Violent Stars

Phyllis Gotlieb's earlier novel "Flesh and Gold" impressed me so much with its deeply weird and unique characters and situation that I could hardly wait for "Violent Stars." Gotlieb is not a prolific writer, taking time to craft her work and weave in the poetry of description and mood that elevates her work beyond "sci-fi" and into the literary. But don't be put off by that literary comment! Her stories are invariably rich, meaty, sexy and yes, at times violent, full of wonderfully realized aliens, quirky and strong human characters, and plots full of politics, emotion and romance. This book has been out for a while now, and is available in paperback, so I won't go into a plot summary; suffice it to say that I loved it. I read a lot of SF and I found "Violent Stars" hit all my buttons. I highly recommend the novel, and future novels Phyllis Gotlieb writes.

'Violent Stars' is a brilliant book. It is the companion-piece to the even better 'Flesh & Gold', and while it suffers for the comparison, it is still a gem of a book. Gottlieb revels in her poetic talents: her word-weaving brings her space opera-ish universe to startling life and held me riveted. I couldn't put it down, and regretted that there isn't a part three (yet?).The plot of 'Violent Stars' picks up where 'Flesh and Gold' left it. The Evil Empire has come back to Hydran life, and the well-crafted characters from F & G find themselves thrust once again into the heart of the fray. This time, the stakes are higher, and a new, weirder array of wicked beasties - reminiscent in the best way of the dread Shadows of the Babylon 5 series in their unexpected actions and the horror and confusion their very presence causes - are on hand.Violent Stars is dark, humorous, thoughtful, sincere, and original. I don't want to get more specific, because I don't want to give anything away. I can say that Gottlieb has clearly lavished great effort in bringing this book to life, and it shows. Her writing burned into my head: there are sentences I can still remember, and that is not something that I can say about many other books. She brings scenes and characters to life without boring description, using her poet's sense to suggest and indirectly describe. The result is as riveting in Violent Stars as it was in F & G, and the characters as interesting.It is unfortunate that Violent Stars, while maintaining the gorgeous, lush sound of the first, suffers in terms of its plot. It is most emphatically *not* a self-contained novel - while I read it before F & G, I didn't get the charge out of it I would have by knowing the story that preceded it.But perhaps that is unfair. After all, there are many books that are not meant to be read as stand-alone novels, but that are superior in their proper place. I feel strongly that if you were held enraptured by Gottlieb's first work (as so many people clearly were: I cannot stress how utterly lovely her writing and pacing is), then you need to pick up her second work. It is hard to follow a mighty first novel with a second part as amazing; as I said, if it suffers, it is by comparison only.Oh, and don't miss the monkeys ... I *sincerely* hope we run into them again.

Phyllis Gotlieb's science-fiction mystery "Flesh and Gold" was a masterpiece. Its sequel "Violent Stars" is detailed and descriptive (as are all Gotlieb's novels) but does not match the intensity of its predecessor. Part of the problem may lie in the nature of the sequel: it requires a full knowledge of the plot and outcome of "Flesh and Gold," and going over these details for the new reader makes for lyrically-written but empty exposition for the reader familiar with the prior book. Similarly, "Flesh and Gold" was so tightly plotted that it does not seem to require a sequel; "Violent Stars" feels a bit like an afterthought, as far as plot goes, even unraveling a few of the threads that were tied up neatly in the last book. All this said, the readers that enjoyed "Flesh and Gold" will find "Violent Stars" a worthwhile read. Both humans and aliens are built around solid cores of character, not just devices to carry the plot, and Gotlieb's writing is wonderfully poetic and descriptive even in its most minute details. Her future universe is a sharply visual, tactile thing that seems almost as real as our own present time, and Gotlieb manages the neat trick of introducing the reader to the more science-fictional aspects of her world without ever sacrificing the flow of the story to the need to convey information; one assimilates the nature of her universe without noticing. "Violent Stars" is not the perfect fusion of story, setting, and character in all its roles as science-fiction adventure, mystery story, and character-driven novel: that title has been taken by "Flesh and Gold." But this is a strong book in all respects, intricately imagined and beautifully written-in no way secondhand work! Unfortunately Gotlieb is not as well-known as she should be, but even one of her pretty-good books outclasses much of what can be found on the popular authors' shelves. Think about it. Sex, violence, good writing...what more do you really need?