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.
Between 1587 and 1591, the "lost" colony of Roanoke, Virginia disappeared. They were taken...somewhere. And now their descendants are about to go to war with the Wiyr, the satyr-like creatures they have lived in peace with for years. The Wiyr work with and for the humans, living in their own communities, keeping to their traditions, while the humans spread across the land.
Jack is one of the descendants of the Roanoke village, and becomes aware of the tensions while hunting a dragon. He meets his cousin, Ed, who has killed and cropped the tail of a young Wiyr Jack knows. Angered by the betrayal of the woman he loves, Ed has joined the forces that want to rid Dare of the Wiyr. Forced into silence by his cousin, Jack can't even tell R'li, Wuv's sister and a Siren of the Wiyr.
As Jack falls for the Siren, the quiet move for war becomes an open hostility and humans are forced to choose sides or suffer the same fate as the Wiyr. Pressed into military service, the nearby Wiyr colony that serves his father destroyed, Jack and R'li are forced to separate for both their own and their families' survival. Just as the end looks certain, a new force in Dare is heralded by the arrival of a spaceship.
Impression:Dare is one of the books that originally influenced my enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy. It's soft SF, so there's no focus on the science, and this one's mixed with quite a bit of fantasy.
The writing itself is not elegant, but the story itself carries you. There's less description in the novel than I generally like, but it seems to work for this novel. The one major problem is that it's unfinished. The spaceship comes down, people meet and talk, plans are made, and then...nothing. No resolution to everything the story has been building up to. Even so, I do recommend it as good reading. It's a book that defies many of the "rules" of writing, and is interesting none the less.
I should add, that MY copy of this is so old, the cover is totally different from what's on Amazon (in the one place where there is a cover) and there's only a 1079 copy listed at B&N. It shows a pretty naked Siren with hair (from her head and her tail) covering the appropriate places. ;)
