PG16- Beholder's Eye (v,b), A Thousand Words for Stranger (v,b), Ties of Power (v,b)

Julie E. Czerneda is a new author who is definitely skilled at writing about the lost and the alien, those who end up on the fringes of society through fate, choice, or inclination. Her future universe is populated with a believable and interesting range of the nonhuman, and an amazing number of different and realistic (well, for science fiction) species have at least cameo roles. She's written three books so far, and I hope she keeps writing more.

The main character in A Thousand Words for Stranger begins the story stranded on a planet without any memories or clue as to who she is or how she got there except for a set of compulsions that guide her to the nearby spaceport and to one Jason Morgan, an independent spacer with secrets and problems of his own. He doesn't intend to get involved with her problems, except that the Clan decides to make sure that he involves himself. The Clan is an alien race which appears human, except for their ability to touch the realm they call the M'hir, which gives them their skill in mental abilities such as telepathy and teleportation and is the reason why they set themselves apart from everyone and everything else. The Clan is legally outside the jurisdiction of the Trade Pact which humans and most other aliens belong to, so getting drawn into one of their plots is not exactly safe, but Morgan finds he has no choice. And as the amnesiac Sira gets closer to rediscovering who she is, the full extent of the plot which the Clan have involved them in becomes, not reassuringly, clearer. This story is a skillful exploration of what makes us who we are and how unpleasant but necessary choices must sometimes be made in a complicated universe.

In Ties of Power, Sira and Jason Morgan are trying to make their livings far from the influence of Clan power and plans. Unfortunately, just because Sira decided to go into exile from the Clan doesn't mean the Clan decided to forget she exists. And her disguise as a Ram'ad Witch, which she adopted so that she could live on the backwater outpost of Pocular without fear of hiding her abilities, attracts the attention of the Drapsk traders. In fact, when the Clan moves on Sira again, she escapes to the Drapsk ship, where she discovers she's been politely being-napped, and they won't tell her why or let her go to reassure Morgan that she's okay. This story is well worth your time if you liked A Thousand Words For Stranger at all, because Sira and Morgan, Barac and Huido are all here, just as interesting as ever. Czerneda's skill in portraying the alien has a chance to shine through with the Drapsk, who are sympathetic and detailed characters without being humans in another skin.

Beholder's Eye is written partly with the voice of Esen-alit-Quar, both in the present and in memories, and partly as third person focusing on other characters. The difficulty that she faces comes clear slowly, and the story does jump rapidly between time frames sometimes, which may be hard to follow if you're not paying attention. But Esen, who is a shapeshifter in a universe that isn't supposed to contain such beings, is worth the trouble of puzzling through the mystery. For one thing, the author has done a fine job of altering Esen's actions to suit the race whose form she is currently holding while not losing the basic sense of who Esen is underneath it all. I like the thought that went into this version of shapeshifters: her race is not able to shift into anything - Esen (like the other members of her Web) has only one individual identity and appearance for each of the species that she is able to shift into. I don't want to spoil the later part of the plot, but I will say that it all begins with Esen's first assignment for her Web. She's the youngest of them all (only 400 years old), and has just been allowed out into the universe to join the other members of her Web in their self-assigned task of recording and remembering ephemeral alien cultures. Unfortunately, in the middle of this assignment things go horribly wrong, and Esen ends up violating one of the primary rules of the Web, don't interfere, which is what starts all the rest of the trouble. In my opinion, this book is well worth your time.

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Last Updated: November 12, 1999

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