Last Hawk

"The Last Hawk" is the 2nd book in the Skolian Empire series, and it works very well as a stand-alone. It's engaging, complex, endlessly entertaining, and one of my favorites. Along with Primary Inversion (The Saga of the Skolian Empire) and The Radiant Seas (Skolian Web), this is one of Catherine Asaro's best. I read this novel several times, and like another reviewer said, it stands up to repeat readings very well. On the surface the plot seems almost formulaic for a romance novel - A beautiful young spaceman crashes on a matriarchal planet and is sold from one queen to another. However, the gender reversal is not only refreshing, but offers keen insights into certain societal assumptions we take for granted. Plus, the bits of math & science that Asaro weaves into the game of dice that rules that world pull it all together.

Smoothly written narrative and intriguing concepts blend with Asaro's spice of romance and gender relations to create a distractingly unique story. It's a castaway tale-- a Gulliver's Travels set on a remote planet where women are the masters, and where Kelric, our hero, must learn to adapt or die. I think anyone who has read it will recommend the story for the game of Quis alone, which has so many facets that I confess I was thinking about it long after I had put the book down.

One of the things I have found that I really like about Asaro's books is that the world's are complex and yet they have internal logic. This is true of Coba where a Skolian heir crash lands. He lives a full, very full, life for a man in Coba society as a member of six different "harems" or Calanya for 18 years. In the process he starts serious social changes, not because he wants to overthrow the matriarchy (thank goodness, that thread gets tiresome in science fiction and fantasy) but simply because he is so desired. Yes, there is sex here but more than that is the intellectual dynamics are the more intriguing and enticing parts of the book. Finally a book with a positive look at a female dominant society that doesn't claim to be utopia or in need of "a man's hand".

The Last Hawk is the third Asaro novel I have read, and while they each stand alone (Primary Inversion & Catch the Lightning being the other two) they also build a fascinating description and time-line of an alternative universe. The Last Hawk focuses on what happens to our hero after he is forced to crash on a planet in which matriarchy is the dominant social form. Asaro reminds me of early Joanna Russ & Ursula LeGuinn in her handling of gender issues, which jolt us with their unfamiliarity and make us look at our unbidden assumptions. There is a lot of action here, but a lot of subtlety also. One of the central themes has to do with a planet-wide game which also serves as communication net -- rather as if chess & go were a primitive form of the internet. Ian Bank's "The Player of Games" comes to mind. If you like adventure, alternative realities, personal stories and social commentary in your science fiction, this is a must read.

I've enjoyed all of Asaro's stories, but this one may be my favorite. Her world building of matriarchal Coba is fascinating, as are her characters. I also loved the role reversal, with Kelric playing the Helen of Troy role as most of the female rulers on the planet fall in love with him. There are comic aspects to this, and terrific characterization, but also serious ideas about what it means to be adored but powerless, usually a role assigned to women. I also loved the strategy game of Quis, a truly brilliant fictional invention. I understand that Kelric's story will be carried on in an upcoming Asaro title. I fully intend to snap it up the day it appears.