They rebelled against the Galactic Republic and tried to set up an elite, meritocratic government. And for that crime they and their families were exiled forever to a planet called Treason, a planet where simple iron is rarer than gold, and told that they could return to the Offworld when they could build a starship to get them there.

It is now 3000 years later. This is the premise of Treason, Orson Scott Card's revision of one of his earliest novels, A Planet called Treason, and it provides the launchpad for a thrilling tale of society, destiny, and man's development of the self.

The protagonist of the tale is Lanik Mueller, heir to the throne of the nation Mueller, direct descendant of a Hitler-worshipping eugenicist. The most powerful people of the Rebel River plain, the Muellers have the ability to heal all but the most disastrous wounds in minutes, and even regrow lost limbs. Every once in a while, the line produces a Radical Regenerative or Rad, who constantly grows extra body parts; such genetic mistakes are turned to Mueller's advantage, kept as animals and 'harvested' for spare limbs and organs to sell to the Offworld in exchange for iron, iron to make swords as valuable as if they were made of pure gold - but infinitely more useful. Lanik Mueller is a such Rad; a hermaphrodite destined to become a monster, he is removed from the line of succession and exiled from his people under the guise of a spy mission to the faraway country of Nkumai. The nation of 'tree-dwelling black savages' has found some product which the Offworld will buy iron from, and The Mueller wants to know what it is; so, rather than send his own firstborn to the pens, Lanik is sent on a journey across Treason to find the source of the nation's newfound wealth.

Card finds much use for his unparalleled talent of building strange cultures, at once innovative and logical. The low gravity of Treason allows the trees of Nkumai to grow hundreds of feet in height, and houses connected by rope bridges and ladders span that height in an unconquerable city where height is a visible symbol of social merit. Each of the cultures of Treason has developed its founder's specialty to the limits in the race for iron, and as Lanik travels through the nations of Treason he encounters people with ever more astonishing talents and bizarre societies. But instead of working togeather and harnessing these talents, the people of treason think of nothing but iron - what can be sold to the Offworld for iron, what power their iron will give them, and keeping any other nation from gaining that power. To gain the power of iron, they will commit any atrocity and betray even their closest kin and allies. Eventually, Lanik must make the choice as to where the destiny of Treason will take it - into further fruitless competition, or forward into a new and hopefully better era.

The theme of the book is a fairly obvious strike at competetive capitalism in which men give the best products of their labour and ingenuity for worthless and illusory rewards, while a favoured few reap the real profits. Its obviousness does not, however, make the book any less readable or its messages any less heartfelt, the torments and moral agonies of its characters any less affecting. Throughout the book, Lanik must face physical, emotional, and spiritual torture which few could withstand, but through those fires he comes reforged into a better person, a person capable of being the saviour of a world. Definitely recommended reading.

Recommended: Yes