The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl

The author of this book asserts that it is not a sequel to Enchantress From the Stars, although in some ways it could be considered to be one. It is indeed a sequel in the sense that the story centers around the same protagonist, and it is set in the same universe. It is not a sequel in that it can be read completely apart from Enchantress From the Stars, and is aimed at a different audience, as the darker content is suitable for more mature teens and adults, but not for middle-grade students.

In The Far Side of Evil, Elana has received the training that she lacked in Enchantress From the Stars, and is ready for her first official assignment. Usually, a newly qualified agent of the Federation's Anthropological Service would only be assigned as part of a team under a more senior and experienced operative. However, Elana is sent on a solo mission to a planet called Toris, where there is an opportunity to observe a situation which has never been recorded hitherto by the Anthropological Service.

One of the author's personal convictions is that humanoid species on planets like Earth must at a certain point in their evolution expand into space if they are to avoid extinction. When their ambitions, aggressions, and need for overcoming risks and dangers are turned outward into space, the danger of total war is lessened, and when colonies start to be established beyond the home planet, most resources and energies are concentrated in this activity, leading to greater cooperation between nations and the eventual cessation of international conflicts. The period between the invention of weapons of mass destruction and the peaceful colonization of space is called the Critical Stage.

The Anthropological Service is well aware of the importance of the Critical Stage, but the recent discovery of Toris has provided a unique opportunity to observe firsthand the factors which decide whether a world survives or not. Unfortunately, Toris appears to be on the brink of self-annihilation, and it evidently has no interest in space exploration. Elana is sent on a solo mission of observation into a totalitarian dictatorship which seems bent on starting a nuclear war with more liberal-minded nations.

The Anthropological Service has an important Prime Directive of non-interference in younger 'less mature' cultures (similar to the one which is rarely adhered to in Star Trek). Agents like Elana take this principle very seriously since it is part of their Sworn Oath, and they are willing to die rather than risk disclosure of their true origins and the existence of the Federation.
Another young agent also assigned to the same planet considers himself an authority on Critical Stage cultures, and becomes convinced that direct intervention is justified and necessary in order to save the Torisians from themselves. But his naive actions play right into the hands of the dictatorship, which arrests Elana and interrogates her mercilessly (which is partly why this book is unsuitable for children).

In some ways this book is related to the time in which it was written (as are most works of fiction). In the early 1970s, the Cold War was still in full swing, but there was optimism about the future based on the then-recent Moon landings. Many people who observed events at that time would probably have expected there to be bases and colonies beyond Earth by the year 2020, and that we would by now be emerging from the Critical Stage. Although many things have changed greatly in the last half century, it nonetheless appears that we are yet firmly within that phase. But despite these facts, the story in no way feels dated.

Some readers have commented that the book contains too much philosophy and too little plot, but I did not feel that way when reading it. In fact, I found the balance to be just right. There are the overarching philosophical concepts involving whole planets and peoples, and the personal moral and ethical concerns regarding the decisions of individuals. To what extent do the ends justify the means when supporting an ideal, and how far should personal sacrifice go in adhering to cherished principles?
The idea that The Far Side of Evil is in some way a veiled political commentary is also baseless in my opinion, since the political powers mentioned are clearly generic and not intended to represent any specific parties in our world.

I found The Far Side of Evil to be a significantly more profound read than Enchantress From the Stars, but like that book there are many quotable passages which are relevant to our lives today, and which can help us make sense of the situations we find ourselves in.
Here are some of them:

“The human mind can’t be forced. You can’t even hurt me if I decide not to be hurt.”

“...there’s a danger in concentrating too hard on abstract theory.”

“...you have to trust the universe. You have to believe that the natural order of things has some sort of sense to it, some real if incomprehensible logic, and that what’s true isn’t to be feared.”

“After all, agents are chosen for sensitivity and imagination, among other things; and sensitive, imaginative people aren’t fearless. They are usually more apprehensive than average.”

“The underlying basis of panic is terror not of the threat itself but of how you’ll react to it.”
“Maybe it was simply that people live with what they have to live with, whether they think they can face it or not.”

“...there’s a pattern that takes in more than this world. I don’t understand it, and neither does anybody else. We can’t expect to understand it when we don’t have all the facts, but that’s no reason for deciding that everything is senseless! If it were, we might as well blow up the whole planet right now and be done with it, because what would it matter?”

