Cover of the 2001 Edition
Enchantress From the Stars is a book by Sylvia Louise Engdahl that explores humanity's role in the universe. It also comes with a companion novel,
The Far Side of Evil.
See the
FAQ
by the author.
The story is told from three perspectives, that of Elana retelling her side of the story as a letter to a cousin, that of a fairy tale where Georyn sets out to slay a dragon (really an Imperial rock-chewer), and that of Jarel, an Imperial medic who opposes the treatment of the natives. It is left ambiguous which civilization, if any, is ours, the Federation, the Empire, or the Andrecians.
Spoilers ahead!Elana is a field agent trainee from the Federation's anthropological service who snuck aboard a research ship. The anthropological service is dedicated to researching Youngling civilizations, or civilizations who have not matured enough to join the Federation. Because of her father's status as a senior field agent, she is allowed to stay on the ship.
The situation is grave; Andrecia, a medieval planet, is being invaded by the Imperials, who want to make a colony there. The natives believe the Corp's rock-chewer to be a dragon, and many have tried and failed to slay it. Federation agents must make the Imperials leave without interfering with the development of either the Andrecians or the Imperials.
Originally, Ilura, another field agent, was to pose as a native and scare the Imperials with "magic", really psychic powers. However, Ilura is killed by Imperials and Elana must take her place.
Elana poses as an enchantress and teaches Georyn and Terwyn, two woodcutter's sons, to use telepathy to scare the Imperials. Before this, Georyn and Terwyn are trusted with three tasks by the Starwatcher, an old man who is actually Elana's father. First, they must retrieve a magical disc (actually an inter-comm unit), a piece of the sun (an electric lamp), and a magic cup (an ordinary cup which Elana moves with psychokinesis) with Evrek, Elana's fiance, as the "demon" who challenges them to reach their full potential.
Terwyn faces the dragon and its enchanted minions (actually Imperials in enviro-suits) but is killed after he draws his sword on them. Elana, Evrek, and the Starwatcher decide to further test Georyn so he is prepared to face the rock-chewer. They take him onboard their ship after drugging him and subject him to a mental test.
Elana accompanies Georyn on his way to the Imperial camp, but is captured as a "sacrifice" for the dragon when she tries to save a girl who was about to meet the same fate. She is eventually handed over to the custody of the Imperials. In the camp, she meets Jarel, an Imperial medic, and tells him the truth about the Federation, risking disclosure of its existence to the Empire.
Jarel frees Georyn and Elana decides to die so as not to reveal her secret to anyone else. She runs towards the rock-chewer, but is saved from being crushed when Georyn uses his powers to hold falling debris in mid-air.
The Imperials and the Federation agents leave Andrecia. Elana finds parting difficult, but necessary because her love for Georyn cannot be fully realized without jeopardizing the Federation's policies.
This book provides examples of:
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Federation's policy of non-interference. This book was partly published due to the fact that Engdahl did not like how the Prime Directive was handled in Star Trek.
- The way the clause is treated almost read s like deconstruction. Federation agents specifically learn a technique which makes them more vulnerable because of it!
- And I Must Scream: Imperial stunners leave their victims conscious, but unable to move.
- Bitter Sweet Ending: the planet is saved, but Elana and Georyn must part, and Jarell is in for a big troubles.
- Clarke's Third Law: The Andrecians view Imperial technology as magic wands that turn people to stone (stunners), dragons (rock-chewer), monsters with no faces (Imperials in suits) and the examples in the summary. Also, telepathy and psychokinesis among the Federal field agents are stand-ins for advanced technologies humankind can't think of yet.
- Disintegrator Ray: the atomizer of the Imperials.
- Disposable Woman: Ilura gets killed just so that Elana can take her place.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: the treatment of Andrecians by the Empire is eerily siimilar to treatment of Native Americans
- The Empire: The invaders.
- Evolutionary Levels: Subverted in that Elana mentions that although the Andrecians are not technologically-advanced, their minds are not "primitive". However, this trope applies to the notion of civilizations having three stages they must go through.
- Fatal Flaw: the commitment to non-disclosure of Federation gets Ilura killed and forces Elana to attempt suicide.
- The Federation: The Federation which Elana comes from.
- Future Imperfect: Possibly for our culture interpreting the events of the book as a legend about dragon slayers, assuming the Andrecians are us.
- Heel Face Turn: Jarell.
- Human Aliens: Elana can pass as an Andrecian with quirks. Ilura was able to pass as one. This was done purposefully to make the identity of the three civilizations ambiguous.
- Humans Are Psychic In The Future: Elana
- Magic Feather: The stone Elana gives Georyn to concentrate his innate abilities.
- The Magic Goes Away: Elana takes back the magic stone at the end.
- Magical Incantation: Subverted; Elana uses the Academy's anthem as a charm for a magic spell when the words themselves aren't important; it's the believing part.
- Magic Versus Science: Imperial tech vs. telekinesis by medieval culture. Subverted as the telekinesis actually comes from The Federation, which is also more advanced technically.
- Mind Over Matter: Federal telekinesis is a major plot point.
- Not so Different: All three civilisations have more similarities than either is willing to admit. Most notable they all have a third planet of their Sun as their origin planet.
- The Power of Love: makes Georyn able to master the telekinesis to a huge degree, scaring the imperials.
- Punch Clock Villain: Jarell in the beginning.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Elana and Georyn.
- Superweapon Surprise: Invoked In-Universe. The whole plan for the expedition was to make Imperials think many people on Andricia have mental superpowers.
- Telepathy: Self-explanatory, Federals.
- Too Kinky to Torture: subverted: Elana can withstand torture, but this is pointless against the Empire (see below)
- We Have Ways Of Making You Talk: The Empire can extract information directly from the brain, making interrogation always successful.
- X Meets Y: Star Trek Meets Avatar
- Youngest Child Wins: Georyn.
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