Dr. Cherijo Torin has been taken captive by the Hsktskt, the lizard slavers who had raided the planet she was on at the invitation of her husband. Angry, hated by both captives and captors alike, with enemieis who would do anything to see her dead in both groups, Cherijo must survive to aide her fellow slaves with all the medical training she has. Even her nursing crew stands against her. As she struggles to aide those she can and come to terms with her traitorous husband, she becomes involved in a plot to free as many as possible without becoming a permanent part of the Hsktskt experiments on the races they enslave.
Impression: This is my first Stardoc novel, and usually diving into a series in the middle can leave a reader feeling like they are missing something. Not so with Endurance. Viehl makes sure to quickly catch any new readers up on what has gone before without boring them with huge chunks of exposition that have no bearing on the current story. She works the past in right when the reader needs to know it as quickly as possible. It slows the pace of the story itself a little, but not badly enough to bore the reader or even make the reader start skimming. The plot itself is pretty straightforward, but the ending has a nice little twist that works despite the being a little puzzling. The book itself isn’t all that deep, but the characters are and the setting and cultures are quite believable. There's no fat in this book--it's well written. I'm not much of a science fiction reader, and I prefer soft SF to hard, but this is one of those books that makes you think you just might be able to change that. Highly recommended.
Thosha-Tol was born with the powers that are the province of the female Keepers of his people and, by the decree of the goddesses, should be destroyed. Instead the Keeper who midwifed his birth smuggled him away and raised him to use those powers as a Keeper until it's time to release him to those who would teach him to fight.
Then the monsters of legend begin to appear, not only on Thosha's world, but on all the worlds of the Aknivarian Cycle. And thus begins Thosa's journey to find those responsible for bringing these creatures back from the dead and destroying them by any means possible. Along the way he discovers new cultures, makes new allies, and learns a new magic that will forever separate him from his people and cost him everything.
Impression: This version of Thosha-Tol was an unedited, unrevised rough draft, and I still enjoyed it immensely. The story carried me along despite the problems associated with a first draft. The characters are intriguing, and I came to care for them despite the need for a little more depth (which is expected in the early draft stages). The setting was the weakest part of the story and even it was interesting. And there were places where the emotion just bowls you over. The ending is both astounding and logical, the deception revealed both expected and heartbreaking. Once the kinks are worked out, the novel will be a powerful statement on the cost of faith and doing what's right just because it needs to be done.
I look forward to this one hitting the shelves one day, and I plan on picking up at least 2 copies when it does--one to get signed and one to read. Thosha-Tol is one of the best novels I've read, which is amazing since it was a rough draft and I tend to be one of the pickiest readers I know. I expect it will only get better from here.
