Ganwold's Child

by Diann Thornley and Diann Thornley Read

Book Overview

Tristan grew up human among aliens, now he must use his alienness to survive among humans. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812550951
• ISBN13: 9780812550955
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Interesting first novel

This was a fun read. Lots of great technical detail, but it doesn't overshadow the story, which is an entertaining story of interstellar culture. It reminded me in some ways of H. Beam Piper (though I'm not exactly sure why).I don't think Diann Thornley is another Arthur C. Clarke, but she can write a good story--enough so that I was moved to read the other two entries in this series.

Boy meets worlds

I was not familiar with Diann Thornley and bought this book on a whim, but I really liked it. By no means is it perfect. I agree with the previous viewer that the worlds are not well defined and I had a lot of trouble keeping the characters straight. A chart would have helped. I also did not understand the rift between the human factions and thought more exploration of the relationship between the main characters would have been helpful.The ending was okay, but I wanted to read a little more about what happened next. Too few books have satisfying endings, its as if you are being forced to read the next book. The epilogue cleaned up some loose ends about the bad guys, but what about the good guys. The good news is that the book was fast and exciting. Even though we know what will happen in the end we have a lot of thrills on the way there. I recommend this book for anyone who likes action and adventure over technology. Not a lot of advanced technology here, this boy meets worlds story could take place in the wild, wild, west. I also recommend this book for teen readers and anyone new to sci-fi who wants to start out slowly.

A solid boy-into-soldier tale; needs a bit more polish.

Although this is a solid tale of a boy raised in an alien culture both rejoining mankind and becoming a soldier, the book is in need of some scutwork. First of all, the worlds developed by the author remain (to me) vaguely defined. The overarching tension between the two manipulative characters (Tristan's father and the Sector General) is explained in a rudimentary fashion; I never 'felt' the relationship existed. The governments were a bit hard to keep track of, and in general I had little confidence in any image I had of the world that wasn't explicitly described. Second, I'm not really sure what the author is trying to say. I came away with a tale told, but no message received. I realize this may not be important for everyone. I rated the book a 7 because the storytelling is quite good; the pacing and reach of the narrative is pleasing. I will seriously consider purchasing the next volume.

excellent; human boy meets aboriginal culture

The first part of Ganwold's Child is a fine example of the lone human meets alien cultures novel. The second part is a hostage rescue situation with a science fiction setting with a subplot of how does the human from the alien culture cope with his native culture. The main character, Tristan, is captivating and believable as a teenager. The book is reminiscent of David Weber's Heirs of Empire and the Honor Harrington books. I would recommend this book to any science fiction reader who likes anthropology or military SF. The direct sequel to this book is Echoes of Issel