1. What is the major difference between the colonizing of the planet Isis and historical colonizing of the Americas and Australia by Europeans? Why has the author invented no alien people populating Isis? What can it mean for the colonists to be living where there are no other people, human or alien?

2. What is the nature of the changes that Guardian has made in Olwen? Has her mind been changed by the procedures and by her experiences? Is she still human?

3. How can a large animal such as Draco hirsutus be as gentle as the creature Olwen calls Hobbit? What visible, physical clues to its gentle nature does the author describe? Are there any similar animals which actually exist on earth?

What could have been the author's intentions when she invented Hobbit?

4. How can the reader evaluate the relative and absolute...