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hatgirl's review against another edition
First read in 2001 Reread 3/10/2014 ; 8/26/18
erinys's review against another edition
2.0
This novel won the Nebula in 2001, and I really wanted to enjoy it more than I ended up being able to. It's a science fiction romance about a young political leader from a small, primitive, backwater world who falls in love with the princely heir apparent of an ancient and powerful interstellar empire.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.
kuzminichna's review against another edition
5.0
This book is an allegory of quantum processes! Written by a physicist based on her very own dissertation. How cool is that?! Science fiction styled after science - that is so deliciously meta. Even without, it is a delightful story about a very courageous young girl finding love, escaping an abusive relationship, learning the ways of some obscure edge-of-the-Galaxy human-integrated tech, saving a planet or two - with some seriously entertaining Disneyesque scenery (blue unicorns!!! With translucent, rainbow-filled horns and hoofs! Bwoooahahahaha) and mildly erotic scenes to boot. And all that - an allegory of the "mathematical and physical processes of coupled-channel quantum scattering theory"!!! This is so very hard core. So very hard, rainbow sprinkled on top core. My inner girl nerd cried tears of pure unadulterated joy. Filled with rainbows and pretty sparkles.
bookadventurer's review
4.0
One of the things I like best about [a:Catherine Asaro|34854|Catherine Asaro|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1246654947p2/34854.jpg]'s books is the mix of incomprehensible quantum physics, great plots and story lines, and the romantic-science fiction genre.
I love the cerebral themes underlying the fast-moving plot and well-drawn, complex characters:
- immersion into different cultures
- humans seeking freedom
- gender roles
- the nature of human relationships
- emotional distress and healing (caveat: there are some distressing abuse scenes)
She explains the themes: "So this arc of stories deals with two themes: how humans seek freedom and how coming to appreciate cultural differences may help make the world more peaceful. The idea of understanding the "other" is, I think, a major aspect of science fiction. We look at what is different - the alien - and in doing so, perhaps better understand ourselves." - Catherine Asaro.
At the end of this book, Asaro explains her quantum physics allegory for these themes (or is it vice versa?). Reading the explanation at the end of the novel, I found out that each protagonist represented a particle involved in quantum scattering.
This story is about a love triangle, in essence. A young governor of a province on a simple agricultural world is about to become betrothed to the governor of the neighboring province, who she has known since she was a child, when strangers arrive from outer space. One of the strangers, a man with a metal face named Lionstar, jumps in before the betrothal with a dowry offer of his own, throwing confusion and complications into what would have been a simple province merger/marriage alliance. The plot follows the three characters involved in the love triangle, but the scope pans out to cover the entire universe, since Lionstar happens to be the son of a universe-spanning imperial dynastic family.
As usual, the author mixes Mayan alternate history (as contextual information), space opera, agricultural societies, interstellar politics, and interpersonal relations in a complex and vivid tapestry.
I love the cerebral themes underlying the fast-moving plot and well-drawn, complex characters:
- immersion into different cultures
- humans seeking freedom
- gender roles
- the nature of human relationships
- emotional distress and healing (caveat: there are some distressing abuse scenes)
She explains the themes: "So this arc of stories deals with two themes: how humans seek freedom and how coming to appreciate cultural differences may help make the world more peaceful. The idea of understanding the "other" is, I think, a major aspect of science fiction. We look at what is different - the alien - and in doing so, perhaps better understand ourselves." - Catherine Asaro.
At the end of this book, Asaro explains her quantum physics allegory for these themes (or is it vice versa?). Reading the explanation at the end of the novel, I found out that each protagonist represented a particle involved in quantum scattering.
This story is about a love triangle, in essence. A young governor of a province on a simple agricultural world is about to become betrothed to the governor of the neighboring province, who she has known since she was a child, when strangers arrive from outer space. One of the strangers, a man with a metal face named Lionstar, jumps in before the betrothal with a dowry offer of his own, throwing confusion and complications into what would have been a simple province merger/marriage alliance. The plot follows the three characters involved in the love triangle, but the scope pans out to cover the entire universe, since Lionstar happens to be the son of a universe-spanning imperial dynastic family.
As usual, the author mixes Mayan alternate history (as contextual information), space opera, agricultural societies, interstellar politics, and interpersonal relations in a complex and vivid tapestry.
brucefarrar's review
5.0
While having a relaxing swim Kamoj Quanta Argali, the governor of Argali, and her bodyguard are surprised by a group of riders led by Havyrl Lionstar, who appear on the other bank of the river. Embarrassed by the intrusion, Kamoj quickly gets out of the water and dresses, but by the time she joins her bodyguard, the riders have left. Lionstar, who has recently arrived from another world, is notorious for being both rich and rude. As if this breach of privacy wasn’t humiliating enough, on the way back from the river Kamoj runs into another group of riders led by another notoriously rich and difficult man, Jax Ironbridge, the ruler of the neighboring province and her betrothed. It is not a happy meeting. And soon Kamoj finds herself caught in a political and emotional bind by the desires of the two stubborn and powerful men.
clacksee's review
2.0
My gosh, that was awful. Good enough to finish — but only just barely. I haven't been so pleased to be done with a book in a long while.
annieeditor's review
4.0
There's a lot to like about "Quantum Rose," but I think what I liked best was how it totally immerses the reader in a sci-fi world that exists in a time and galaxy far, far away, but it doesn't sacrifice plot and character at the expense of world building. It is equal parts romance and science fiction. The story is driven by character motivations and emotion, but as it is revealed how those things have been manipulated through science, it is up to the characters to either give into it or find some kind of hope in humanity.
The plot would be fairly typical for a regency romance novel: boy meets girl, girl forced into arranged marriage, girl and boy fall in love, but boy has dark past and girl has a tendency towards self-sacrifice. Instead of drawing rooms, however, it takes place on spaceships and planets with forests of trees that have bubbles for leaves.
"The Quantum Rose" manages to have more complexity than the typical fare in either genre, and is a satisfying read.
The plot would be fairly typical for a regency romance novel: boy meets girl, girl forced into arranged marriage, girl and boy fall in love, but boy has dark past and girl has a tendency towards self-sacrifice. Instead of drawing rooms, however, it takes place on spaceships and planets with forests of trees that have bubbles for leaves.
"The Quantum Rose" manages to have more complexity than the typical fare in either genre, and is a satisfying read.
arifel's review
2.0
Some ok ideas but really does not spend enough time actually examining the slavery and rape and other consent issues that arise in the plot. Nope.
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