Survival

Very clever book, great characters, very affecting. I'm usually not a fan of sci-fi, but the focus in this book is on the sociology, emotions, motivations, and relationships of the humans and aliens, so it felt wonderfully accessible. The romance was a little half baked in my opinion but it's not the main relationship the story hinges on, so I didn't really mind. The relationship between Mac and Brymn is beautiful and made me cry.

An excellent book! Julie Czerneda, winner of Canada's Aurora Award, has created a unique tale where the principles of biology underscore the essential mystery of the story. Dr, Mackenzie Connor, known as "Mac" to her colleagues, is a research biologist, specializing in salmon spawning. Unfortunately, her research is disrupted by a visiting Drhyn, looking specifically for her. Brymn is giant, alien and blue (Ms. Czerneda is known for her ability to bring aliens to life on the page, and she succeeds again here; Brymn has a sense of humour, he is enthusiastic about his specialty and interests, he even lies when he thinks he should, to her and to his own kind--which all sounds very human, but his motives are entirely alien). He is an archaeologist who is investigating a series of disappearances occurring along a space lane which leads to his planet as well as to others. At one end of this lane--a wormhole-like technology that transects areas of space, enabling faster-than-light space travel--is the Chasm, a region of space where planets have somehow been denuded of life in the past. Mac knows very little of this, but Brymn's visit triggers a series of incidents that draw her directly into the mystery: another alien species tries to kidnap her in the night, a human bureaucrat arrives who seems to be something other than what he claims to be, and intruders invade the living/research space of her base on the Canadian West Coast. For the sake of her species, and herself, Mac finds that she must join Brymn in his search for answers, and eventually leaves Earth in this quest. But this novel isn't about an ordinary quest. It deals with the far-reaching issues of biological determinants in people who are otherwise intelligent, even among Mac's own colleagues. One of my favourite lines in this novel is Mac's response to a textbook on alien reproduction: "Nature found the most ridiculous ways to propagate. Adding intelligence and culture to biology seemed only to compound the issue, not simplify it" (p. 273). This level of perception about living beings, including those not of this particular world, is what gives this novel its own life. The journey Mac makes is that she learns more about what constitutes being human, as well as alien, in her experiences off world. Since the story hasn't finished with the end of this novel, I truly look forward to reading its sequel.

I used to read a lot of science fiction. I picked up new copies of the various pulp sci-fi magazines and a correspondent sent me his old copies. I especially liked GALAXY, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and later ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION, but I occasionally read ANALOG as well. I also read the novels by numerous sci-fi authors, including Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, Norton and a host of others. I don't read much of that genre these days because of time and the fact that while there was always a lot of schlock out there (as there is in any book type) it seems like many sci-fi books these days are take offs on movies or TV shows (I have a possibly snobbish dislike for such made up books). However, after reading Julie E. Czerneda's "Survival: Species Imperative #1" I may be hooked again. Here is a sci.-fi. book actually written by someone trained in biology. Yes, I know that the space travel involved probably does not have much of a scientific base (Isaac Asimov once said that one needed such devices just to make plots work), but the depth of the work keeps the reader turning pages. While I have my doubts that we will ever (or at least in my lifetime) find aliens like the Dhryn or the Ro, they are fabulous constructs by someone who at least has a handle on how weird living things (even on this planet) can be. The book centers on one human- Mackenzie Winifred Elizabeth Wright Conner (Mac to her friends) and one alien- the Dhryn Brymn. Mac is a biologist who studies salmon on the Pacific Coast; Brymn is an alien archeologist from a species that mostly has little use for science. Add a "spy" named Nikolai Piotr Trojanowski, a Quechua biologist named Emily Mamani Sarmiento, worlds along a inter-stellar transport line being stripped of every living thing, and of course the seemingly ever present and possibly malevolent Ro, who are invisible and thus not easily understood, and you have a fascinating experiment in imagination- the "what if" that hooked me on science fiction in the beginning. The ending, which is far from obvious until almost the last 20 pages or so (although it starts to become somewhat plausible a bit earlier), leads us into both the light and the dark recesses of the mind- both of human and alien. This is a very good read for those who like a bit of meat in their sci.-fi. I'm looking forward to other books by this author!

