![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
Another book lent to me by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katlinel who thought I might like it. She was right. I'm gong to get more books by this writer.
After reading this book, the first thing I did was to go and look up the author to see if Asaro knew what she was talking about.
She does.
She has an MA in physics from Harvard and her publications include - "Complex speeds and special relativity," Catherine Asaro, Am. Jour. Phys. April 1996
So, I think I'll read the space propulsion section of the book more carefully next time around - because this is a book that would repay a second reading even without the physics.
The novel has a few minor glitches in the writing style, especially early on when there's rather more 'telling' than 'showing'. This soon smooths out a lot, and besides, it was her first novel.
This novel shows us a complex future in which empathic abilities are closely tied into the operation of ftl craft. This creates a cruelly ironic world where the people necessary to be the really high-tech military are also those who most feel the pain of another person's death.
Asaro works this neatly into her work and this alone would make a good novel. However, what I really enjoyed was that she wrote a romance that avoids the clichés. There was a point early on where I groaned and thought: "Oh Lord, standard romance cliche number four coming up - and it didn't happen!" I found the avoidance of the clichés greatly increased my enjoyment of the book as I was unable to predict what would happen next.
This is a book that I'll happily recommend to anyone who wants hard SF with a dash of romance.
Primary Inversion can be legally read online
katlinel who thought I might like it. She was right. I'm gong to get more books by this writer.After reading this book, the first thing I did was to go and look up the author to see if Asaro knew what she was talking about.
She does.
She has an MA in physics from Harvard and her publications include - "Complex speeds and special relativity," Catherine Asaro, Am. Jour. Phys. April 1996
So, I think I'll read the space propulsion section of the book more carefully next time around - because this is a book that would repay a second reading even without the physics.
The novel has a few minor glitches in the writing style, especially early on when there's rather more 'telling' than 'showing'. This soon smooths out a lot, and besides, it was her first novel.
This novel shows us a complex future in which empathic abilities are closely tied into the operation of ftl craft. This creates a cruelly ironic world where the people necessary to be the really high-tech military are also those who most feel the pain of another person's death.
Asaro works this neatly into her work and this alone would make a good novel. However, what I really enjoyed was that she wrote a romance that avoids the clichés. There was a point early on where I groaned and thought: "Oh Lord, standard romance cliche number four coming up - and it didn't happen!" I found the avoidance of the clichés greatly increased my enjoyment of the book as I was unable to predict what would happen next.
This is a book that I'll happily recommend to anyone who wants hard SF with a dash of romance.
Primary Inversion can be legally read online
no subject
I'm very wary of trying again.
no subject
Like the icon!
no subject
I don't dislike romance per se, but I suspect I've been spoiled by Georgette Heyer, because what I like is friendship-romance, not purely-physical-attraction-romance.
Like the icon!
8-) It's by
no subject
Then I'm afraid I completely bounced off her next novel, The Radiant Seas, and Sunrise Alley is still on the shelf unread. So I will be interested to see what you think of her other work.
no subject
no subject
(NB that Primary Inversion is at the top of the list, and the second-placed book, Irresistible Forces, is an anthology.)
no subject
I didn't like Asaro's story in that collection much, but I recently got such a strong recommendation for Primary Inversions that I've picked it up from BookMooch. The positive reviews here are making me look forward to it even more.
no subject
Indeed. The Bujold story was the sole reason I bought that anthology, and I still haven't read most of the other stories in it.
no subject
It's recommendations tend to be partly based on books you have that are unusual, but they still do this even if you actually rated them very low.
no subject
I guess "Primary Inversion" will be worth reading, even if none of her other stuff is.
no subject