You can tell a book is good when the characters don't behave at all like you want them to and you still love them. Jaran is a great book with a really intriguing setting, one which mixes sci-fi with fantasy, and feminist deconstruction with primitive society. The world reminded me a little bit of a sci-fi version of the Fionavar books' Delrei tribe. The romance includes very little surrender. ( )

I didn't like it that much although I read it from beginning to end. Tess the "heroine" was annoying and I didn't really care about her. I am not really reading the rest of the series. And the intrigue was not intriguing at all, at least to me. As far as a romance goes, it just didn't do it for me. Like I said I didn't like how Tess behaved or her attitude. ( )

This book is an okay science fiction book - solid but not too remarkable - but a FABULOUS romance novel.

In the future, not too distant, not too near, the Earth has been conquered by a race of aliens with a vast Empire. Charles Sorensen is the only human to be promoted into the nobility in this alien Empire, and Tess is his only little sister. Tess is a fabulous linguist, and Charles hopes to use her to help in his cause for human independence, but the burden of her brother's fame has cost her dearly. What she wouldn't give to be accepted for herself.

On her way back to her brother's fief, a system of planets, including one settled by humans long ago, she sees the aliens interfering with her brother's domain. In trying to spy on the aliens, Tess immerses herself in a nomad culture of humans on the planet. She feels at home here, more than she has anywhere before, and begins to gain strength and confidence on this strange world.

I have hunted down the next two books in the series and found them to be not a good as this one. This one, however, can stand alone and is a favorite reread of mine. I would recommend this book to romance readers equally with science fiction readers. ( )

The first time I read this book, I was floored by how captivating, engaging, entertaining, and engrossing it was for a sci-fi (technically) novel. This is despite the fact that I was reading a double-spaced draft in a cardboard box: it totally drew me in. My handicap was that I had long-since fallen out of love with most of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and had grown tired of worn-out plot cliches and two-dimensional characters. "Jaran" really surprised me. When I thought I knew where the story was going, Elliott surprised me and turned a different direction pretty much every time. When it was finally printed I was proud to own a "real" copy!The sci-fi elements are minimal and only there to set the scene. This is not about spaceships and gadgets, it's about people, politics, and social systems. More romance, in the classical sense, than action adventure, there's still enough of both to make it a page-turner. A nitpicky thing I really liked on my first reading, was her skill with rendering scenes and situations realistically without giving us too much information. Horses make new riders sore, horses can't be ridden relentlessly without soring THEM, personal hygiene is problematic on the march, etc. Nice touches.It's now available in a special anniversary edition. That makes me very happy: I hope her books sell like hotcakes for a long, long time! ( )

I love this book. I have found the rest of the series rather ordinary, but there is something enduringly poignant about this book. The characters came to life for me the first time I read it and I could scarcely breathe the first time I read the "ride down the avenue". A startlingly vivid and memorable read.