Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
New York: T. Doherty Associates, 1990. 282 p. ; 18 cm. 1st ed
Pages
212
Description
The third book of "The Alien Trilogy."
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1990-11
Physical description
212 p.; 8 inches
Local notes
No ISBN; possibly book club edition despite Tor insignia on the cover
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This is the third book of the "Red Clay Tom" trilogy by Rebecca Ore, and I have read all three several times, so will review the entire trilogy here. This series is one of the best SF stories from the 1980s, and certainly deserved wider circulation than it got. (Some day, I suspect, it will be
This all starts out with two brothers in rural Virginia (orphans whose parents were killed in a car accident), who capture an alien when a "gating" accident causes their craft to crash on their farm near Floyd, VA. These two brothers are trying to keep themselves afloat by cooking 'meth' to sell to dealers out of Augusta, Georgia or somewhere similar. They force the alien to work for them until it eventually dies of malnutrition. The next step occurs when the alien's mother (and several 'special forces' types) appear in rural Virginia in an attempt to rescue her child only to find that it is already deceased. She then recruits "Red Clay Tom" to the diplomatic academy of the "Federation" of 'civilized planets' as her 'adopted' son (to replace her deceased child), and he is then 'abducted' and taken to Karst (the capitol planet) to attend the 'federation' academy and be trained for the diplomatic corps of the 'federation'.
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looked upon much as Zenna Henderson's "Pilgrimage" stories are now). It presents the eventual "meeting with alien races" in a very practical and believable manner, and presents several different races that often do not interact very well. In this respect the universe presented is very much a precursor to "Babylon 5" the TV series.This all starts out with two brothers in rural Virginia (orphans whose parents were killed in a car accident), who capture an alien when a "gating" accident causes their craft to crash on their farm near Floyd, VA. These two brothers are trying to keep themselves afloat by cooking 'meth' to sell to dealers out of Augusta, Georgia or somewhere similar. They force the alien to work for them until it eventually dies of malnutrition. The next step occurs when the alien's mother (and several 'special forces' types) appear in rural Virginia in an attempt to rescue her child only to find that it is already deceased. She then recruits "Red Clay Tom" to the diplomatic academy of the "Federation" of 'civilized planets' as her 'adopted' son (to replace her deceased child), and he is then 'abducted' and taken to Karst (the capitol planet) to attend the 'federation' academy and be trained for the diplomatic corps of the 'federation'.
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