Review: Treason

Treason by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An odd and interesting story that delves into gender identity, nature, and superhuman abilities.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Re-release of Orson Scott Card’s 1979 “classic”: a tale of a radical regenerative running amok on an imprisoned planet, collecting super powers along the way and searching for redemption and significance.

Several generations and several hundreds of years ago, a group of the intellectual elite attempted to mutiny and take over the galactic government. Upon the failure of the coup the group were exiled to planet Treason. Now the exiles have grown into cities with with skills refined to the point of superhuman abilities. They trade the refined products of their skills through Ambassadors—teleport machines—for iron (Treason pretty has little to no iron) with which each elite group (now cities) race to build a spaceship to get off-planet.

Lanik Mueller, descendant of the genetic-experts who discovered the secret of regeneration, turns out to be a "rad"—one in whom the regeneration runs wild; thus horribly disfigured, he must seek salvation in the world at large. The tree-dwelling, conquering Nkumai have recently acquired much iron, he learns. How? Well, their ancestor was a physicist, so they've traded the secret of faster-than-light travel. The Schwartzes have learned how to commune with the rocks (geology ancestors) and can perform all kinds of lithopathic miracles. The Ku Kuei (philosophy) have acquired the ability to slow or speed time. But the real enemies of everyone on Treason, Lanik learns after many trials and adventures, are the Andersons (politics), who've perfected a method of projecting illusions so convincing that all are fooled into submission without realizing it. 

The review link below is a good story summary as the book tells it.

https://dreamingaboutotherworlds.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-treason-by-orson-scott-card.html

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