Vow of Silence

Vow of Silence is set in an alternate society-described with its history, geography, economy, technology, laws, arts and civilization myth-in which literacy has not been invented because a substantial minority of people can be taught to develop perfect recall. The narrator is a man who was inducted into this special caste that records and passes on the permanent and ephemeral knowledge of the world. As his power matures, he realizes it is more a curse than a gift because he cannot forget disruptive memories of pleasant and painful experience--they are always with him. After he finishes the course of mental training, he perpetrates a devious and horrific revenge on his former teachers, to strike back at a society he feels has cruelly used him to service its needs. His personal regeneration is made possible only by a chain of events that also changes his society for the better.