Enchantress from the Stars

Sylvia Engdahl says: "Enchantress from the Stars grew out of my thoughts about our place in the universe beyond our home planet. It wasn't meant as an allegory about cultural interaction on our own world-such an analogy is false because the three peoples in the story are of different species that have existed for different lengths of time. However, there may be species elsewhere that are older than ours, and someday we may visit even younger species. Enchantress is about our hypothetical relationships with them, not between ourselves. "Throughout my life I have felt that it matters how we look at the wider universe-and this issue becomes more and more important as public speculation about extraterrestrials increases. I don't think it's good to think of ETs either as hostile or as 'Gods from Outer Space' who may solve our problems for us. Also, I consider it very harmful for people to see Earth's problems as evidence that there's something wrong with us as a species, that advanced aliens would consider us inferior instead of just immature. That idea leads to defeatism, and besides, I don't think it's true." Sylvia Engdahl is the author of six novels published between 1970 and 1981, three of which were reissued as adult science fiction in the 2000 omnibus Children of the Star. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.Engdahl, Sylvia is the author of 'Enchantress from the Stars', published 2003 under ISBN 9780142500378 and ISBN 0142500372.