SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in 1997.

They planned a secret departure from their homeworld, Burdania. Their three FTL starships were to slip away one at a time but in the end, it wasn't like that. In the panic of discovery, the three ships engaged their revolutionary new stardrives simultaneously and they fled. The concurrent ignition of the drives unleashed unexpected forces. As the refugees slipped into FTL the final images they saw were of coruscating fires consuming Burdania, the only world they'd ever known.

Now the escapees live on a new world amongst the alien Kinder'el'ein. These empathic aliens loathe technology, having given it up thousands of year before. Our Burdanian refugees in a fragile isolation, tortured by guilt, and their civilisation become a cenotaph for their lost world.

After sixty-six years a mission is sent back to Burdania to finally discover just how devastating the destruction was and whether any could have survived.

Bloody Burdanians. The tree-hugging aliens were almost more appealing. It's hard to mention Lian, brain-damaged super wimp yet capable of greater insight that his dreadful crew-mates. In fact, depressed carping aside, it was an ambitious book and quite well written, there was tight action and some character development. And even a plot. It's just Alison Sinclair created her character Lian so convincingly, but he's the sort of character I loathe.