The premise: ganked from BN.com: Living in exile on a deserted planet, Sauscony and Jaibriol, each the heir to an interstellar empire, become entangled in the machinations of the Skolian Empire. Interstellar war erupts and Jaibriol is snatched away to be the unwilling ruler of the Highton Aristos. Sauscony must lead an invading space fleet to rescue him from his own Empire-without revealing that they are married. With much of interstellar civilization poised on the brink of destruction, it is the devotion of these two lovers, their sacrifices, and their heroism, that might just forge a new order. My Rating: 5 - It's a GambleSo, this is not the best book to start with if you haven't yet read any of Asaro's space opera/SFR. No, the best book to start with is Primary Inversion, and even that's been the best book of the series to date (and by date, I mean by how far I've read). Asaro's at her best when her characters have something to lose and she can focus on the action of bringing a story to a close. But in The Radiant Seas, there were a lot of world-building sections that had me utterly disengaged, and really, there were too many POV characters (I'm remembering at least eight) and that always dilutes a story for me. I was so tempted to put this book down and declare myself done with the series, but I pushed onward, because I want to see what else the series has to offer, and it didn't seem right to make this book a DNF and still read more of the series. And the ending does redeem my enjoyment of the book, though sadly, it takes a long, long time to get to that point. I still plan on continuing the series with the next book in the publication order, which is Ascendant Sun, but after that, I'll probably be taking a break.Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. You'll get some spoilers for Primary Inversion too, so please, if this is a series you're interested in, don't read the full review. However, if you're caught up on at least Primary Inversion and The Radiant Seas, feel free to read the full review, which is in my blog and I've linked to it below. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. REVIEW: Catherine Asaro's THE RADIANT SEAS Happy Reading!
The Radiant Seas (1999) 487 pages by Catherine Asaro.Another Excellent tale set in the Skolian universe. Sequel to Primary Inversion. The Skolian universe: many thousands of years ago an alien race took some humans from Earth and settled them on Raylicon. The group on Raylicon discovered space travel and started colonizing planets. There were a couple rises and falls of civilizations. The Ruby empire thrived with their empathic ability. A scientist trying to improve the line and make it more stable instead created the Aristos. The empire split into the Skolia and Eube, a.k.a. traders. Earth, the allied powers, discovered space travel and their expansion finally overlapped with the Skolian space. There are now three major powers. The story picks up from the end of Primary Inversion, where Soz, one of the three in line to be the next imperator (military leader) of Skolia and Jaibriol II heir to the Eubian throne have gone into seclusion on an unknown planet after faking their deaths.While Soz and Jaibriol are building a life on Prism the plotting of the Traders to build there own psiberweb and the Skolian moves to counter continue. The first half of the book hits the high points of the next 15 years setting the stage for war between Skolia and the Traders. Asaro does a great job with creating characters with depth and their own personality. The battles all seem to come down to seconds, e.g. Althor is ambushed but manages to fend off the first wave of attackers and is seconds away from escaping when he is captured. That theme continues with all of the other battles. The SF is clever. Locks and Keys creating the basis of the psiberweb. The Locks were created by the first empire that fell and the technology to recreate them doesn't exist so there are only the three. The keys have to be Rhon psions, decendents of the Ruby dynasty.It was fun to read. It went quickly. You could probably read it without having read Primary Inversion, but I would suggest reading that one first to give you more of the back story.
What do You think about The Radiant Seas (1999)?
This is, of course, the book I *wanted* to read immediately after book #1 since it is the direct sequel in the Skolian universe. But I can always go back and re-read the books in any order I like, later.Asaro handles the major time-shifts nicely, giving us just enough information about how Soz and Jaibriol get through the years, who is born, who lives, who dies, and how everyone gets split up through the universe. And although it is truly the sequel to book #1, it's also clearly the prequel to several other books. You cannot miss this book, to read the Skolian sagas. Although I don't know why anyone would miss it. Just reminding you to pay attention. You'll need these details in other books.
—Cat
My favorite of the earlier Catherine Asaro Skolian Empire space opera books. OK, expectations were not that high, having forced myself to get through some others on auto-pilot, but this was fun. It has a bigger sweep, focusing on multiple characters and plotlines as 2 of the 3 great civilizations careen toward war. The author did a fine job of moving the plot forward and giving just enough interest and depth to the characters to make me care. And this avoided the weakness of some of her others books, focusing too much on 1 or 2 characters (thereby revealing the shallowness of the characterizations and repetitiveness of thought that made me struggle with other of her books).
—Dave
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
—Nicholas Whyte
