SPOILERS!!
I did not love this book. It's science fiction, published in 1975; my first thought was that it doesn't wear its age well, but I don't think that's the problem I have with it.

The story is set in the future, many generations after a cataclysmic disaster has pushed humanity back to primitive societies and created a variety of fearsome mutants and a landscape in twisted ruins. Sander, a smith, and Fanyi, a shaman, each with animal companions, encounter each other by chance and travel together for protection. He seeks better ways of working with metals and she seeks more powerful weapons so she can wreak vengeance on those who killed her people--they believe they can find the knowledge they seek left by the 'Before Men,' those who lived before the disaster.

They travel and face various dangers together; finally, they find an underground installation with advanced technology. But neither really finds what they are after, and I guess it's that failure that disappointed me in the end. It seemed that they simply decided to give up and face the future with their own strengths--admirable, I suppose, but unfulfilling as presented.

In a future earth where disaster has ruined our civilisation sander smith is in search of more information about smithcrafting. when he meets with fanyl who is searching for some answers about her family they join to search. norton takes an interesting look at our modern infatuation with machines and portrays very well the confusion of people not exposed to this kind of information. interesting and well written. ( )