![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The very act of being exiled is, for most, a psychosomatic sentence of death.Most of the these biological and linguistic details are explained in an appendix amusingly written in sort of a prudish Victorian scientist tone.While a proud race with cities throughout the world, things are not going well with the Yilane. At best, they can only keep their body very still while talking. Physiology is so tied up with it that Yilane ca not lie. (Given what seems to be their limited idea of DNA, I find this somewhat implausible but still interesting.)Their language, developed by Thomas Shippey, professor of literature and an academic critic of science fiction, is so complex many Yilane never learn to speak it, and body gestures are an integral part. Their boats, cities, and even microscopes are all modified organisms. They are masters of this world and biological engineering. Biologist Jack Cohen, who also helped develop the aliens of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes’ The Legacy of Heorot, helped Harrison develop the Yilane, the intelligent descendents of reptiles. ![]() Harrison, science fiction’s most prolific practioneer of the alternate history sub-genre before Harry Turtledove came along, uses not a pivot point involving human social history but an alternate version of the Earth’s geologic past – a comet does not wipe out the dinosaurs – as the grounding premise of this novel.This is Harrison’s most ambitious work and was marketed originally to appeal to readers of Jean Auel who was new on the scene at the time. ![]()
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