Treason

Product Information

It was well written, and very descriptive of life in Tudor England, both of peasant life, prison and that of the nobles in King Henry VIII's court. It's certainly a bold and informative experiment in science fiction, but in the end it's also a failed one. The volatility of Henry VIII’s moods and whims, which could at any moment result in death, or conversely the making of one’s fortune, is well-illustrated, and the fear he instilled in his subjects is palpable. It might be rather stale in other hands, yet it manages to be something more, because as Lanik grows and changes, his goals--not just his means of achieving them--grow and change as well. His characters face difficult ethical questions, and the result tends to be an interesting exploration of the issues raised, wrapped up in excellent storytelling.

This resource works best if the chapter is read, talked about and discussed in one day, then comprehension questions are given the day after.

He made some great points about the evils of rulers - once the fighting is done, does the common man really care? He runs away from the court, desperate and penniless, and wanders helplessly through the busy, dangerous streets of London. Not to mention that the hero and every other character in the story are the descendants of elitist rebels marooned on a planet and forced to fight medieval wars over the scarcest resource-- iron. With the information that Lanik learned from the Ku Kei, and the Schwartz, he ultimately kills all of Anderson, and destroy all of the Ambassadors. This was no exception, and I found myself unable to put the book down, neglecting other things I needed to do to read “just a few more pages”.

I read this book with my year 6 class on my first placement (SBC 1) it was a fantastic book with lots of great characters set in the Tudor times giving me and the class a real feel for what life was like back then allowing them to get a real understanding of formal and informal language from the different characters as well.Treason was loaned to me by somebody who frequently asked me if I was reading it yet or I probably never would have. And even while doing so, he denies the existence of absolute moral relativism (see "Farnham's Freehold").