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Sunstone Scrolls #1
Darkchild
Darkchild awakens to find himself stranded in the strange primitive world of Brakrathi without any memories of his past and struggles to discover the secret of his identity
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 29, 2012
I read this book so many years ago that I've forgotten most of what happened. What I do remember though is how good the writing was, the sense of alienness that Van Scyoc so skillfully invoked, and the realness of the characters. To this day the whispering of silks can haunt my dreams. This series prompted me to hunt down, in a time before the wide spread of the intarwebs, the rest of her books.
Sydney J. Van Scyoc takes you to new worlds and introduces you to strange, new ideas that challenge your thinking.
Sydney J. Van Scyoc takes you to new worlds and introduces you to strange, new ideas that challenge your thinking.
August 17, 2020
Really good. Women as leaders, world building, and stories/fables that surround the plot. I was concerned that this one wouldn’t have the cover image, but don’t worry it’s a lot later in the book.
I may even buy the next two in the series - a first in the purse book series.
I may even buy the next two in the series - a first in the purse book series.
January 24, 2017
One of my favourite reviewers @RedStarReviews on #Bookstagram mentioned in a post about January being #VintageSciFiMonth. Basically, you have to read and review a sci fi book published any year before you were born. I'm cutting it kinda close because I was born in 1987 and Darkchild was published in 1982 but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is a book that I read at a particularly weird stage in my life as a twelve year old and well, it means a lot to me, leave it at that.
First and foremost, Sydney J van Scyoc's world-building is beyond stellar-- like Tolkien, you get the feeling that the author is merely reporting back on what she's witnessed, not writing fiction. Her compelling narrative style and imagination create a brooding atmosphere on par with anything created by Frank Herbert. If women are the under-represented heroes of sci-fi, Scyoc represents the bleak under-representation of women writers in sci-fi.
Brakrath is as alien a world as they come, settled by it's first human colonies, the planet exerted its own evolutionary force on the species until they gave rise to the Guardians of the Redmanes and the ruling queens called the Barohnas, who control the power of the sun through sunstones to bring warmth and light to their small kingdoms. Each valley has its own ruling Barohna who relinquish their claim to the throne once a daughter 'bronzes' by making her first kill on the mountains of Brakrath. Failure to do so results in death and the slow demise of the valleypeople.
You cannot find fault in such stellar descriptions of a people and planet so plausible-- as though you are discovering them. I am unable to name any recent series that can come close to this book. It makes me wonder, if, perhaps, with time, we are catering more to labels like YA than to actual story-telling. Tiahana's usurping control of stone sculptures to test Darkchild, the moving scenes of Guardians and redmanes falling to their death under the pulsing beat of redmane hoofs, all are unbelievably vivid images that you'll find yourself struggling to forget-- this is simply extraordinary story-telling.
Darkchild's past and his struggle to stay true to his love for Khira, the palace daughter compelled to make her stand on the mountain provides enough emotional struggle for any current 'YA' novel but the depth of their struggles against the vast cosmos and more intimately, on the stage of Brakrath itself are so deeply moving that even reading it now as an almost thirty year old, I felt goosebumps on my skin-- Khira and Darkchild were less characters in a book, to me, than they were people, human beings whose struggle I could witness first-hand.
A vastly under-rated novel by an extremely under-appreciated author, if you can get your hands on a copy, do give it a read. It is one of the best books in science-fiction that you'll ever come across.
Favourite lines:
“Yes.” Tiahna leaned back, pleasure playing lightly at her lips. Khira could see it there. “Yet you understand me so poorly that you don't know if I'm threatening you or toying with you. You don't know if the Council is permitting you to amass a fund of information which only we will see or if we intend for you to return to Arnim one day.”
First and foremost, Sydney J van Scyoc's world-building is beyond stellar-- like Tolkien, you get the feeling that the author is merely reporting back on what she's witnessed, not writing fiction. Her compelling narrative style and imagination create a brooding atmosphere on par with anything created by Frank Herbert. If women are the under-represented heroes of sci-fi, Scyoc represents the bleak under-representation of women writers in sci-fi.
