Dreams of Dawn

Marti Steussy

Steussy's second novel returns us to the same universe as her debut, Forest of the Night. The characters are different, but there are enough similarities to link the two without a problem. This time around, Circle Dawn, sort of the frontiersmen of the colonization movement, are called to a planet where, it seems, humans may have inadvertently broken the nonaggression treaty with the native race, the Karg; Kargan hatchlings are dying on their way through the change to adulthood. The book jacket goes much farther into the plot than this, but explaining the how and why of things would be, to me, a spoiler; you'll just have to read the thing.

I originally thought Dreams of Dawn was just getting off to a slow start, but what seemed to be a lack of ability to pace a novel is more Steussy's writing style. This is not necessarily surprising, considering her nonfiction publications (anyone seeing a title like Gardens in Babylon: Narrative Faith in the Greek Legends of Daniel, who has ever been exposed to literary criticism, will likely pull out the dictionary before even cracking the cover). And it can be a stumbling block for some readers, no doubt. But Steussy's strengths belie the weaknesses of pacing and somewhat leaden explication; her characters are very well-developed, the plot does move along (albeit slowly), and her ability to build tension under these conditions is somewhat, well, remarkable. By the time you're a quarter of the way through the novel, you're still in character development mode, and while the main problem has been advanced, Circle Dawn haven't really started the quest to figure out what the problem is yet… and you don't care. You're too busy getting to know these people. And liking them, for the most part. They help mask the relatively recycled plot and its underlying very recycled theme (to Steussy's credit, she never crosses the line between recycled and cliché, and never gets preachy on us; no one in the novel ever actually hugs a tree).

“Compelling” is not the right word to use for this novel, thanks to its leisureliness, but it kept me reading well enough. Worth a look for sci- fi fans.