The Madness Season

A grand world and time-spanning tale, and yet a very intimate story of what it means to be human.
Friedman writes truly alien aliens and worlds, a tight and complex plot, with thought-provoking, sometimes chilling, themes.
Highly recommended.

Not my favorite book ever, but I give it many, many points for originality. Somehow, the author combines hive-mind aliens; more aliens; non-embodied entities; shapeshifters (more than one type, at that); vampires; Earth's takeover, and the aftermath; a fight for the salvation of the human race; a multiple-planet, interstellar setting; and probably several things I've forgotten. And, somehow, it works. It works well. All these things are mixed together and an intriguing, actually coherent story comes out of it. I mean, a book involving humanity's enslavement by aliens and a vampiric protagonist is either going to be an enthusiastic mess or well worth reading. Obviously, this is the latter.

Not my favorite book ever, but I give it many, many points for originality. Somehow, the author combines hive-mind aliens; more aliens; non-embodied entities; shapeshifters (more than one type, at that); vampires; Earth's takeover, and the aftermath; a fight for the salvation of the human race; a multiple-planet, interstellar setting; and probably several things I've forgotten. And, somehow, it works. It works well. All these things are mixed together and an intriguing, actually coherent story comes out of it. I mean, a book involving humanity's enslavement by aliens and a vampiric protagonist is either going to be an enthusiastic mess or well worth reading. Obviously, this is the latter.

I think the premise for the novel was very interesting. I like when multiple mythologies are pulled into a single universe with an attempt for coherence. In particular, I loved the Marra - the idea of a species that exists only to "fit in" is an awesome concept for dissection and a great mirror for that piece of us that is always trying to find our place in the world. However, he sort of sullied the pure vision by making the Marra partially "emotional" - it felt a little like a convenient plot twist to get some romance into the novel. Additionally, it seemed a bit gratuitous to have two shapechanging species in a single novel without a link.

4.5 stars
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

I am quickly becoming a fan of C.S. Friedman. Audible Frontiers has recently produced all her novels in audio format, so I snatched them up and I'm happy I did. Her science fiction is original, imaginative, and super smart.

In The Madness Season, a man named Daetrin is old enough to have fought in the last battle when the Earth was conquered by the aliens of Tyr. That was three hundred years ago and the Tyrians want to know how Daetrin is still alive. So they've captured him, just like they've rounded up all the humans who they think they can learn something from. The Tyr have been genetically engineering the humans who are left on Earth -- breeding out creativity, intelligence, and show more rebelliousness in the hopes of making them more biddable -- but some humans have found ways to resist their captors' plans. Daetrin is worried about what they intend to do with him. If he cooperates with them, will he doom the future of his own people? Should he try to find some allies and fight back? Or is it possible that there are values more important than survival?

The Madness Season showcases many of C.S. Friedman's admirable skills: inventive and perfectly leak-proof plot, excellent character development (this book contains some of my favorite Friedman characters so far), elegant writing style, a nice balance of tension and release, a touch of understated humor, and a foundation of science (math, physics, biology, comparative anatomy, neuroscience, evolution, sociology) that informs without being at all teachy.

Perhaps what I appreciate most about C.S. Friedman is that she creates wonderfully inventive worlds, species, languages, and cultures that truly feel alien rather than just variations on humanity. Friedman's aliens are so alien that they're frightening. They have different language processing equipment, different sensory systems, and completely different ways of thinking. All of their physiological and psychological details are different from ours, but Friedman uses her scientific knowledge to construct them so that they make sense. Friedman also has interesting insights and ideas about human behavior -- again, backed up by research findings about memory, perception, consciousness, sleep, etc.

Jonathan Davis, as I've said so many times before, is one of the very best audiobook narrators. As usual, he gives a terrific reading of The Madness Season. Even though he speaks a little too slowly (I had to increase the playback speed), Davis has perfect cadence and makes it possible to forget that we're being read to. If you see Jonathan Davis' name on the cover, you can be sure it's a good production. I highly recommend The Madness Season -- especially in audio format! show less

A fun, fairly engrossing read. A vampire, an alien shapeshifter, and enslaved humans fight the hive-mind reptiloids that conquered them all. Pacing is a little uneasy. Main character is well-done. The attempt to make vampirism and shape-shifting "scientific" falls pretty short, as do many elements of the alien biologies and planets. Final bit of pivotal action felt very rushed, like the author was just trying to wrap it up. Overall a fun read.

One of the common tags for The Madness Season is "Vampires", and it is, sort of, about vampires. The main character, and almost always narrator, is a vampire who has all but forgotten that he is a vampire. He's also a werewolf, or more properly a shape changer. He lives in a future where the Tyr, a warrior-species with a gestalt mind, has taken over the Earth, and apparently most of the rest of the galaxy (maybe the universe?) .

When the narrator (his name might be Daetrin, but it is almost never used) is irrevocably taken away from Earth by the Tyr, he rediscovers his shape-changing skills and escapes to another subjugated planet. There he meets some members of the Mara, another race of shape changers that live by consuming the show more life-force of other living things, though not necessarily as destructively and bloodily as a vampire.

From there the story follows the basic pattern of single extraordinary earth man with helpful alien side-kick and generic underground resistance force single-handedly defeats the oppressor and frees humanity.

The interesting part of the book is that Friedman is playing with 3 different types of species parasites, or maybe symbionts. Vampire/werewolves that feed off people, but live extraordinarily long lives and can act as a repository of knowledge through crises. Mara that feed off of all life, live all-but-unlimited lives, and can interact with any species, but need another species to act as their collective and individual memories. And the Tyr that collectively lives forever and remembers everything, but is incapable of innovation and creativity.

Don't get me wrong - Friedman isn't going off on a study of gestalt psychology or anything. The different flavors of the problem are developed enough to provide an interesting back story for the characters and to add a different spice to the space-opera. If you're looking for a Vampire book, you won't find it here. But if you're looking for a space opera salted with several different flavors of vampire, you'll probably enjoy The Madness Season.

edited to fix a typo. show less