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Survival (Species Imperative # 1) by Julie
Czerneda check out website: www.dawbooks.com
Even the terrestrial authorities don't know and assign one of their agents, Nikolai Trojanowski, to look after them both. At first, nothing is particularly clear, especially as there are marked attempted on both their lives, the kidnapping of Mac's friend, Dr. Emily Mamani, and them forced to leave the Earth and visit Brynn's home world, Haven.
Things aren't quite what they seem with the attacking Ro either, resulting in Mac discovering the connection. Although that somewhat outlines the plot, it belies the detail that Czerneda fills these pages that makes for a compelling read. Although the Earth-bound scenes are obviously better detailed than the Dhryn's homeworld, it at least addresses the problems of communicating with aliens and what to eat - both often sorely neglected in many SF novels. The Dhyrn themselves see the length of someone's name relates to the value to their own society and Mac's christened name is a mouthful that gets often repeated throughout, even to her own annoyance let alone occasionally to this reader. I have to confess to working out fairly early what was going on as I read. One of the story threads was pretty obvious was the rare reappearance of Emily. Some elements could also be considered rather open convenience plotting, that is only having the necessary ingredients to bring the plot together even if the reasons weren't necessarily clear from the beginning. Once that's realised, it brings a lot of things too much into perspective, which is probably why I'm being so careful not to give away too much about the plot. Saying all of that, this book does show some promise. Although purported to be the first of a series of books, there is no indication whether this will stay with the current characters or delve further with this reality . If the latter, there isn't that much idea where this reality is going to differ much from other SF realities. GF Willmetts
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OTHER REVIEWS - June 2004
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What
does an Earth-bound salmon specialist, Dr. Mackenzie Connor, have
to do with a multi-limbed alien Dhryn archaeologist, Brynn, who
seeks her help?
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