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grayjay's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of this novel reminded me of the middle of Romeo and Juliet. The lovers are secretly married and no one knows where they are (presumed dead!). We get little glimpses of their life together in between boring sub plots about interstellar intrigue and war where Kurj (Tybalt) runs around being a rapey, unlikable, genius, and generally an unsympathetic character.
The second half of the novel is better if you can get past all the hard science fiction. The Radiance War is told in a digestible way by focusing on characters you can understand rather than spaceship battles or anything like that.
The second half of the novel is better if you can get past all the hard science fiction. The Radiance War is told in a digestible way by focusing on characters you can understand rather than spaceship battles or anything like that.
kdf_333's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
I just really didn't like the changes between Primary Inversion and this book - the perspective change, the tweaks to what happened at the end of Primary Inversion, etc.
julesmcleish's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/251088.html[return][return]Oh dear. A real disappointment. Lots of infodumping, tedious handwaving technicalese - the nadir, close to the end, is this sentence: With a rest mass of 1.9 eV and a charge of 5.95x10-25 C, abitons only needed an accelerator with a 50 cm radius and 0.0001 Telsa [sic] magnet. Which I wouldn't mind if it actually helped the book make sense; but it doesn't. Anyway thanks to the helpfully provided diagram I spent much time wondering how you could possibly keep anything, let alone tons of antimatter, in a Klein bottle (whose inside is the same as its outside). [return][return]I was quite unable to suspend my disbelief to take seriously the family and interplanetary politics as I could for the first book. The good guys always escape certain doom in the nick of time, unlike the bad guys. And worst of all, my particular b
vailynst's review against another edition
3.0
Notes:
Currently on Audible + (Publication Order)
Great narration by Anna Fields.
- Concepts for the series are grand & epic in scale.
- Character presentation & establishment range between well done and flat.
- For the past few books, I've been poking at the details & storytelling of the books. Dark themes and actions don't bother me. It's a mix of context, presentation and delivery that determines how I react to those themes. So, I was wondering why the slave, abuse and rape themes bugged me in this series. The scenes are brief and not overtly graphic. However, the context of those scenes should have a bigger impact in the way characters act within the established cultures/species/races. Too much is relied upon a 'take it as it's shown' and that rubbed me the wrong way. Most likely due to the fact that there are well-written passages for emotional and terrible scenes. The imbalance between details and execution bugged me. =P
Loved the way the original duo from the first book are brought back into the story line. I liked the first 1/3 of the story more than the rest.
Currently on Audible + (Publication Order)
Great narration by Anna Fields.
- Concepts for the series are grand & epic in scale.
- Character presentation & establishment range between well done and flat.
- For the past few books, I've been poking at the details & storytelling of the books. Dark themes and actions don't bother me. It's a mix of context, presentation and delivery that determines how I react to those themes. So, I was wondering why the slave, abuse and rape themes bugged me in this series. The scenes are brief and not overtly graphic. However, the context of those scenes should have a bigger impact in the way characters act within the established cultures/species/races. Too much is relied upon a 'take it as it's shown' and that rubbed me the wrong way. Most likely due to the fact that there are well-written passages for emotional and terrible scenes. The imbalance between details and execution bugged me. =P
Loved the way the original duo from the first book are brought back into the story line. I liked the first 1/3 of the story more than the rest.
stelepami's review against another edition
1.0
Thank goodness that's over. I remember being excited about how sciencey the sci-fi was when I first read this series in high school, and I still appreciate a klein bottle or two, but there wasn't enough plot or character development to leaven all the detailed explanations of the mechanics of the world. And some authors can spend all their time worldbuilding and I don't mind, but I think that's more when I read fantasy. For sci-fi, give me one or two good concepts woven in and explained and then get on with the story!
belleanndthebook's review against another edition
4.0
(3.5/5 stars)
This book is the continuation of the story involving the characters who we met in Primary Inversion. It takes place over a long period of time, and most of the story is told in snapshots of what each character is doing in each year. For the first half of the book, I loved the pacing, but by the end, I forgot what year things happened. This wasn’t too irritating though because the author did put in some cues. The yearly spacing of this book also didn’t allow for much character development, so while the story was nice, my attachment to the characters was entirely spillover from the previous book. Also, I’ll have to give Asaro credit for the sci-fi in this book, which was great!
