The Quantum Rose

This novel had a different feel to it than the other novels in this series. It focused on a little known older brother of Soz and Kelric-Havryl. Havryl is one of the 10 children of Eldrinson and Roca who never plans to leave Lyshriol and seems happy with the quiet life on his world. Havyrl married young, his childhood sweetheart when they were both still children and has managed successfully for most of his life to stay out of the politics that rule the lives of his family. That is until his relatives are imprisoned by the Allieds after the death of Soz and Jaibriol II. The world as he knows it shatters. His family is being held prisoner by the Allieds on his home world of Lyshriol-with no immediate plans to ever let them go free. Then he escapes in what is supposed to be his fathers death pod into space to be picked up by what is left of the Skolian government. He ends up spending 30 days alone in space in a coffin and has taken to drinking to combat the memories. The Skolians have taken him to a quiet backwater planet to rest and recover. One day while hunting in the woods he sees Kamoj Quanta Argali bathing naked in a pool. He decides to offer to marry her. Her planet appears to be the remains of a Eubian experiment on genetically engineering the perfect slave. The majority of the culture matures quickly, is unable to read or write, lives shorter lives and is very inclined to obey and negotiate. When someone makes an offer, you match it if you can, if not your are forced to accept the terms of the highest bidder. Kamoj is bethrothed to Jax Ironbridge-a local bully-whom she does not particularly care for, but is a match that would benefit her people. Her role seems to be similar to a land baron. She owns or at least manages the land in hereditary position, the people work for "her" but she is ultimately responsible for them. Havyrl is a mysterious man who appears one day-from far away (she has no concept of other worlds) and rents from her the ancient castle of her ancestors. She is reluctant to part with it but he makes an offer she can not refuse. After viewing her bathing naked he makes another offer she can not refuse in his offer of marriage. She is reluctant to marry him. While she is relieved to get out of the marriage to Jax, she knows the marriage to Jax would have benefited her people and while Havyrl is wealthy, he is not a leader on her planet. Jax Ironbridge is also reluctant to lose Kamoj, more reluctant than either Kamoj or Havyrl expect. This novel deals with many issues. On one hand it is about the complex relationship between an abuser and the abused. On another hand it is about finding you are not alone in the universe and what your culture is really about. It is also about Havyrl finding peace in his place as a member of an important political family. I liked it, a lot. I especially liked the scenes on Lyshriol with the whole clan-it was interesting to really have a chance to read about Soz and Kelrics siblings and their liv

Thank you Catherine Asaro for breaking my doldrums in fiction reading. I've been deploring the scarcity of good novels in the romance genre and many books in the sci-fi-fantasy genre are just too weird to work as an alternate genre. Thankfully, this isn't weird. I also loved Asaro's "Veiled Web" which was not a Skolian Empire book. This one is a Skolian book and it is my first of those. That I am reading them out of order seems to make no difference. Asaro grabs me right from the beginning by introducing me to the heroine, who seems to be right out of a medieval novel and consigned to living in a culture that is that primitive. But lo and behold, she lives in the future and the man who rents a palace from her on her world is from an advanced culture that's knowledge is way ahead of where we are now. She marries this man in an arranged marriage, breaking her engagement to another who will give this couple lots of problems. Just one contrast between the two characters' worlds is that the medical treatment she is used to receiving is that of a medieval herbalist whereas the medical treatment he receives, from the doctor stationed with him, involves his skin regenerating over a wound in hours. Her culture is also very passive and seems on its way to extinction which his is not. Asaro's knowledge and training (PhD in hard science) pay off here big time as she can write very well layered fiction yet she is also able to pack emotion into page after page, something often missing from a male sci-fi author's work. A friend told me this just won the Nebula award and I'm not surprised. I am not a science person and she did not lose me with the science in her novel. There are many plot twists along the way but at heart this story never departs from being a love story about the two lead characters. I'm happy with that.

Asaro has really hit her stride in this new saga in her Skolian universe. She successfully blends not just romance and hard science, but politics, genetics, cultural expectations and change--and gives us complex, fascinating characters.Her villian is absorbingly complex; as she delves deeper into the ramifications of the Trader culture, Asaro is creating tensions and conflicts within what once were easy villains to hate--but at the cost of complexity. With THE ASCENDANT SUN and now this book, the Traders are coming into focus as individuals, some of whom are beginning to realize that they are part of a culture gone morally bankrupt, if powerful in every other sense. (One wonders what Jax is going to think, once he travels...)Yes there is sex, all well-written, sometimes harrowing, other times graceful, with scintillants of humor.Reaching the last page leaves the reader torn between a desire to reread more slowly--and to have the next book NOW!Highly recommended.