Harmony

I liked this, a colonisation effort has discovered a planet where they can interact with the harmonic vibrations of that planet's soul. Isolated from mainstream humanity they control the export of a very rare alloy, which both humanity's space force and the local aliens badly need for their war. Works surprisingly well.

The focus jumps between an uneducated Worker caste girl who finds herself the next true High Priestess of Harmony able to intercede with the planet - ish; and a milita pilot who's recruited to attempt a spy mission on the planet and retrieve the formula for the metal before the aliens invade. You can probably guess the rest, it does more or less unfold as you'd expect. But it's well written with empathetic characters. show more Sissy the new High Priestess is completely charming, but her naivity struggles against the corruption in the temple. Sadly this is perhaps the least believable aspect as she learns to manipulate hardened priests far to quickly. The "science" is sadly lacking even Jake's attempted explanations to himself don't hold water. Hopefully this is all resolved somewhere along the line.

Enjoyable. The book ends decisively, but a trilogy has been written, which I'm likely to explore. show less

Harmony is a science fiction novel by fantasy author Irene Radford writing under another name. I recognized some of the themes and romantic elements familiar from Radford’s fantasy works. The novel takes place largely on the planet Harmony, a society governed by a caste-based social order. A young worker caste named Sissy is suddenly elevated to the role of High Priestess because of her gift of prophecy and ability to calm Harmony’s earthquakes. At the same time, Confederated Star Systems officer Jake Hannigan has been sent undercover to Harmony to try to acquire the formula for Badger Metal, needed to shield spaceships. These two people from very different cultures will collide in ways that will change both forever.

I found this show more book a bit difficult to get into at first. The novel alternates between Sissy, Jake’s and some other characters’ perspectives. Initially I found I wasn’t getting to know, or particularly liking, any of the characters enough to be invested in the story. Once Jake’s and Sissy’s paths began to intersect, I found the story more engaging and I became more interested in how things would turn out. It would have been better if Sissy’s character was developed a bit more. It wasn’t entirely evident why people reacted to her as they did. The caste-system and religion of Harmony was interesting and the novel was worth reading for the world-building alone. show less

This is a great entry level SciFi novel with interesting worlds, social structures, and political machinations. I enjoyed how Bentley spun the tale to show how the Harmonite culture changed over time and would recommend this book.

I was chosen to read this book in the August batch of Early Reviewers. It did start off a little slow, especially with Jake's charachter but I really enjoyed reading it and will definitely be looking for the second book. The world of Harmony practices isolationism from the rest of the universe and is shrouded in mystery. Harmony's society is split into castes, with the priest caste at the top, and the high priestess at the top of the priest cast. Sissy is a young woman of Worker Caste but was born with all the cast marks on her cheek. After she saves their world from an earthquake and speaks prophecy she is elevated to High Priestess of Harmony by the High Priest who thinks he can conrol her, and the High Council through her. CSS is a show more human alliance outside of Harmony and needs a precious metal, badger metal, to help fight the aliens they are at war with, the Marils. Badger Metal is only produced in Harmony and no one outside the planet has the formula. Jake, a military space pilot and newly made spy, is sent to Harmony to get the formula. He ends up becoming Sissy's bodyguard. I don't want to spoil the rest but I couldn't put it down after the two stories merged. show less

Very interesting idea using the concept that everything must harmonize on the main world. The plot was interesting and kept me mentally involved throughout the book.

On the negative side, I was repeatedly close to not finishing the book due to so many spelling/formatting errors. These mistakes drove me crazy!! Authors should never publish books until they are formatted correctly. Also, character development could use some major work. The characters' choices eventually made sense, but the reader needs more information to justify things like why a young, naive girl could suddenly and easily stand up against the most powerful man on the planet.

Overall, decent read if the formatting and spelling mistakes could be taken care of.

This is a great entry level SciFi novel with interesting worlds, social structures, and political machinations. I enjoyed how Bentley spun the tale to show how the Harmonite culture changed over time and would recommend this book.

I really really enjoyed this book. It's a great length, the characters are personable and grow on you through out the story. It's a very unique concept. I love the tension between characters. Sissy is an awesome example of a character that really metamorphosis from start to finish. Jake is a piece of work too, but Harmony puts them all to shame.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to another book in this series with Sissy, Jake and all the amazing cast. A+++ one of my new favorites! Well written.