Brakrath is as alien a world as they come, settled by it's first human colonies, the planet exerted its own evolutionary force on the species until they gave rise to the Guardians of the Redmanes and the ruling queens called the Barohnas, who control the power of the sun through sunstones to bring warmth and light to their small kingdoms. Each valley has its own ruling Barohna who relinquish their claim to the throne once a daughter 'bronzes' by making her first kill on the mountains of Brakrath. Failure to do so results in death and the slow demise of the valleypeople.
You cannot find fault in such stellar descriptions of a people and planet so plausible-- as though you are discovering them. I am unable to name any recent series that can come close to this book. It makes me wonder, if, perhaps, with time, we are catering more to labels like YA than to actual story-telling. Tiahana's usurping control of stone sculptures to test Darkchild, the moving scenes of Guardians and redmanes falling to their death under the pulsing beat of redmane hoofs, all are unbelievably vivid images that you'll find yourself struggling to forget-- this is simply extraordinary story-telling.
Darkchild's past and his struggle to stay true to his love for Khira, the palace daughter compelled to make her stand on the mountain provides enough emotional struggle for any current 'YA' novel but the depth of their struggles against the vast cosmos and more intimately, on the stage of Brakrath itself are so deeply moving that even reading it now as an almost thirty year old, I felt goosebumps on my skin-- Khira and Darkchild were less characters in a book, to me, than they were people, human beings whose struggle I could witness first-hand.
A vastly under-rated novel by an extremely under-appreciated author, if you can get your hands on a copy, do give it a read. It is one of the best books in science-fiction that you'll ever come across.
Favourite lines:
“Yes.” Tiahna leaned back, pleasure playing lightly at her lips. Khira could see it there. “Yet you understand me so poorly that you don't know if I'm threatening you or toying with you. You don't know if the Council is permitting you to amass a fund of information which only we will see or if we intend for you to return to Arnim one day.”
December 28, 2020
This is one of those books, that I discovered early in my life, found again, reread it and enjoyed it immensely the second time around and not only for nostalgia's sake. I guess it would currently be classified as a YA science fiction novel. Darkchild is part of a trilogy (along with Bluesong and Starsilk) but, as with the other two can be read as stand alones. Even so, I recommend reading them all as, while the protagonists in each are different, they are part of the same alien universe and family lineage and their histories intersect. The foundational theme of all three books is about a young person's quest for identity, and the emotional and physical challenges that are involved - overcoming fears, using imagination, finding one's own strengths and allies. Van Scyoc wrote very few novels and I tried to read earlier ones and was disappointed in them. Darkchild and its companions have some of the feel of LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy - not quite as detailed and poetic, but her universe and characters are deeply imagined and thought provoking.
May 1, 2020
Mankind has spread out amongst the stars and adapted to the various planets where it has settled, speciating as required. One of these is the planet Brakrath, which is ruled by female barohna, able to channel the powers of stones to help melt winter snows and allow agriculture to take place. The narrative is carried by four voices, The Boy, Khira, Darkchild, The Guide, and Khira’s grandmother Kadura. That makes five you say? Well yes, but the boy from chapter 1 has become Darkchild by Chapter 3.
Khira’s mother Tiahna is the local barohna and remote as a result. Khira has effectively been brought up by her sister Alzaja who is in turn about to make a trip to the mountains (where their other sisters have journeyed before, not to come back,) to try to find the stone in her heart that will allow her to take over from Tiahna, or be killed in the attempt by the beast she challenges. Khira is left to face the winter alone in Tiahna’s palace. After an overwhelming noise wakes her one night she finds a boy in one of the tower rooms. She dubs him Darkchild. He is under compulsion to experience and remember everything about his new home. (In chapter one, as The Boy, he had been removed from a previous family on another world and subjected to medical intervention.) In his head is The Guide, a memory storage and control device he can only subvert by deluging it with sensory information.
