THE DELIKON

by H. M. Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1977

Hoover's latest future fantasy has an alien, superior race of long-lived individuals colonizing Earth and ruling through representatives ""restructured"" to resemble humans. One of them, a young girl of 300 named Varina, has been here most of her life and has developed attachments to the successive pairs of specially chosen children it is her job to prepare for section leadership; thus she is dismayed when a starship arrives to take her home to D'laak. (We learn later that all Delikon will evacuate, having given up on the primitive, contentious earthlings who will never evolve sufficiently to ""grasp cosmic order."") On a last picnic together Varina and her current charges are kidnapped and she discovers that Aron, a former pupil (now near 50) and present governor of Sector Nine, is leading a widespread revolt seeking, as he puts it, ""freedom to re-create human chaos."" As his army attacks, Varina and the children escape and make their way back to the Delikon compound, only to find that it's too late for her--the aliens have left, Aron is in charge, and her initial desire to stay has been ironically fulfilled. But the whole adventure seems as remote as the undescribed D'laak and as arid as the desert that Earth has become. Hoover never develops or vitalizes the stock political/philosophical issue, and Varina comes across merely as stiff and lifeless, without human or any other kind of dimension.

Pub Date: April 1, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION