Synopsis
On the planet Grotamana, called Medina by humans, Xavier William Lennox met with disaster. Lennox, a travel writer and adventurer, has become fascinated by the secretive golden-skinned natives of Medina, called Fireflies by the Human Republic. But on his first visit he was caught by the Fireflies' high priest while attempting to spy on a sacred ritual in a village forbidden to all foreigners. He was tortured and nearly killed before being left as a warning to other curious Men.
Now Lennox is determined to find out what it is that the aliens want so much to hide. He will return to Medina, and this time he will attempt to discover their secrets from inside their culture, instead of outside. Lennox employs the latest medical breakthroughs to alter his body to resemble a Firefly. He immerses himself in the dialect of a city of Medina distant from the sacred village. He studies what is known of the Fireflies' culture and history, though that knowledge is dangerously limited.
And then he arranges to be dropped back on Medina, in the wasteland between cities, to make his slow way toward the sacred village. If he survives the journey, he thinks he will have learned enough to safely pass the gates of the temple precincts.
Reviews
Resnick's Kirinyaga saga polarized readers, who generally found the author's obsessions with African cultures either racist or fascinating. By contrast, this new novel, disappointing despite its clever main conceit, likely will leave most readers indifferent as Resnick moves his focus away from an identifiable subtechnological culture and toward a series of alien worlds. When, in order to observe a forbidden temple ritual, Xavier William Lennox disguises himself as a "Firefly" (a member of an alien species that, though vaguely humanoid, has wings and skin that takes on a nocturnal glow), he is discovered, hideously mutilated and swiftly handed back to his own society. Since Lennox is an "exceptionally willful, stubborn, self-centered man," however, when he is offered the opportunity to undergo painful surgery that will reconstruct his body in the image of a Firefly's, in order to become an ambassador to and spy against the aliens, he returns to their planet of Medina. But the conclusion of this particular mission finds Lennox suffering from severe depression, so he allows his body to be reshaped for further missions in increasingly outlandish ways until he gradually sheds his humanity along with his appendages. Resnick's greatest strength has always been his ability to create vivid and imaginative cultures, but here he spends so little time in each of his worlds that they, like his alien Fireflies, seem to flicker only momentarily before fading away.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Xavier William Lennox, daredevil writer and scholar, is fascinated by alien peoples and cultures. On the planet Medina, he attempts to learn the religious secrets of the native Fireflies, only to be captured, horribly mutilated, and left for dead. Lennox, however, bears the Fireflies no ill will, and when Nora Wallace of the Department of Alien Affairs offers him an opportunity to return to Medina in a body surgically altered to function as that of a Firefly, he accepts with alacrity. In return, he must persuade the Fireflies to open up their planet to human mining corporations. His mission duly accomplished, Lennox returns to the human Republic still wearing his Firefly body. When Wallace offers him another job, to rescue four humans marooned on the planet Artismo, he jumps at the chance to be surgically transformed into a native Hawkhorn. Again he triumphs. But with each succeeding mission and transformation--on Tamerlaine as a native Wheeler; on Monticello IV as a Singer--he becomes less and less human, until finally he designs himself a composite body and abandons humanity altogether. Another low-key, thoughtful, absorbing entry from Resnick (Inferno, 1993, etc.). -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
As a scholar/adventurer obsessed with immersing himself in alien cultures, Xavier William Lennox seems ideal for a "first contact" mission designed to acquire valuable mineral rights from the natives of the planet Medina. Biologically altered to mimic a firefly-similar in appearance to this world's indigenous inhabitants-Lennox succeeds a little too well in his mission as he becomes addicted to the thrill of acquiring supra-human perceptions and abilities. Although opening up alien worlds to human exploitation is a recurring theme in Resnick's novels (e.g., Inferno, LJ 10/15/93), seldom does he focus so intently on the personal cost to the individuals involved. At once a compelling sf adventure and a study of humanity's greed for knowledge, this title is recommended for most sf collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Resnick's latest novel continues his ongoing series of futuristic fables that chronicle the often disastrous consequences of mankind's attempt to colonize and introduce alien worlds into its own galaxywide Republic. Here, the Republic's representative is Xavier William Lennox, a compulsive interstellar traveler whose perilous adventures he recounts in best-selling memoirs. After one alien species maims and leaves him for dead, Lennox agrees to undergo several operations that transform him into one of the same species of aliens he's investigating. Now, with the advantage of alien communication abilities, Lennox can, of course, serve the Republic's mission of absorbing new worlds. As Lennox explores the wonders of alien experience and understanding firsthand, however, he becomes less and less willing to return to human form. Resnick's narrative ploy of basic, nuts-and-bolts sf minus the high-tech glitz leaves room for absorbing exploration of extraterrestrial culture and its clash with humanity. This one's insightful as well as entertaining. Carl Hays
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