Khira is alternately bewildered and intrigued by Darkchild but still befriends him. The interludes where The Guide takes over his body baffle her, though. Things come to head when the expedition of another human race, the Arnimi, potbellied with greying hair that hangs to their shoulders, return to the barohnial hall from their winter excursion investigating how the Brakrathi have adapted to their world, only to prevent Darkchild’s access to their quarters and recommend Khira puts him out in the snow. They say he is a Rauthimage and speak to Darkchild in his own language.
Not till Tiahna returns for the thaw do they reveal they find Rauthimages abhorrent, cloned from a cell specimen of a man called Birnam Rauth without his permission and hence anathema to them. Rauthimages are employed by a ruthless race called Benderzic to find weaknesses in adapted human races so as to exploit them.
The story juggles Khira’s experiences with Darkchild’s and The Guide’s and the one chapter narrated by Kadura fills in Brakrathi background.
This is a solid piece of Science Fiction of its time, with a well-worked out background and a more than adequate depiction of the psychologies of its main actors. (The Arnimi and Benderzic remain somewhat sketchy, though.)
Khira’s mother Tiahna is the local barohna and remote as a result. Khira has effectively been brought up by her sister Alzaja who is in turn about to make a trip to the mountains (where their other sisters have journeyed before, not to come back,) to try to find the stone in her heart that will allow her to take over from Tiahna, or be killed in the attempt by the beast she challenges. Khira is left to face the winter alone in Tiahna’s palace. After an overwhelming noise wakes her one night she finds a boy in one of the tower rooms. She dubs him Darkchild. He is under compulsion to experience and remember everything about his new home. (In chapter one, as The Boy, he had been removed from a previous family on another world and subjected to medical intervention.) In his head is The Guide, a memory storage and control device he can only subvert by deluging it with sensory information.
Khira is alternately bewildered and intrigued by Darkchild but still befriends him. The interludes where The Guide takes over his body baffle her, though. Things come to head when the expedition of another human race, the Arnimi, potbellied with greying hair that hangs to their shoulders, return to the barohnial hall from their winter excursion investigating how the Brakrathi have adapted to their world, only to prevent Darkchild’s access to their quarters and recommend Khira puts him out in the snow. They say he is a Rauthimage and speak to Darkchild in his own language.
Not till Tiahna returns for the thaw do they reveal they find Rauthimages abhorrent, cloned from a cell specimen of a man called Birnam Rauth without his permission and hence anathema to them. Rauthimages are employed by a ruthless race called Benderzic to find weaknesses in adapted human races so as to exploit them.
The story juggles Khira’s experiences with Darkchild’s and The Guide’s and the one chapter narrated by Kadura fills in Brakrathi background.
This is a solid piece of Science Fiction of its time, with a well-worked out background and a more than adequate depiction of the psychologies of its main actors. (The Arnimi and Benderzic remain somewhat sketchy, though.)
April 26, 2020
Palace daughter or amnesiac clone, we all need to find ourselves. This is probably my fourth time reading this book, but it's been a couple of years. The themes of this book blend beautifully into the story. Finding strength in admitting fear, in giving kindness no matter how forced, and in facing the conflict within you.
March 21, 2021
Humanity is scattered and isolated throughout the stars. And on each world, they grow different and strange. This is a story about one of those worlds, and what happens when a boy is dropped out of the sky to be taken in and adopted. Except he is a "cultural recorder". He will be retrieved and his memories used to prepare the world for exploitation.
December 27, 2024
Wonderful story. Loved as a child and as an adult it's even better!
Read
October 23, 2025Darkchild awakens to find himself stranded in the strange primitive world of Brakrathi without any memories of his past and struggles to discover the secret of his identity.
February 20, 2017
I have to pick this back up and reread every so often. It has taken me longer this time, kept getting distracted by shiny new books. Still a classic.
March 29, 2016
Darkchild is the first in the 'Daughters of the Sunstone' trilogy and a very intriguing beginning.
Possibly the oldest book I've read in a while (published in 1982) that I haven't read previously at least, Darkchild is told from a variety of third person POV's and slowly chronicles the coming of age of both the title character, but also the young girl who takes him in and cares for him.
