A review by tessisreading2
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro

2.0


Too much romance for a hard science fiction novel; too much hard science fiction for a romance novel. Essentially. I love a good sci-fi romance as much as the next person (probably more; most of the sf readers I know don't read romance) but the actual primary romance in this book takes up very few pages - it is much more Soz's story as she searches for romance, deals with family drama, and fights a space war; she has several partners throughout the book (although it's pretty clear to anyone who's ever read a romance novel who she will end up with) and the actual amount of time spent with her True Love, page-wise, is extremely limited. Additionally, finding romance/seeking a true partner is very low on Soz's priority list - which is fine, but means that the reading experience is like reading an sf novel rather than reading a romance novel... but the romance component is entirely reliant on Genetic True Love Soul-Bonding Psychic stuff (essentially: instalove) which is basically intolerable in any novel but a romance novel. The family interpersonal stuff is just weird and creepy (
Spoilerthe emperor, Soz's half-brother, is also her uncle because he was actually fathered by their grandfather, and he is also consumed with incestuous desire for their mother
) and there is a lot of rape/psychic rape and recovery from same which makes for depressing reading. Reading about other people's therapy sessions isn't a compelling narrative for me, even when it is space therapy; and using intimate personal assault as a motivator is a throwback to ye olden days (although in fairness that was kind of when this was written). Soz is already a psychic warrior space princess, does she really need to also be a recovering rape victim? Can't she just have the motivation of being a psychic warrior space princess?

One is also left with the sense that this book wants to be a more nuanced look at empire: the Traders are sadistic space psych-vampires, essentially, and yet we also see the Skolian emperor acting the same way
Spoiler(he essentially abducts an underage girl who is terrified of him, holds her prisoner for a few months, cancels her marriage, and returns her, traumatized, to her family, where she promptly starts flunking all of her classes and acting out - and this is one of the most powerful psychics in the empire, so clearly he gets off on this, right?)
... Soz gets into arguments with angry locals about whether what she and her fellow psychic space soldiers do is worth it, or whether they are in fact repressive agents of an evil empire... etc. etc. But the underlying narrative is too black-and-white, and the characters themselves lack nuance too thoroughly, for the book to really get there.