The Avatar is an exceptional novel because it is beautifully written, with extraordinary imagery that evokes the immensity of the universe. For instance, a galaxy is described as a "wheel" that "burned across a quarter of the sky. From where Chinook was it appeared tilted; vision crossed an arm, then the nucleus from which it curved, then an arm beyond that. It shone, it shone: the heart red-gold, the spirals blue-white, clusters scattered throughout like sparks. Elsewhere gleamed a few cloudy forms, attendants upon its majesty, and remotely the light from its kindred." Such imagery evokes the majesty of the universe; and it succeeds in the narrative because it is unusually inventive as well as being essential to the unraveling of the mystery of The Others.

In Hindu mythology, an avatar is an Earthly manifestation of a deity. In Anderson's book, this means that The Others have representatives...