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| Skyfall
(book 9 of the Skolian Empire series) by Catherine Asaro check out website: www.tor.com and www.sff.net/people/asaro
Desperate for a child both on a personal level and to ensure the continuation of the Empire, the Ruby psion Roca and her first husband Tokaba endured years of medical intervention, finally producing Kurj. Unbeknownst to either of them, the semen that resulted
in Kurj's conception wasn't Tokaba's, it belonged to Jarac, Skolian Imperator,
Ruby psion and Roca's father. However, we don't discover this until the end of the book, by which time Kurj has shown himself to be a thoroughly unpleasant person. Emotionally scarred by abuse from his stepfather, Roca's second husband after Tokaba died, struggling against his incestuous feelings for his mother and his own ruthless ambition, the discovery of his origins has climactic results.
The bulk of the book, though, reads like an interstellar Barbara Cartland romance. I loathe Barbara Cartland romances. All the elements are here - beautiful woman travelling incognito, stranded on a backwater world with no way to escape, abducted by the 'primitive' local ruler with whom she then falls in love. Said leader, Eldrinson, has a tragic flaw (epilepsy), brought about by his being an unrecognised Ruby psion. They have a child and then separated by the jealous
Kurj but love conquers all and there's a happy ending, so that's OK. The descriptions of 'Skyfall' - native name Lyshriol, an ancient, forgotten Ruby colony - are beautiful. The esoteric physics and psychic abilities that power the Empire are sufficiently fully explained to make sense to the reader while retaining their sense of awe and the characters are in the main credible, if not overly appealing but I find Roca both implausible and incredibly irritating. She seems extraordinarily inept given her status and power as a Skolian heir and while I appreciate her abilities as an empath may make her more susceptible to strong emotion, to allow that to override common sense, at her mature age, just does not ring true. Asaro can do better than this. NB - you
can also see review of the previous book in this series. Joules
Taylor
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OTHER REVIEWS - September 2004
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'Skyfall' is a prequel, taking the reader back to the beginnings
of the Skolian Empire and its incestuous beginnings though, to be fair, the incest
is unwitting on the part of the female involved. 
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