Irsud

If Lamarchos, the second in the Diadem series, was a step up from the first novel, Irsud suggests this rise was a trip up the ramp to jumping the shark. What a mess. The annoying bits of the first two book are repeated in even more silly ways. Our heroine being nude most of the time. Yes, now on a cold metal table. Sex with the first male she meets? Yes, now with an insectoid, who becomes her lover for the rest of the story. Paragraphs that are nothing but random phrases strung together with ellipses? Repeatedly, and now not just when the diadem's powers come into play. Adding the mix, no longer is there the voiceless presence in her mind that she negotiated with in Lamarchos. Now we have three chattering voices -- prior wearers of the show more Diadem -- with their own special skills, described and presented like cards from a role-playing game. Despite being 100s or 1000s of years old, at least one appears to know how to pilot Ffynch brand skimmers and spacecraft. Technology apparently stopped evolving.

All this bodes ill for the next book, but even worse is the plot structure of this novel. The premise is simple:Aleytys has been impregnated with the seed of the dying insectoid queen, has one year of watchful tending, to end with death when the new queen is born. The next 3/4s of the story is slow but readable, as she gradually builds alliances with a race enslaved by the insectoids while playing cat and mouse with the old queen's regent. Then it all falls apart in a rush to wrap things up so that she can move on to the next planet and lover. In the end, Irsud is the same plot as Lamarchos: Aleytys ends the lifecycle of the evil being with much violence and death. But this time the killing is mechanical and bother her little. In a different author's hands, e.g., John Christopher, this might be story of the growth of a new evil. I will be very surprised to see that here. show less

At the end of [b:Lamarchos|615053|Lamarchos|Jo Clayton|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1445355652s/615053.jpg|926423], our heroine Aleytys was separated from her child and sold into slavery to the insectoid nayids. In Irsud she learns she is to serve as the host body for the old nayid queen's egg, which will consume her over the course of a year.

I'm still enjoying these books, but I didn't quite like this one as much as the previous two. Part of it, I think, was the lack of adventure. For a majority of the book, Aleytys doesn't get out much, confined to her quarters and the surrounding area. The other part is the disappointing aliens. They're described as insectoid, and have antennae and multifaceted eyes, but below the neck show more they seem to be more or less humanoid, even mammalian. (It's not entirely clear.) Other parts of their biology are similarly confused; they reproduce like mammals do, but their eggs must be implanted in a third party living creature. I'm not a biologist, and I suppose that in an infinite universe anything is possible, but it didn't feel plausible or convincing to me. I'd almost rather have wholly humanoid aliens than a sort of half-baked attempt.

On the positive side, Aleytys is still a likeable character, and there is some important development in her relationship to the mysterious diadem she wears. I also love the unabashed sexiness in these books. Aleytys is a free spirit and it's refreshing. I don't think you see that kind of un-self-conscious writing in fiction much today, sadly. show less