C.J. Cherryh's Invader: A Book Review

Invader by C.J. Cherryh

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a really good "savour" book. The author brings attention to issues such as cultural/biological differences, attitudes, diplomacy, and loneliness. The plot moves at a comfortable pace, not fast, not too slow in most places. The characters are intriguing, especially the protagonist, who is an intelligent man in a complicated and sometimes desperate situation.

The second in the series, this book covers the narrator's post as translator/negotiator/intermediary between two biologically incompatible species, as a human starship returns to the planet they colonized and left 200 years previously. Tensions between the two species escalate as positions of power are negotiated around the growing probability of space travel.

The reason I couldn't put it down: Not for any fault of the book's, but my own - the loneliness and estrangement felt by the narrator as the only human on a continent of this other species got to be too much. I may pick it back up again at another time, to finish it.



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Primary Inversion: A Book Review

Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


Very heavy emphasis on science and technology in this one - neuroscience and the math and physics of interstellar, faster-than-light travel. At times, I had to continue reading without more than a vague understanding of the technology. However, these descriptions, by and large, add to the atmosphere and world-building underlying the story. (Yes, sometimes I also got bogged down in the detail.)

It's a fun, complex, fast-paced, thought-provoking space opera with dynamic and believable characters. Based on racial/species conflict as well as potential uses/dangers of AI and bioengineering, with romantic conflict, family and imperial politics, and really exciting space battles to liven things up.

Recommended for science and science fiction (space opera) fans.







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