Artemis Awakening

June 1, 2014
Lindskold (Five Odd Honors, 2010, etc.) opens a new series with a lost civilization, psychic powers and a truly despicable villain.Once there was an incredibly advanced galactic empire that controlled vast technologies with a thought. Its rulers developed the planet Artemis as a vacation spot, creating a carefully cultivated "primitive" milieu and genetically engineering the humans and animals who served as staff. Hundreds of years later, historian Griffin Dane confirms he's rediscovered Artemis by crash-landing onto the planet. Huntress Adara, her telepathically bonded puma, Sand Shadow, and her friends attempt to help Griffin return home by seeking advice from the Old One Who Is Young, a seemingly immortal man with his own scheme to recover Artemis' lost technology. Lindskold does an excellent job of turning what could be stock characters (naive city boy, wild huntress, etc.) into real men and women. It's particularly refreshing that Adara and the other Artermisians are not, as Griffin initially assumes, "noble savages"-but intelligent, resourceful people with intellectual curiosity. The plot, if not especially complex or groundbreaking (and with a final twist too obviously lampshaded by the novel's title), does offer enough puzzles to set up future volumes.Worth sticking around to see what happens next.

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May 15, 2014

The inhabitants (human and animal alike) of the pleasure planet Artemis were sculpted and designed to serve as entertainment to wealthy tourists, but the visitors stopped coming centuries ago. Archaeologist Griffin Dane has rediscovered the planet, although his arrival was more of a crash landing than a diplomatic mission. The hunter Adara discovers Griffin at the site of the wreck and along with her companion animal Sand Shadow attempts to help him find some of the answers to his questions about Artemis and its mysterious creators. VERDICT Linskold's ("Firekeeper" books) new series launch offers an interesting look at a planet littered with advanced technology that was designed to appear to be a primitive paradise and that actually becomes one after the disappearance of the planet's designers. Rediscovered civilizations is a great trope and Griffin an appealing fish out of water, but Adara and her psychically linked puma really steal the show.

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