amazon / b&n

Between 1587 and 1591, the "lost" colony of Roanoke, Virginia disappeared. They were taken...somewhere. And now their descendants are about to go to war with the Wiyr, the satyr-like creatures they have lived in peace with for years. The Wiyr work with and for the humans, living in their own communities, keeping to their traditions, while the humans spread across the land.

Jack is one of the descendants of the Roanoke village, and becomes aware of the tensions while hunting a dragon. He meets his cousin, Ed, who has killed and cropped the tail of a young Wiyr Jack knows. Angered by the betrayal of the woman he loves, Ed has joined the forces that want to rid Dare of the Wiyr. Forced into silence by his cousin, Jack can't even tell R'li, Wuv's sister and a Siren of the Wiyr.

As Jack falls for the Siren, the quiet move for war becomes an open hostility and humans are forced to choose sides or suffer the same fate as the Wiyr. Pressed into military service, the nearby Wiyr colony that serves his father destroyed, Jack and R'li are forced to separate for both their own and their families' survival. Just as the end looks certain, a new force in Dare is heralded by the arrival of a spaceship.

Impression: Dare is one of the books that originally influenced my enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy. It's soft SF, so there's no focus on the science, and this one's mixed with quite a bit of fantasy.

The writing itself is not elegant, but the story itself carries you. There's less description in the novel than I generally like, but it seems to work for this novel. The one major problem is that it's unfinished. The spaceship comes down, people meet and talk, plans are made, and then...nothing. No resolution to everything the story has been building up to. Even so, I do recommend it as good reading. It's a book that defies many of the "rules" of writing, and is interesting none the less.

I should add, that MY copy of this is so old, the cover is totally different from what's on Amazon (in the one place where there is a cover) and there's only a 1079 copy listed at B&N. It shows a pretty naked Siren with hair (from her head and her tail) covering the appropriate places. ;)