We get Sara’s Earth background - I liked how the descriptions keep the story from being too dated - as I reread the story, I was surprised how she avoided too many references that would make the story “old.” Was it enough? Something I noticed this last time - she offers “paper” as an improvement over the wax slates to the Lotharians. Does it make sense that she would forget they don’t have room for forests (and thus the most obvious way to get paper) in the need to grow food? Or maybe she is thinking of the Tane worlds and their resources?

McCaffrey creates an entire world for Lotharians - a history of being cattle (did that bug you for any reason?) and the value of women, of clans and cavesites, of the Warlord’s family and why and how they rule and how that rule is passed on, with varying geography and locations and names, occupations, politics, economics, philosophy, and an explanation of how Lotharians took their invaders technology and made it their own (giving her a chance to have a culture of contradictions in levels of progress and culture). We even get a different colored sun, which makes the grass look blue (or maybe it was blue!). How did Lothar come off as a world for you? Did you believe in it? Can we get past Sara ending on a planet of people who are basically humans?

We even get a few other alien races - the Tane, the Ertoi, and the Glan. They seem to exist to help create political and economic conflict, or provide technological help. Did the author need them to flesh out the story? Did you just enjoy the writing, or wonder about all the different aliens that were about?