"This action-filled story of a very strange planet showcases Duncan's remarkable ability to create unique worlds", says the book jacket. Dorsey's introduction to my 2002 edition is prolific in its effusion, and so I hove to with some expectation.

I enjoyed the geography of the world, and the variety of peoples and their various motifs were mixed and varied very well. The Angels I found a little too... noble, I suppose, or at least they were supposed to be, once. The decay of the First People's technology seems a little at odds with what's left, but those are the only points that made me stop and wonder. The rest of the book, for all that it's one of Duncan's earliest, is quite a story. It is fascinating to see his style change over time, and I can say with a hundred percent accuracy that I'll be reading more of him this year.