Child of Venus

As an original reader of the first two books, it'd been a long time since I'd walked the aisles of Venus. It's fairly amazing to me that I'd still, from time to time, search on 'Sargent' to see if she'd ever written the third book. The pleasant surprise at seeing she had can not be overstated.What was also exhilarating to me was how-- prodded reflectively by the author-- I was able to recall the first two novels read nearly a decade and a half ago. That alone was worth the trip. However, to be frank, the book is a *good* read. How to describe it? It is a character novel. Specifically, a novel on the entirety of the protagonist's Mahala's life-- her choices, the people with whom she interacts, etc. It's interweavon nicely with a science fiction thread dealing with the fate of Venus, the Habbers, Earth and, ultimately, all of humanity.As such, it's a good thing that Sargent's strength in this novel is the fine, yet gentle literary tapestry of characters, future 'plausible' science, and, quite frankly, leveraged strength wrought from the legacy of the first two novels.If anything, the weakness in the books-- borne out in the closing 50 or so pages-- seems to be the cause of the delay in writing the third book (12 years? 13 years?): namely, how to end it. After all, the trilogy, at least from a Sci Fi standpoint, is about terraforming venus. of course, I'm not going to divulge that here.bottom line? It's a good read. If you haven't read the first two books, SHAME ON YOU. Get them. Read them all. Enjoy them.

Finally!! Years ago, a friend found "Venus of Dreams," at a bookstore and bought it for me. I enjoyed the story that unfolded about a girl named Iris. Her dream was to become a part of the terraforming of Venus and she see's this dream come true as an adult. Iris ultimately pays the price for her dream of transforming Venus, when the planet itself claims her life. The second book, "Venus of Shadows," is by far the best of the series. Sargent weaves an excellent story (as always) by using Iris's decendants (in particular, Risa, Iris's daughter) to tell of both their personal desires as well as the desire to breath life into Venus itself. Again, there are hard prices to pay for these desires. The last and final book, "Child of Venus" wraps up the entire tale. Again, Iris's decendants are still terraforming Venus, amid all the troubles and turmoil that existed from the previous books. Normally I would have given this book Four Stars. But, I gave the book "FIVE STARS" partly because - it was actually a very good and interesting book. But mainly because I read the first book when I was about 21 or so, and I'm now 36. I guess I'm just grateful that the last book was published during my lifetime. Pamela Sargent has been one of my favorite authors since I read "Venus of Dreams." I've read many of her other books and find them all extremly interesting and well written. I hope to read more of her work in the future.