Julie E. Czerneda

I dived into the audiobook version of "A Thousand Words For Stranger" knowing nothing about it except that I loved the title.

The start took my breathe away. I was dropped into a complex, planet-spanning, multi-species universe where neither I nor the main character knew what was going on other than that she was in danger and had to get off-world fast. I felt the same excitement that I did going to "Star Wars" in 1977 when everything was new and unknown but it felt solid and it moved fast and show more I really wanted to learn more.

What followed was a romp across strange worlds, including a gigantic shopping mall in space (no, it wasn't called DS9), a swamp city with venomous priests and a city where the buildings had no doors, with the main character, Sira being pursued by pirates, Trade Pack Enforcers and members of a telepathic, teleporting race call The Clan.

Sira's memory has been suppressed so she doesn't know who she is or why so many people are after her. She takes refuge with charismatic Captain Morgan, who runs his own spacecraft single-handed and trades across Pact Space.

The relationship between Sira and Captain Morgan is built skillfully and manages to provide the emotional drive of the story as well as being central to the mystery surrounding Sira and her loss of memory.

Some of the secondary characters are beautifully drawn, almost to the point of distracting me. For example, the book opens from the point of view of a Trade Pact Enforcer from an avian species. I loved being inside his head but I didn't get to go there again after the first few chapters.

There was a slight hiatus about eighty per cent through when a major crisis is spectacularly resolved but none of the hinted at but not explained issues around Sira have been dealt with. This made the set-up of the ending a little too dense in content that could have been shared earlier.

These are minor niggles. I spent most of my time cheering for the good guys, hissing at the bad guys and wondering if what I thought I'd figured out would actually turn out to be the explanation (The answer: mostly yes but with a few surprises- I think this is the perfect mix).

After I'd cheered at the end, both because it was a good ending and a great set up for something else interesting to happen next, I looked up Julie E. Czernado and discovered that this idea-packed, well-written, epic SF story was her debut novel and that it was published way back in 1997 (and still stands up).

So the bad news is that, even though I'm an avid Science Fiction fan, I somehow missed out on reading Julie E Czernado until now. The good news is that I have another seventeen novels set in the same universe ahead of me. show less

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Title: Ties of Power
Series: Trade Pact #2
Author: Julie Czerneda
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 499
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Sira and Jason Morgan are living safe from the Clan. Jason has been show more growing in power under Sira's tutelage. Things start to go sideways though when Sira's cousin, now also exiled, shows up on their doorstep. It would appear that there is another splinter group of the Clan opposed to the Council but who want Jason just as dead and Sira under their control. The Council itself hasn't stopped playing games either.

This leads to Sira being abducted and her reproductive organs stolen. Morgan rescues her and then she compels him to go after those who did this to her. Meanwhile, she gets sidetracked into attending a ceremony on an alien world where the aliens apparently know about the M'hir, the energy space the Clan uses. Sira learns that the M'hir is a whole other ecosystem and not some creation of the Clan.

Kidnappings, murders and mystery abound. Everyone comes together and Sira deals with those who have crossed her. Her own father tries to murder Morgan in an attempt to kill her but thanks to Sira's training Morgan not only survives but fights back. This allows Sira, as the most powerful of the Clan, to wipe her father from existence.

The Clan is invited into the Trade Pact and the Council has voted to join. Cooperation, good cheer and hope are everywhere. And Sira has her naughty bits back so she and Morgan can consumate their Joining.

My Thoughts:

Yeah, not nearly so enthralling as the first book. Way, way, way further down the romance road.

Most of my problem stemmed from the fact that if Jason and Sira had taken a straight line from point A to point B, they could have solved their problems with power and force and violence. Instead, because of “feelingz”, they continually get hurt and so can't fully use their power together. This leads to an elliptical storyline where they keep going in circles while edging extremely slowly to that mythical point B.

A bloody ship with some big guns and a fully healthy Sira with her powers could have wiped her father and co-conspirators from the face of the universe in about 1 month. But my goodness, where would the “feelingz” be then? There would have been at least half the collateral damage if Jason Morgan had been a bloody man and just killed the people who were threatening him and his wife. Running away and wishing that things will get better don't solve problems.

This crossed the line from the kind of romance that I do like into the kind that I really don't like.

Up until the very end, Sira just gets hammered and reacts, every single time. It frustrated me because I could see how easy it would have been for the Morgan's to have planned differently and have everything turn out better. The story was interesting and everything we learn is cool but it came at the cost of Jason Morgan acting like a pussy and Sira a fainting maid instead of the extremely powerful and talented powerhouses they are.

Czerneda is now on probation and depending on how the next book turns out will decide if I continue with her or not.

★★★☆☆ show less

I remember reading The Big Idea for Czerneda's latest book on Scalzi's blog (ok, it was 2018) and was intrigued by her idea of an extremely long-lived being. I didn't realize that Czerneda was a biologist, and had grounded her ideas in theories about trade-offs between reproduction and longevity. It turned out the blog was promoting the latest book in the story of Esen, which sent me back to this first book, Beholder's Eye.. Esen is described as a shapeshifter, but in actuality, is a more show more crystaline-type being whose small group consider themselves a sort of archivists for sapiens. Esen's adventures proved unexpectedly entertaining.

"I'd licked the problem of holding form. And six hundred days later, I'd accomplished the first half of my task: deciphering the molecular structure of the Kraosians. I'd scrounged hair and nail clippings from several hundred different individuals simply by hanging around the rear of barbershops for a couple of months. That information was safely chewed, swallowed, and incorporated into my biochemical memory. I was a success.

I spat out a flea."

Czerneda states she wrote this, her second book, for herself, and with two goals: to show a meaningful friendship and to have fun with the possibility of Esen's abilities.

Mission accomplished.

That it turned into an intriguing mystery and side exploration of some of the creatures of the Fringe of space doesn't hurt either. There were parts where I laughed, parts where I was tense, and there may have even been a moment of sadness, but I'm not telling.

The shapeshifting was used well, and I appreciated the way that Esen 'became' the creature she shifted into, accounting for genetic and biological instincts, such as the herding instinct of the Gunthor. Esen is relatively young, for her species--a mere five-hundred standard--and I thought the narrative voice captured that well. This would work at a new-adult novel, in many ways; it about her first assignment away from her Web, and decisions she must make on her own.

Interestingly, I have to say that it reminded me a great deal of A Memory Called Empire. Completely different technological focus, but very similar thematically. I'll be going on to the next. show less

This moves the story forward without hitting the "middle book of the trilogy" trap, where everything gets worse and the book isn't any fun.

Picking this up after a year, I hit a "silly words SF" speedbump until I resynced with all the people, races, and plants in this world. Czerneda is a biologist, so all the names feel justified, not just an authorial whim.

Interestingly, this really works as a prequel. The context of knowing where this story goes many generations later allows the story to show more expand into the future. I can feel the evolutionary past and future in the story. show less