This book is the continuation of the story involving the characters who we met in Primary Inversion. It takes place over a long period of time, and most of the story is told in snapshots of what each character is doing in each year. For the first half of the book, I loved the pacing, but by the end, I forgot what year things happened. This wasn’t too irritating though because the author did put in some cues. The yearly spacing of this book also didn’t allow for much character development, so while the story was nice, my attachment to the characters was entirely spillover from the previous book. Also, I’ll have to give Asaro credit for the sci-fi in this book, which was great!
tsana's review
4.0
The Radiant Seas by Catherine Asaro is the second book I’ve read in the Skolian Empire saga (which actually has three empires in it with the two main ones having different names so it gets confusing but that’s the term I’m going to stick with). The other book that I’ve read was Primary Inversion which, chronologically, immediately precedes The Radiant Seas. For this review to make sense, I’m going to have to include a spoiler for the end of Primary Inversion, but I’ll put in a warning when I get to that.
Asaro’s universe contains three interstellar empires:
~ The Skolians whose ruling family are powerful telepaths and who can communicate instantaneously through a telepathic web that three of the imperial family hold in place with their minds (and to do so they have to be the most powerful type of telepaths, a condition that involves recessive genes and can’t be genetically engineered.
~ The Eubians who are ruled by the irredeemably evil (and genetically specific) class of Aristos. Evil because they literally gain transcendent pleasure from being in proximity to the suffering of telepaths. Their mission in life is generally to acquire as many telepathic slaves as they can, the more powerful the better (and, incidentally, they don’t see anyone else as fully human, especially the telepaths but including ordinary humans).
~ And then there’s the Earth and Allied Worlds who try to stay out of the never ending conflicts between the other two empires and don’t entirely believe how horrible the Eubians are with their slavery and torture.
The main characters are mostly Skolian and the antagonists are all Eubian although they’re not all as automatically evil as it might seem (but most are) and do have proper motivations for what they do, always an important trait in bad guys. The story in The Radiant Seas picks up exactly where Primary Inversion left off and spans many (17ish) years.
Before I get to the spoilers, a few words on the science because I can’t review an SF book without commenting on that. Asaro’s science, real and made up, is pretty good and (most importantly ;-p ) didn’t annoy me. It was a good mix between made up stuff (the telepathy) told from a scientific point of view and fairly hard semi-plausible science like the propulsion systems. Asaro actually has a PhD inphysical chemistry theoretical atomic and molecular physics so much of the quantum and relativity stuff is plausible. She even published a paper about the theory behind her faster than light travel system. In short, nothing to complain about here.
And to be able to talk about the plot, I have to mention a spoiler for the end of Primary Inversion…
At the end of Primary Inversion, Soz, next in line to be the Imperator (Skolian), and Jabriol II, heir to the Imperial throne (Eubian), fall in love when Soz discovers Jabriol isn’t in fact an Aristo but part of a secret genetic experiment to breed telepathy into the imperial line. Rather than feeding on telepaths, he is the most powerful type of telepath himself (as is Soz). Since peace between their empires is inherently impossible while there are still Aristos running around, they ran off to a deserted planet together. The Radiant Seas picks up when they’re busy making copious babies while their families mourn them, then get on with waging war against each other.
Because the story spans so many years, it really felt like the first half was setting up the events of the second half. There were some action scenes in the first half and the story definitely progressed, but there were moments when it felt like it was dragging. In the second half, Soz and Jabriol (and their kids) rejoin civilisation and their respective empires, the story really picks up. Soz trying to rescue Jabriol was much more exciting than them making babies while their families fought.
