The Luck of Brin's Five: Book 1 of the Torin Trilogy - Paperback

by Cherry Wilder (Author)

When a flaming object from space lands in the lake near the home of Brin's Five, the last thing the family expects to find is an alien from another planet. The alien is Scott Gale, member of a four-person team send from Earth to the planet Torin to research its environment.

Separated from the rest of the crew before landing, Scott is rescued by members of Brin's Five. He quickly learns their language and becomes part of the family. However, he and Brin's Five are forced to flee their home when the cruel leader of Torin, Tiath Pentroy, arrives, searching for Scott. Tiath views Scott and the powerful technology of the ship that brought him from beyond the stars as a threat to his rule . . . but also potential assets that could make him invincible. Tiath will stop at nothing until both are in his grasp.

On the run from Tiath and his spies, Scott and his adoptive family have only one hope for survival: If they can reach the fabulous city of Rintoul, Scott might be able to use his Earth technology to prove himself worthy of protection.

But with their pursuers never far behind, Scott and the rest of Brin's Five are in a race against time to reach their hoped-for sanctuary before the dread ruler can catch them . . . and end the alien threat for good.

Author Biography

Cherry Wilder was an important writer of science fiction, fantasy novels, and short fiction in the last quarter of the twentieth century. A writer whose work both entertained and also challenged rigid social mores, her best-known works are the Rulers of Hylor trilogy--high fantasy comprised of A Princess of the Chameln, Yorath the Wolf, and The Summer's King--and the science fiction first-contact Torin trilogy: of The Luck of Brin's Five, The Nearest Fire, and The Tapestry Warriors. A native of New Zealand, she used Maori folklore and legends to inform the background of the Torin trilogy.

Wilder's novels and short fiction, ranges well beyond epic fantasy and hard science fiction to include dark fantasy, horror and the Weird, as well as mysteries and thrillers. Cruel Designs, a contemporary dark fantasy novel, evokes horror by its allusion to people and events in a house in Nazi Germany, the consequences of whose actions cast a dark pall over the residents of the house decades later. Her novel The Wanderer, co-written with Katya Reimann, is the first in a projected trilogy entitled Secrets of Hylor.

Cherry Wilder lived for some years in Australia before moving to Germany with her husband, Horst Grimm, and their two daughters. In 1997 she returned to her native New Zealand, where she stayed until her death in 2002.