This brief review is followed by some notes on the novel. These are of
personal interest, especially in forming part of a common background of
the Galactic Civilization novels. The notes are not comprehensive. More
information may be found in the planet list. This was last updated on
September 2, 2006 C.E. 

DREAD COMPANION, Andre Norton, Ace, New York, 1970

Kilda has been raised in an orphanage for the offspring of space service
personnel. She is a young woman well trained in historical research and
the use of computer libraries. She leaves the orphanage to become tutor
to two young children of a family posted to a frontier planet. The
daughter demonstrates possible psychic ability and possesses a dread
companion that seems something other than a pleasant imaginary friend.

A quick trip to a wilderness area turns into quite an adventure as Kilda
and the children under her care slip into an alternate universe, a
fairyland both enchanting and hazardous for the unwary.

This encounter with the otherworldliness of elfland is well told by a
writer quite aware of such accounts in actual Earth history. This is a
finely spun yarn likely to hold the interest all the way to the end, an
end well in keeping with such stories of people straying into the realm
of Fairyland.

Notes on Dread Companion:

p. 5 second wave Terran outspread
p. 6 creche
p. 7 a robe of Bora rainbow cloth
p. 9 Ruhkarv report
p. 9 tridees from Xcothal
p. 22 esper
p. 22 parapsychologist
p. 25 servo alarm
p. 25 guard robo
p. 25 Dylan has one large yellow moon
p. 27 dream smoke
p. 34 Lugraans (life forms) p. 44 cultivate fungi, herd insects etc.
p. 38 pookha p. 180
p. 43 plasta-shield of the window
p. 102 Terra, story it destroyed in war
p. 102 never met one who had real contact Terra
p. 111 Zacathans
p. 171 flitter
p. 172 Gentle Homo
p. 174 dates  After Flight p. 181
p. 179 First in Scout
p. 181 names of months, date of war
p. 183 Persona lock
p. 184 lock phrase spoken
p. 185 tangler, laser
p. 189 fuel cores

These notes were added here on September 2, 2006 C.E.


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