Aside from the few boring bits (which weren’t enough to ruin anything, in my opinion), I quite enjoyed this novel. I mostly liked Soz because she kicks arse but I did find the whole running away from imperial duties thing a bit selfish. However, it was also nice to see an alternative narrative where duty isn’t held up as the most important thing and the character chooses family. (I still think they should’ve hung around to fix things up more first…)
Overall, I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction with epic world-spanning empires, lots of political intrigue and long range plots. I definitely suggest reading Primary Inversion before The Radiant Seas, however, since a lot of world building and, more importantly, plot set up, takes place in the earlier book.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
Asaro’s universe contains three interstellar empires:
~ The Skolians whose ruling family are powerful telepaths and who can communicate instantaneously through a telepathic web that three of the imperial family hold in place with their minds (and to do so they have to be the most powerful type of telepaths, a condition that involves recessive genes and can’t be genetically engineered.
~ The Eubians who are ruled by the irredeemably evil (and genetically specific) class of Aristos. Evil because they literally gain transcendent pleasure from being in proximity to the suffering of telepaths. Their mission in life is generally to acquire as many telepathic slaves as they can, the more powerful the better (and, incidentally, they don’t see anyone else as fully human, especially the telepaths but including ordinary humans).
~ And then there’s the Earth and Allied Worlds who try to stay out of the never ending conflicts between the other two empires and don’t entirely believe how horrible the Eubians are with their slavery and torture.
The main characters are mostly Skolian and the antagonists are all Eubian although they’re not all as automatically evil as it might seem (but most are) and do have proper motivations for what they do, always an important trait in bad guys. The story in The Radiant Seas picks up exactly where Primary Inversion left off and spans many (17ish) years.
Before I get to the spoilers, a few words on the science because I can’t review an SF book without commenting on that. Asaro’s science, real and made up, is pretty good and (most importantly ;-p ) didn’t annoy me. It was a good mix between made up stuff (the telepathy) told from a scientific point of view and fairly hard semi-plausible science like the propulsion systems. Asaro actually has a PhD in
And to be able to talk about the plot, I have to mention a spoiler for the end of Primary Inversion…
Because the story spans so many years, it really felt like the first half was setting up the events of the second half. There were some action scenes in the first half and the story definitely progressed, but there were moments when it felt like it was dragging. In the second half, Soz and Jabriol (and their kids) rejoin civilisation and their respective empires, the story really picks up. Soz trying to rescue Jabriol was much more exciting than them making babies while their families fought.
Aside from the few boring bits (which weren’t enough to ruin anything, in my opinion), I quite enjoyed this novel. I mostly liked Soz because she kicks arse but I did find the whole running away from imperial duties thing a bit selfish. However, it was also nice to see an alternative narrative where duty isn’t held up as the most important thing and the character chooses family. (I still think they should’ve hung around to fix things up more first…)
Overall, I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction with epic world-spanning empires, lots of political intrigue and long range plots. I definitely suggest reading Primary Inversion before The Radiant Seas, however, since a lot of world building and, more importantly, plot set up, takes place in the earlier book.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
wyvernfriend's review
3.0
Sauscony and Jaibriol are in exile on a deserted planet, being happily domestic and happily away from the politics that could keep them apart. Things get more complicated when Jaibriol is snatched away and brought back into the politics of the Highton Aristo world, where he is the Emperor, but also, as a psychic, a puppet of the ruling caste and a valuable toy.
Sauscony has to try to rescue him and if that takes bringing in the Ruby Empire, so be it. However the repercussions could be terrible, and whether or not there will be a world where they can live in peace, is a major question.
It's one of the better of this series, she continues to be quite readable, but it's not amazing.
Sauscony has to try to rescue him and if that takes bringing in the Ruby Empire, so be it. However the repercussions could be terrible, and whether or not there will be a world where they can live in peace, is a major question.
It's one of the better of this series, she continues to be quite readable, but it's not amazing.
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