A fantasy with scifi leanings is a good way to describe much of the book. The immediate environs are, for the most part, pre-industrial. The only exception to this rule are the quarters of alien visitors to the planet, the Armini, who conduct studies of the peoples and planet.
Then also you have the over-reaching menance, who are technologically advanced and use Darkchild (and others like him) to gather intel on the planet they despoit them on to see if the planet is a viable planet for exploiting or if they can leave it well enough alone.
At times I was tempted to double check the internet to make sure the author wasn't a pseudo for Louise Lawrence who wrote books of a similiar trend.
I look forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.
Possibly the oldest book I've read in a while (published in 1982) that I haven't read previously at least, Darkchild is told from a variety of third person POV's and slowly chronicles the coming of age of both the title character, but also the young girl who takes him in and cares for him.
A fantasy with scifi leanings is a good way to describe much of the book. The immediate environs are, for the most part, pre-industrial. The only exception to this rule are the quarters of alien visitors to the planet, the Armini, who conduct studies of the peoples and planet.
Then also you have the over-reaching menance, who are technologically advanced and use Darkchild (and others like him) to gather intel on the planet they despoit them on to see if the planet is a viable planet for exploiting or if they can leave it well enough alone.
At times I was tempted to double check the internet to make sure the author wasn't a pseudo for Louise Lawrence who wrote books of a similiar trend.
I look forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2024
A good and very vivid vintage sci-if read. A coming of age for the two main characters: a fearful queen-to-be (Khira) and an amnesiac outlander boy (Darkchild).
So it turns out that the boy is essentially a tool for off-world invaders. He has been programmed to learn about her civilization and to bring that info back for his leaders to exploit. I liked how the girl ultimately decided to trust him, even knowing this.
I really enjoyed how Darkchild’s two voices/personalities (the boy and the voice of his programming) played against each other. It was interesting to have the programming merge with his mind over time, as he became his own person in spite of his original purpose.
It did, however, get a bit slow near the end. Overall very enjoyable.
“Youth is the time to learn not to be thoughtless.”
So it turns out that the boy is essentially a tool for off-world invaders. He has been programmed to learn about her civilization and to bring that info back for his leaders to exploit. I liked how the girl ultimately decided to trust him, even knowing this.
I really enjoyed how Darkchild’s two voices/personalities (the boy and the voice of his programming) played against each other. It was interesting to have the programming merge with his mind over time, as he became his own person in spite of his original purpose.
It did, however, get a bit slow near the end. Overall very enjoyable.
“Youth is the time to learn not to be thoughtless.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2012
I read this book a long time ago and several times since.
I love the poetic, evocative writing. this 'other world' is very vivid. I feel as if I am almost there. This is why I read - to be taken to another world, to be astonished and transformed. I will never forget the encounters of the girls with the wild magical beasts they must slay - if they kill them, they undergo a genetic transformation into a strong, tall adult woman for which the killing of that beast is a catalyst. if they don't, they die...
I love the poetic, evocative writing. this 'other world' is very vivid. I feel as if I am almost there. This is why I read - to be taken to another world, to be astonished and transformed. I will never forget the encounters of the girls with the wild magical beasts they must slay - if they kill them, they undergo a genetic transformation into a strong, tall adult woman for which the killing of that beast is a catalyst. if they don't, they die...
February 27, 2012
A different kind of sci-fi but wonderful. As with some books you have to get through a chapter or two of introduction before starting into the meat of the plot. I enjoyed the two different viewpoints.
July 21, 2012
Add it to the list of Science Fiction series that is more concerned with what interaction with other races would be like in the future and how we would respond to them than the sensationalism of battles and starships. I just wished I'd known it was part of a series when I started reading it!
Read
March 5, 2016EX-LIB. 1ST EDITION (?)
August 29, 2012
Very good thought-out fantasy action book. Provides deep insights into alien culture through the eyes of two young kids on a frigid planet in a faraway solar system.
December 5, 2012
I read this book back when I was probably 12 or so. No idea where the family copy went, I'd love to read it again.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews