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Review of Dream Song, book II of the Songs of Talmanor series

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On finishing Selarial’s Song (which I reviewed here)  I raced right out and bought the sequel, Dream Song.

Description from Goodreads:
Selarial is trapped and injured on the distant planet Taledra. Alcar, now on Sorth, finds himself in a conflict with the Singer Council over a rescue expedition. At the same time, the need to discover who betrayed his former command in the Fleet gnaws at his conscience. Both goals drive him to perfect his psychic abilities, establish a new Istari Order to help protect the Coalition from the increasing Thess’n threat and find a way to expose the traitor in the Coalition. 

Hostilities increase on both fronts. The Thess’ns attack Sorth directly and the Singer Council place psychic bonds on Alcar to prevent him from going after Selarial. After the attack, Lord Nafron (Selarial’s father) and Alcar increase Sorth’s covert ops with the Trader’s Guild aimed at intelligence gathering and destabilization of the Thess’n Empire. Nafron works in the Coalition Assembly to pass a Declaration of War. Alcar, with Selarial’s team, leaves Sorth to join the Traders in operations inside enemy space.

On Taledra, Selarial lies in a coma from both physical and psychic trauma. It takes a desperate effort on her mother’s part to heal the psychic damage and wake her. As Selarial recovers, she joins the rest of her crew in exploring the remnants of Tarkus’ beginnings. Disturbing clues appear that point back to the far past in an unexpected direction.

Events draw Alcar into a position he never wanted, but must take up if the Coalition is to survive. The only way to get to Selarial is to first get the Coalition’s house in order.

Review:
Like it’s prequel, Dream Song contains an interesting account of the accord that deep understanding of one another can produce. Here of course it is possible because of some individuals psychic abilities, but I think the lesson could be taken as a general one. I appreciate that. The story itself is an interesting one and I also really enjoy Brewer’s writing style and use of language.

Unfortunately I don’t think this book quite reached the high standard of Selarial’s Song. For one, it isn’t as well edited. Granted the book hasn’t even been out a month yet. Hopefully the author will take the opportunity to give the text one more pass and put out a 2nd version. For another, it is quintessentially a middle book. The beginning of the story had already been established but no true conclusion is reached by the end. While Book One chronicles the universe’s acknowledgement that they are at war, this book sets the stage for that war. There is a lot of strategizing, team building, discovery of new talents, etcetera, but very few game changing events. Even the passing of some of the main characters or the reunion after years apart of others wasn’t given any real weight.

Lastly, and a personal irritant, Alcar was simply too good at everything. More than once he offered advice or instruction in something he recently learned to others who would have been previous experts. No matter the specialty he was deferred to. He was accepted as leader of Sorth and the coalition (and by extension the Fleet) without any real descent. Could it really be so easy? I have a hard time accepting that. His mere presence completely eclipsed Selarial, who was hardly in the book until the last 15% or so. Even then he, not her, was the leader. Correct me if I’m wrong but weren’t Roth and Kirrlea HER team?

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the story. It is a lot more intellectual than its description lets on. I always like that in a book. I’ll almost certainly read the next one when it comes out. But if the pacing is anything to go by The Songs of Talmanor is going to be a very long series.

selarial's Song

Review of Laura Brewer’s Selarial’s Song

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I grabbed Laura Brewer‘s Sci-Fi novel Selarial’s Song (The Songs of Talmanor, #1) off of the KDP free list a few months back.

Long description from Goodreads:
Selarial, a Singer of notable telepathic ability, is Chief Engineer aboard the Equinox. Few outside the other Sorthians aboard her ship are aware she is also the daughter of Sorth’s Ambassador. She, like all Singers, is mind bonded with two of Sorth’s other sentient species; Kirrlea, a sisha (feline) and Roth, a lidan (raptor). Both are known for their independence, loyalty and ferocity in a fight. As strange as it appears to outsiders, both Singers and sisha are often skilled healers as well as fighters. 

Alcar Trent is Captain of the Ventura and native of Tarrel, another of the Founding Worlds. His only home has been his ship for two decades. He is uncertain of the talents of the Sorthians on the Equinox, but regards them as strong allies that he trusts to watch ones back in a fight. Not all of his crew agree with that. However, he comes to rely on Selarial’s abilities and to discover some of his own.

When Selarial and Alcar’s ships are assigned to border patrol together, they know it is likely to get rough. It had been eight hundred years since the war with the Thess’n Empire. The Coalition’s relations with their old enemy had always been strained, but now the Thess’ns are raiding again. The Coalition forces on the border know war is on the verge of breaking out again, but most of the leadership is too concerned with political maneuvering to take the threat seriously. The notable exceptions are the worlds that founded the Coalition, including Sorth and Tarrel.

As incidents increase, Selarial and Alcar begin to see that Sorthians are high on the list of targets. Selarial also appears to acquire the personal enmity of one of the Thess’n Warlords. When ancient weapons, long thought destroyed, begin to appear in the hands of their enemies, Selarial wants to know why. On Sorth, the Singer Council delves into ancient records for answers, but uncovers more questions and an urgent warning.

Review:

I really enjoyed this book in a mellow sort of way. I like the story and the characters a lot, but it  moves fairly slowly. This encourages the reader (or at least me as a reader) to slow down too. Brewer spends a lot of time describing history and/or the use of one’s psychic skills. This is interesting but slows the action down. It also makes the book feel like it is probably part of a much bigger story. Otherwise the story couldn’t afford to dedicate so much time to non-events IMO. What the book lacks in heart-racing, page turning action it makes up in carefully considered spiritual awareness though. The Sorthians are a model of what humans should and could aspire to. Well maybe not the whole psychic linking part (though that would be pretty awesome), but certainly the environmentally, socially and spiritually cognizant part.

I have to admit that Alcar and Selarial’s bonding did smack a little bit of the insta-love that is so frequent in YA books. It always irks me and here is no exception. I would have liked them to have gotten to know each other a little bit. I get that there is probably supposed to be a certain amount of providence or divine intercession going on, but that feels like a necessary assumption that I would rather not have to make. Either way I enjoyed the book enough to race right back to Amazon and buy the second (Dream Song). 

Roark’s Cove

On a more personal note, I discovered from Brewer’s Twitter page that she is from (or at least in) Monteagle, Tn. This  is pretty close to my home turf. I was born in Alto, which is just down the mountain. This will mean next to nothing to most people, since both Alto and Monteagle are  pretty small towns. But it gave me a small personal thrill. As a result, while I would never be so arrogant as to presume to know any author’s inspiration, I have completely re-visualized The Vales on Sorth as Roark’s Cove. I just can’t help it. The Cove is one of my favourite places on earth and I think it is every bit as beautiful as the Singer’s haven is said to be. 

Review of P.L. Parker’s The Chalice

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Some time ago I won a copy of P.L. Parker‘s The Chalice from Laurie’s Thought and Reviews.

Description from Goodreads:
Decimated by the savage Deg’Nara and teetering on the brink of extinction, the last surviving males of the once great Chiagan-Se embark on a quest to salvage what is left of their civilization. They send their remaining seeker ships into the void, searching for genetically compatible females. Time is running out, but in the far reaches of the universe, on an obscure and primitive planet, a match is discovered.

One thousand panic-stricken women awaken two hundred years in the future, captives aboard an unmanned alien spacecraft bound for parts unknown! How had they gotten there and why? 

The males thought they came willingly. The females believed they’d been kidnapped. Full of hopeful expectation, the Chiagan-Se prepare for the arrival of their new mates. Terrified and furious at the inexplicable abduction, the women prepare for combat! And when the two sides meet, the battle commences.

Even though I won a copy of The Chalice way back in June, I put off reading it because I honestly hate the cover. It makes me think of bad Swedish porn. (No offense against the Scandinavian porn industry. I’m sure they have some good porn too.) And come on, lets face it, the plot-line of a ship full of females bound for a the arms of a wholly male populace is rife with the possibility of cheap bow-chica-bow-wow moments. It could easily go bad very quickly. But I wanted to support the author and appreciate the winnings so I gave it a chance.

I made it 45% into the book before there was even a hint of a kiss and a good 250 pages before there was a sex scene. (It was only the first of two and fairly mild to boot.) Relief, not porn then. What it was instead was funny. Now, I don’t mean the trying to take itself too seriously, forcing you to laugh derisively at it funny. No, I mean the genuinely and intentionally humorous type of funny. Danesha, or ‘Dread’ was a whole ball of fun all by herself. Never have I encountered such a bitter and pessimistic character that makes you love her so much. No matter how dire the circumstances you could count on her to think of something worse and lighten the mood. Then there was a little bit of slapstick and all of the basic misunderstandings that one would expect to encounter when two sentient species are forced to interact. I laughed out loud a lot.

Some of the characters were a little stereotypical. Dread was after all a foul mouthed African American from the Detroit ghetto who was always ready for a fight. Then there was the stiff lipped Englishwoman who always kept her cool, the whinging Irish woman who kept wailing ‘I dinnae nooo,’ the busty blond Swede, and the placid Japanese ninja-type. They were a lot of fun though. A little more thought seems to have gone into the male cast. Parker painted them as contradictorily strong, hot-blooded warriors who also happened to feel like lost little boys. I really enjoyed seeing the women take charge. I also enjoyed that there was a plot outside of the romances. In fact I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the smoldering bits. I especially wanted to see how Shagal won his mate over…or was won over. Hard to tell on that one.

On the downside, to say the book head hops would be an understatement. It not only leaps unexpectedly from one person to the next, but from one scene to the next. One moment you are in Kara’s head on a transport shuttle, then the next you are with Tegan on the bridge of the ship, with nothing to indicate you have moved. I often had to reread passages or just keep going until I found a clue to reorient myself by. It was a challenge. Despite this I was pleasantly surprised by the book and look forward to reading more of Parker’s writing.