Dream-Weaver

The setup may sound all too familiar--a ship of colonists from high-tech Earth is heading for apparently low-tech Arbroth, the colonists happily anticipating abundant land and native labor; a young Earth lad, Troy, appalled at the prospect, establishes telepathic contact with Eth, a young woman of Arbroth. The two are going to work together to foil the greedy Earthians, and will simultaneously triumph and discover their love for each other, right? But Lawrence (The Patchwork People) is beyond such cliches. The people of Arbroth have unexpected skills in their ""dream-weaving"" abilities and not only can deal with the invaders themselves but use their presence to solve a problem of their own; Troy and Eth's story has a similarly unanticipated and satisfying conclusion. However, the author advances an overly pointed agenda, as expressed in the use of dream-weaving to heal unhealthy (violent and controlling) people; in the contrast between Arbroth's destructive patriarchal past and peaceful gynocentric present; and in discussions of such topics as ""The renunciation of violence is an essential part of our culture."" The target audience may be too sophisticated for such obvious sermonizing, but this still compelling story could well be embraced by slightly younger readers. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)