first couple of chapters were basically what I expected out of a sci-fi novel, and I didn't have high hopes that I'd like it. But by maybe three or four chapters in, I was actually captivated — partially by the plot itself, but mostly by the way it was written and how it made me feel. Rarely has a book made me stop and think so much; I frequently found myself stopping to really absorb what had just been said because it was so thought-provoking and paradigm-shifting, at least for me.

Above all, this book gave me hope: hope in the power of mistakes and what we learn from them, hope in the genuine goodness love and faith can produce (and how much of a difference it makes in ours and others' lives), and in people's and societies' ability to evolve beyond what we can presently imagine.

This is truly an extraordinary novel and I'm so thankful to have read it.

...I didn't like this.

I really wanted to like it! I really did. I just couldn't.

I can see why people like it, but for me, the negatives outweighed the positives.

1. I didn't particularly like any of the characters. I thought Elana herself was quite arrogant at times and none of the other characters were very fleshed-out.

2. There was more telling than showing. I was told every single motivation for everything and, to be honest, it gets tiring after awhile.

3. The rest of the writing was a bit...boring. The whole book itself moved really slowly and even at the climax, I didn't really want to see what happened next. I didn't really care about the characters or the story.

4. That whole romantic subplot thing was kind of weird. I don't mind romantic subplots at all! This one just didn't work, because I felt like it was just there. I can see why it's there as a plot device, It just didn't seem right.

It wasn't all bad, though! The characters brought up a lot of interesting moral views that were really cool to read about. I'm not sure if I agree with all of them, but they were interesting none-the-less.

4 1/2 stars. This was a thoroughly original and thought provoking novel. I don’t think the author intended for any religious overtones at all, but I couldn’t help but see some parallels and themes that resonated with me concerning faith, power, love, sacrifice, hope, progression, faith and reason being complementary rather than contradictory, and being endowed with power through ritually making and keeping an oath (covenant) to uphold a cause greater than self.
There is no objectionable content, but the themes are probably too mature for the elementary crowd. Similar to The Giver in terms of recommended age.

Quotes:

“fear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a natural result of aiming high.”
“pain’s not categorically bad any more than fear is. Where the aim is to build a person up rather than to break him down, it can serve a constructive purpose.”

“Who are you to say that human suffering is unnecessary?” Hotly I asked, “Are you telling me that it is necessary? Why?” “Because people advance only through solving problems; and if there were no problems to solve, no one would get very far.”

“I didn’t see how I could possibly feel reassured and safeguarded at such a time. Then I realized that he was transmitting to me in the other way, the way that gives you not words, but deep knowledge. In this case it was a sort of faith in the underlying rightness of things that I would never have found in my own mind. He was giving me his conviction that no matter what happened, it would turn out all right.”

“The road you spoke of—it is worth traveling! There’s something beyond what you know, something hundreds of years in your …future, that justifies ‘faith in human destiny’ as you put it. Only you aren’t permitted to see…, because the seeing would interfere with the traveling.”

““It isn’t supposed to be easy. It isn’t a matter of deserving, either. Someone, a very wise man, once told me that to make things easier for the most deserving would be the surest way to mess up the whole business.”

“of this I am sure: there is more to things than we imagine. Beyond the stars are worlds without number, perhaps, and had I never sought to look beyond my own I should be the poorer for it.”

“should I not be guarded, and should aught befall me that is a grief to you, there will be no cause for your trust in enchantments to falter… its power will be no less for my misfortune.”

“Of all the stages Youngling peoples have to go through, I do believe the age of disenchantment must be the hardest. To see so much, by methods you think are scientific, that you’ve no faith in there being anything you don’t see—it must be awful.”

“The outcome of belief … can certainly surpass all hope, I realized dazedly. I thought of how close I’d come to taking Georyn’s away from him. Why, if nobody believed anything except what they understood, how limited we’d be!”

“For us to love, and weep for it, was but the price of the victory;…Without this love I could have done nothing, and the Dragon would have overcome the world.”

“A hard job? Of course, because there were evils to be avoided in the process, evils like the one almost committed on this planet; and if you were involved, you had to accept personal responsibility, not some vague share of a collective guilt that didn’t really exist. Yet you had to be involved. Where would anything ever get if everybody who had any moral scruples dropped out?”

““the Oath demands more of us than blind obedience. Its literal words are a mere reflection, a poor attempt at expressing something that can’t be fully expressed. They are anchors, not shackles.”

“We act in the light of the knowledge we have.”

“somewhere, in that strange enchanted realm beyond the stars, she lived as she had lived here, and experienced all the joys and sorrows to which her human heart was heir.”

Very good example of the struggle between cultural intervention or nonintervention. Good SciFi.

In my humble opinion, this book has the best written romance that I’ve ever read. It was beautiful and how I imagine romance should be. - this is coming from someone who doesn’t enjoy romance all that much, but I loved this book and would suggest it to anyone.

I changed this rating from a 2 to a 4. I reread this book and I like it much better. So many concepts are amazing.

Even though this is considered a children's book. I have deeply enjoyed this story , it brought me into a star treck type universe and kept me on my toes. So if your into sci fi , I completely recommend this book.