Julie Czerneda's Survival is a rare blend of hard science fiction and exceptional characterization. Biologist author Julie Czerneda creates unusually believable aliens in her stores, and this first novel in a projected series 'Species Imperative' is no exception, building entire races and moving scenarios as it tells of an Earth scientist caught in interspecies struggles.

The way this novel ends is so sharp you could seriously cut yourself on it. Although you know going in that a book with sub-title of "Species Imperative #1" is not going to contain the whole story, the sharpness of the conclusion to #1 was almost painful. Not in a bad way, but in that the author has been so skillful in leading the reader up to that zenith, the brevity of the final few pages leaves you gasping to know more. And checking to see if the next instalment is scheduled for release yet.In many ways what Czerneda has created is a very interesting mystery story. A biological mystery story. With the advantage that as science fiction the author she can create her own Universe and aliens to enhance the mystery. I do not want to give much more about the story away since it is important to learn "the facts" as does the central character Dr. Mackenzie (Mac) Conner.What I can say is that Mac is a strong, well drawn character surrounded by other interesting people - both human and non-human. The Universe in which this story is set is so defined as to be open to limitless possibilities. The small portion of it which Czerneda has defined in more detail and set the novel in is inhabited by two alien species (the Dhyrn and the Ro) and Earth. Both the Dhryn culture and biology are well thought out. About the Ro, who are very interesting, it would be most accurate to say that although at the conclusion we "know" the Ro much better, they are still a mystery.When you have reached the end, the title "SURVIVAL - Species Imperative #1" makes perfect sense. And the fact the blurb on the author states she is a former biologist in no surprise. Czerneda has made use of her background in biology to write a most entertaining biological sci fi novel that left me wishing the next book was all ready avaliable.

Survival is the first novel in the Species Imperative series. In the early decades of the twenty-first century, humanity expanded into the Solar system, establishing a permanent presence on Mars, the Jovian moons and elsewhere. A hundred and fifty years after the first child was born on Mars, the stars reached mankind; a non-Human probe arrived in the Solar system with an invitation to join from the Interspecies Union. It provided information on building and maintaining transects to bypass normal space. Over the next hundred years, humanity migrated to some three hundred extra-Solar worlds and used the new technology obtained from the IU to repair much of the ecological damage done to Earth in the prior centuries.In this novel, MacKenzie Connor, Ph.D., is a biologist and coadministrator of the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility located within Castle Inlet. Mac and her partner, Emily Mamani Sarmiento, are monitoring Emily's newly improved DNA Tracer from Field Station Six on the Tannu River. After six days of boredom, a Chinook salmon run suddenly appears on the screen. Everything is going well until Emily detects a very large presence swimming in a diving suit among the salmon.Field Station Six is graced with a visit from Brymn, the first member of the Dhryn species to visit Earth, and his diplomatic escort. After the introductions, Mac orders Brymn to leave the station. As he is leaving with the Dhryn, the escort gives Mac an official envelope. Shortly thereafter, another craft arrives to take Mac and Emily back to the Base.Brymn has come for assistance in solving some mysterious disappearances among the worlds of the Naralax transect, which he has associated with the lifeless worlds of the Chasm. He will only talk with her when he is reasonably sure that no one can overhear them. He gets her to promise not to tell anyone else about their discussions, but she includes Emily as a matter of course.Later she awakens in her office to a total electrical blackout. Despite the multiply redundant systems, all power in the Base has been lost. Moreover, there is something in the office with Mac, making strange skittering noises. After scaring it off, she finds slime paths over her floor, walls and even the ceiling. She chases the thing away from her office and through the Base and over the walkway to land. Over and over she hears it, but can't see it. From the shore she tracks it inland to an empty clearing, which nevertheless contains an invisible ship which carries the thing away in a blast of jetfire. When she returns to the Base, she finds that Emily is gone, presumably kidnapped after a violent struggle.This story describes her encounters with an alien species who refuse to study biology, an overgovernment that is chasing invisible aliens, and the invisible aliens themselves. She flees to Haven, the Dhryn home world, in a Dhryn vessel, almost dying of thirst due to the ineptness of the crew. Once there, she finds the Dhryn to be