The king sends out his bravest men to kill the dragon, but everyone who embarks on the venture vanishes.īound by the strict rules of the Federation forbidding the use of any sort of violence, Elana's father is forced to concoct an unlikely scheme to frighten the imperialists away from Andrecia.
Since the local residents have no experience of high technology, they interpret the work of the huge land-clearing machine at the colonists' camp as a dragon establishing its lair and intending to take over their land. Elana’s father thus has little choice but to involve his daughter in the effort to save the native people of Andrecia from colonization by the Empire. When one of the authorized members is killed by imperial colonists, the Anthropology Service team is missing a field agent. In her inexperience, Elana is allured by the thrilling prospects of exploration and adventure. Elana illegally sneaks aboard the Federation vessel transporting her father and his two colleagues down to the planet Andrecia, even though she has hardly any training and knows that experienced Anthropology Service Agents sometimes die in the field. Young Elana's father is a seasoned and high-ranking agent in the Federation, and his principal work is to protect 'Youngling' worlds from exploitation, even though this must be done behind the scenes and in an entirely unobtrusive manner. Protecting pre-industrial worlds like Andrecia from colonialists is therefore not an easy thing to achieve. It takes non-intervention in other cultures very seriously, and it hides its very existence from 'less developed' worlds, including the newer star-faring powers.
The Federation is extensive and powerful, but also so advanced as to have overcome problems like social injustice and warfare among its own peoples. Enchantress From the Stars (1970) is the first of two novels about Elana and the Anthropological Service of the Federation (the second book being The Far Side of Evil).
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