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Cover of Forfeiture

Forfeiture

by murderous timbermen in the Brazilian rainforest. Above the Arctic Circle, an old Inuit woman takes her skeptical, indolent “grandson” to a remote old village (from which oil companies uprooted them) to enact an obscure ritual. Both use ancestral memories to summon help from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization of color\u002Dshifting, somewhat reptilian humanoids of about 8 feet in stature who call themselves the Indigo. Eons ago, interstellar Indigo explorers were awestruck by Earth’s unparalleled biodiversity and beauty and left such safeguards behind to protect the planet. The two distress signals prompt the aliens’ return in massive ships that intimidate even the Earth’s superpowers. Meeting with a few chosen human representatives (including the U.S. president), the Indigo are horrified at the state of Earth, now beset by pollution, species extinctions, unsustainable economic development, war, and other existential threats. The Indigo give humanity one year to reverse the failing state of the world\u003B meanwhile, they will remain as noninterfering “Observers.” Some Indigo opinion\u002Dleaders grow quite fond of humanity’s arts and music\u003B others harbor no affection for the predatory apes and begin a grim judgment process. A radical\u002Denvironmentalist spin on Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End (1953), Nebra’s narrative will find favor with those who have fantasies of captains of industry and world leaders being brought to account by a galactic Greenpeace for crimes against nature: “Dolphins in terror, surrounded by humans with an enclosing net and frantically writhing and rolling in a red sea, the blood of their family. A Hawksbill turtle, grotesquely deformed by the plastic ring slowly choking it. The hillside shorn of its trees, the fertile soil pointlessly pouring away in streams with every rain.” The polemical material is balanced by fairly nuanced characterizations (including developing nation indigenes, too often idealized by sympathetic writers as unspoiled, cardboard Edenic angels), good pacing, and a final act that is fairly unputdownable."

Book Details

Publisher:s End
Published:1953-01-01
Pages:385
Format:paperback
Language:English
ISBN:023074818X

Reading Info

Age Range:12-18

About This Book

On Craig Island, a vast landscape of ice north of the Arctic Circle, three travellers are hunting duck. Among them is expert Inuit hunter and guide, Edie Kiglatuk; a woman born of this harsh, beautiful terrain. The two men are tourists, experiencing Arctic life in the raw, but when one of the men is shot dead in mysterious circumstances, the local Council of Elders in the tiny settlement of Autisaq is keen to dismiss it as an accident. Then two adventurers arrive in Autisaq hoping to search for

Our Review

This gripping eco-thriller weaves together the fates of an Inuit elder and Brazilian activists as they summon ancient alien guardians to confront humanity's environmental crises. When the color-shifting Indigo return after eons to find Earth ravaged by pollution and species extinction, they deliver an ultimatum that pits global superpowers against cosmic judgment. The narrative balances intimate character moments with planetary stakes, creating a thought-provoking exploration of environmental justice through science fiction.

What distinguishes this climate fiction is its nuanced portrayal of indigenous characters who defy simplistic noble savage tropes while anchoring the story's moral center. The pacing accelerates as world leaders face extraterrestrial reckoning for ecological crimes, culminating in a final act that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. Young environmental advocates and science fiction fans alike will find this interstellar intervention tale both thrilling and deeply relevant to contemporary ecological concerns.

Themes

Adventure and adventurers

Subjects

Adventure and adventurers
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