Book Review: Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton
Aleytys (“Leyta” to her friends) isn’t like the other girls in her clan. No one else has that bright red hair. Although she is the daughter of Azdar, the clan head, he barely acknowledges Aleytys exists, and his first wife Qumri is physically and emotionally abusive to her. Leyta does have her friends among the younger folk, but her father’s generation fears and sometimes hates her, and no one will explain why beyond Qumri’s insistence on calling Aleytys’ mother (never to have her name mentioned) “whore.” One night there is a fireball in the sky that awakens bad memories in the older clanspeople, and Aleytys’ life is about to change.
As it happens, Aleytys’ mother Shareem was not from the clan, but a literal alien who’d crash landed on the planet and gotten enslaved. Her psychic powers were weakened by the injuries she’d sustained and subsequent illness, so it was not until after Aleytys (which means “wanderer” in her mother’s tongue) was born that she could exert her own will. Shareem found a possible way off-planet, but Aleytys was too young to travel with her so she entrusted the baby to the clan with dire warnings about what would happen if the child were harmed. She also left instructions on how to start the journey to follow and entrusted them to one of the few clansmen who’d been kind to her.
As Leyta’s own psychic abilities start to bloom, her enemies in the clan decide they can no longer wait to see if she will bring doom, and concoct a ritual which will supposedly prevent her mother’s curse from activating. Aleytys is forced to flee, and thus begins the journey that will unite her with the diadem from the stars!
This 1977 novel is the first of nine books in the Diadem series (plus an extra one set in the same universe but not starring Aleytys) as our heroine travels across the galaxy searching for her mother and her birthright, both aided and hindered by the eponymous piece of jewelry. This first book just gets her off her birth world.
The time appears to be the far future as humanity has scattered to the stars. The clan is descended from one of a number of different civilizations’ starships that crashed on the planet thousands of years ago and since lost mechanical technology. Thus, there are multiple tribal civilizations, with a touch of Middle Eastern culture seen in word fragments and such. Speaking of words, Ms. Clayton goes ahead and just uses local terms for many things without defining them so you will have to parse out what they are from context.
The science fiction bits bookend the story, as the Diadem is stolen from truly alien aliens by a thief named Stavver (and the narration and dialogue never lets us forget he’s a thief) and his ship crash lands, causing the fireball that sets off Aleytys’ journey, and at the end Aleytys is the one who dons the item and gains/is imprisoned by its power. In the middle, it’s more science fantasy as there’s a lot of prophecy, superstition, psychic powers and eventually outright magic going on. Fate is a huge theme here.
Also a theme is “men are untrustworthy.” Even the fellow who Leyta is having an affair with at the beginning of the story, Vadj, who’s quite benevolent, is going ahead despite having a prophetic dream where his and Aleytys’ child will burn down the clan. Condoms are apparently not an option. Far more troubling is Tarnsian the caravaner. When first met, he’s a creep who is routinely abused by his tribe but has some psychic powers that give him grief. Aleytys gives him some pointers on self-defense in exchange for learning some of his tricks. When we see Tarnsian next, he’s become a monster who routinely rapes women and uses his powers as a tyrant.
There’s a lot of rape and dubious-consent sex here; younger readers might want to give this one a pass.
The women Aleytys interacts with are also often terrible, but it’s less being untrustworthy, and more just open spite.
The best bits are the long journey parts where Aleytys and the author explore the world.
Content note: Rape, dubious consent sex, consensual extramarital sex. Slavery. Physical and emotional abuse. Slut-shaming (especially rich since the person in question is a slave and not allowed to opt out.)
Overall: Some neat world building, the cultural stuff is interesting. But if there’s this much rape in the rest of the series, I’m noping out.
