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Snare by Katherine Kerr check out website: www.tor.com
The native intelligent beings, the ChaMeech, are affected by the human inhabitants over the centuries and by their own internal social problems. Feared by the humans, they are misunderstood and persecuted. The human societies after 800 years have very little technology left by the first colonists and live in an almost medieval technological age. The ChaMeech also have access to these technologies. The Islamic society is far removed from the Islam we know today having evolved over 800 years. An Islamic cult changed by the teaching of Second and Third Prophets. Kazrajistan is ruled by a power-crazed Khan Gemet who has had all his relatives killed so that none of his family can usurp his position as ruler. A rebel group seeks to find his only surviving relative, his brother Jezro, who managed to escape across the rift without the knowledge of Gemet. They plan to find Jezro and return him to take his rightful place as the Great Kahn. The rescue party consists of Captain Idres Warkannan, his nephew Arkazo and Soutan, a renegade Cantons sorcerer. They use the cover that they are going into the plains to find blackstone which burns hotter than wood. Soutan though has other plans he seeks the Ark of the Covenant the original settlers ships AI/computer. The chosen are the Khan's secret police. They have genetic and technological abilities, but these are shrouded in myth and secret ritual. Some suspect that Warkannan's trip is a cover and sends a disgraced soldier, Zahir, in pursuit. He joins up with a Spirit rider and her horse tribe, but he keeps his true motives from her. The spirit rider receives strange messages from an unknown source while they are chasing the rebels to get to Jezro. Both parties start to discover the world their religions and beliefs are not what they seem. I've never read any other books by Katherine Kerr, but knew she was a popular fantasy author. This book lies somewhere in-between fantasy and Science Fiction. The premise is interesting and the characters on the whole are reasonably well developed. There is heaps of background and on the face of it an interesting mix of hybrid religions and beliefs. You soon realise that the items the human and, for that matter, the ChaMeech hold as magical are nothing more than technology that over time has become misunderstood. The writing style is overall an easy read but where I think this book falls down is its over descriptiveness and pace. You have two groups that are both trying to get, as quickly as they can, to Jezro. One to kill him and one to rescue and bring him to power to replace a tyrant. The only problem is that as you read there is no sense of urgency. It feels like the two groups are going for an afternoon stroll in the park. There is no get up and go. I think this may be in part to Kerr trying to get so much information across about the world of Snare and its history that it just slows things down too much. Also, when you and the characters start to find out what's going on you will have probably already got there yourself as it's not hard to work out what the big picture is. I hate to say it, but you do get the feeling of, 'So what?' There is a general lack of drive throughout the book. In the same way as some episodes of 'Star Trek' (especially Next Gen.), you never feel like any of the main characters are in any really danger - it'll all end up working out OK with no one of significance being killed. There are plenty of things that could have been exploited. The political and cultural conflicts could have been played on more. If the Khan was really that evil, would a fundamentalist society such as the one in the book really tolerate the horse tribes, ChaMeech or Cantons, for that matter, for centuries? Would the landfall Treaty of the Settlers really keep them apart? There are interesting characters. Zahir, being one, with his own internal struggles and his journey across the rift becoming a means to his own self discovery and revelations about his beliefs. This book had a lot of potential but in the end it feels like a missed opportunity. The ending, too, I found a bit of a let down. Perhaps a book to read on a long summer's afternoon if you've got nothing better to do. It just missed the target for me, though. Phil Jones
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OTHER REVIEWS - March 2004
Chasing Science by Frederick Pohl Wolves Of The Calla by Stephen King and illustrated by Bernie Wrighton The Mammoth Book Of Native Americans edited by Jon E. Lewis Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin Red Star Rising: More Chronicles Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Three Hearts And Three Lions by Poul Anderson Downward To The Earth by Robert Silverberg Buffy: Seven Crows by John Vornholt The Dragon Of Despair by Jane Lindsjold Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove Barry Trotter And The Unnecessary Sequel by Michael Gerber Fitcher’s Brides by Gregory Frost Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 2003 The Moon’s Shadow by Catherine Asaro Which Way To The Future: Selected Essays From Analog by Stanley Schmidt
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'Snare' is set on a colonised planet 800
years after the first settlers arrived. Three very different human
groups arrived on the planet: Islamic fundamentalists, horse tribes
and the Cantons. 
A
few, though, have special abilities and can use the few items of
technologies that remain. The horse tribes have spirit riders use
spheres that are solar-powered to see over great distances and use
ancient commands to work them.
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