An awful title and a misleading barbarian-fantasy cover (surprisingly not completely inaccurate) -- and a much better than average DAW novel from the late 1970s. The back cover's parallels to Norton, Bradley, and Lee (all frequent DAW authors of course) is not too bad a set of comparisons. The setting is the far future, presumably on another planet, but this is only alluded to briefly. Except for a few major info-dumps, for the most part the reader is thrown into the multiple cultures and vocabulary of this world without much handholding. Characters are driven by many goals, misunderstand each other in multiple ways, but for the most part work towards a common goal. My one major complaint is that I simply could not follow what was happening at several key inflection points in the story. Despite that, I enjoyed the book and will seek out the sequels.

Recommended. ( )

Dibell nicely balances the big social and political movements of this world with an intimate story of the love between Jannus and Poli. This is a well written and engaging book with an entertaining (although misleading and ultimately unfortunate) cover. I'd definitely like to read the rest of the series.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2010/10/pursuit-of-screamer-by-ansen-dibell.html ] ( )

The cover art sucks because it really gives you NO IDEA what this story is about. A boy growing up in a strangely ancient society that is the remains of an elder colony. Think of this as a Science-Fantasy Adventure as you piece together how humans came to be on this world. Once you settle into the flow of the story, it's a nice unfolding of wonder. ( )