“There comes a point for every human race when for the first—and only—time in its history it has the ability to destroy itself completely, and that point coincides with the point at which it is ready to take its first steps beyond its home world. The level of technology that creates one possibility simultaneously creates the other. If the colonization of space is undertaken, it becomes all-absorbing, full-scale war is forgotten, and the danger is averted.”

“The world is the way it is. There’s no place to hide; we’ve got to live in it and bear up under the pressure.”

“If there’s anything harder to counter than a clever lie, it’s a truth that’s been honestly misinterpreted.”

““Everything is purposeful,” I said gently. “Even the terrible things. But we don’t understand them while they’re happening.””

“If you ever find yourself faced with something really bad, something inescapable against which you have no defense, your only recourse is to accept it. Once you’re absolutely sure that there’s no way out, don’t resist. Just relax and let it happen. That will seem hard, but believe me, it will be less painful than shrinking from the thing. You’ll get something from it—you won’t feel that you can; you won’t understand; but in the end you will gain, if not from the experience itself, then simply from your bravery.”

“You have more to draw on than you think, I guess; you can do what you have to do.”

“It’s a funny thing, but if you try to act scared, any real fear you start out with stops bothering you; it becomes part of the game.”

“Nobody ever jumps from naïveté to realism; there’s a cynical stage in between. That’s true of worlds, and I guess it’s true of people, too.”

“...by subordinating the means to the end. That’s the only way anybody can judge anything, and when such a judgment is immoral it’s because the end itself is worth less than what must be destroyed to achieve it.”

“Evil lies not in a given act but in a person’s sense of values.”

“...the sustaining knowledge that evil, even victorious evil, was not the most powerful force in the universe.”

“It was as if I didn’t really mind what they did to me, because it wasn’t important compared with what I was doing by resisting. I was free inside, and they couldn’t change that; but I could stop them from doing harm to the world, so I had more power than any of them.”

“People differ in their ideas about morality, but by and large everybody agrees that if you deliberately do wrong, somewhere, somehow, you will suffer for it. Well, you do, and it can’t be avoided.”

“Dictatorships always fall in the end; that’s an incontrovertible law of nature.” ( )

This book, the sequel to Enchantress from the Stars tells the story of Elana's first post-graduation mission: a risky attempt to prevent the residents of a nuclear-age world from destroying themselves. She is placed in the world as an amnesiac, so she can learn about the culture from the inside and have an excuse for any lapses of knowledge she betrays. However she comes to the attention of the totalitarian government and ends up captured and interrogated.

Running parallel to Elana's story is that of her fellow agent, who begins to question his orders and the sanctity of the non-intervention directive.

This is an intense, moving story, aimed at young adults but good for older readers as well. I recommend reading [b:Enchantress from the Stars|4580|Enchantress from the Stars|Sylvia Engdahl|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165446820s/4580.jpg|8205] first. ( )

Strongwilled Elana is sent to the planet Toris as an observer agent, having just graduated from the Federation Anthropological Service Agency. The Federation has matured over war, hate and superstition and believes in freedom for all worlds. Toris is a youngling planet, one that has nuclear weapons but still has to create colonies to escape to in case the planet explodes. Toris is caught between two superpowers Neostatits and Libertarians that has nuclear weapons. Elana can only watch, listen and learn all about the planet; and stay alive in case of a nuclear annihilation. The situation becomes delicate when Randil, a fellow agent falls in love with Elana's roommate Kari, a Torisian girl. Randil decides to interfere and gives the Neostatits a spaceship. Elana sets out to destroy it and gets caught. Kari is tortured to get to Elana who the Neostatits believe is an enemy spy. Intelligent and compassionate Kari chooses her planet's fate over Randil. In the end Randil realizes he and Kari cannot be together at all and he sacrifices himself to destroy the spaceship and the torturer with it. Toris passes the "critical stage" and slowly matures into a civilization like Elana's. I find the story really slow in the beginning but then starts to pick up when Elana was caught and tortured. I did not like the sense of darkness and sadness I was getting while reading the book, like a premonition of how our planet Earth is going to end if we keep abusing it. ( )

I can't stop re-reading this! Elena's all grown up and on her first "official" mission - only this time, she knows beforehand that the chance of her dying is very high!

More than just a sequel to Enchantress from the Stars. The issues raised are just as resonating as those raised in Enchantress, mainly how to keep a civilization from tearing itself apart from nuclear war. The civilzation parallels humans, urging us to draw connections and ask ourselves questions relevant to our own culture.

I wish she would write another book with these characters. I love them so much. Even poor Evrek, who has always seemed little more than Elena's sidekick boyfriend and never really his own character. ( )