THE LUCK OF BRIN'S FIVE

Brin's Five, a clan of mountain weavers on the planet Torin, become entangled in a web of dangerous politics and obscure superstition when they adopt a stray earthman, Scott Gale, as their ""Luck."" Moruians, a marsupial people in other respects similar to humans, regard handicapped individuals (the earthman has blue eyes) as gifted and cherish them as ""Lucks,"" or mascots. Enticing scraps of the weaving-based Moruian culture seem drawn from Earth's own craft heritage and lend strength to the story, which otherwise unravels amidst a welter of proper names, half-thought-out customs, and jargon: ""So the Luck of Brin's Five was taken easily in the midst of Rintoul by the three omor, Meetal, Artho, and Alloo, still bound in Gulgarvor."" It will take a dedicated fantasist to unspin this yarn.