by Catherine Asaro
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Product Description
The Skolian Empire rules a third of the civilized galaxy through its mastery of faster-than-light communication. But war with the rival empire of the Traders seems imminent, a war that can only lead to slavery for the Skolians or the destruction of both sides. Destructive skirmishes have already occurred. A desperate attempt must be made to avert total disaster.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Good writing and ideas but ultimately unsatisfying , 2008-04-06
I was impressed by "Aurora in Four Voices," which is one of the author's short stories set in this universe, and read in the foreword to the short story that this series was in the vein of Bujold's Vorkosigan novels. That convinced me to purchase this, her first published novel, in the expectation that I would read the entire series.
Although relatively short, unfortunately the book is an interminable slog filled with plot, character, and logic holes large enough to pass the Milky Way Galaxy through. Clearly, a first novel is a challenge but the result was too disappointing for me to read more in the series despite the fact that a later book, "The Quantum Rose" won the Nebula Award in 2001. Generally, the writing is quite good. Unless. Unless she. Unless she writes. Unless she writes sentences like this.
The book has been criticized for fusing genre romance with hard science, an idea which didn't put me off. However, the result is indeed a disaster. The main character is a silly authorial fantasy combining the solo swagger of a freshly-minted lieutenant with the raw power of an Admiral who happens to be the even more powerful - albeit surreptitious - heir to the throne, a fact she hides from everyone unless she, well, tells them. But. But wait. But wait there's more.
She's also a nearly all-powerful empath/telepath/cybernetic fighting machine under the thumb of her evil brother emperor whom she grudgingly calls "sir" since he's her commanding officer. In her spare time, as if she really were a lieutenant and not an Admiral, she leads a tiny battalion of four "fighter pilots" on highly dangerous solo missions risking her precious psion/imperial DNA. During her adventure, she lusts after the throne and plots conquest/treason. All the while this 47-year-old woman pines after the man she loves as she beds teenagers and really pines after the other man she really loves.
Other books in the series may solve some of these character/logic issues and reach the level evinced in the short story that spurred my initial interest in the Skolian universe. However, this will be the last book in the series I read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 PRIMARY INVERSION,Rocks & Radiates!, 2006-10-17
Review of a Catherine Asaro novel by Jack Lundy
Catherine Asaro's protagonist introduces Herself as Soz, a fighter pilot, a "Jagernaut" of the Skolian Empire, the commander of an elite squadron quartet of JG-17 "Jag" spacecraft. As we accompany Her star-faring through the far-off future, little by little, She allows us to sense She is more. Their Jags require pilots whose speed-of-sound nerves must merge with speed-of-light systems. This is made possible only because the pilots are cyborgs. Moreover, She is a "psiborg", for She can access a computing network that makes our present Internet seem a provincial cobweb by comparison.
Her squadron of fellow "psiborgs" scramble their Jags to fight their arch enemies, a rival, sinister empire whose space fleet is pacifying a world by creating a deluge on a disobedient world of Old Testament proportions. Alas, Her squadron's best efforts nearly get them killed, and they manage to save but a few ark-fulls of the innocent. During the aftermath, where She is reassigned for both Her failure and Her own safety, we learn She is Sauscony Valdoria, directly related to the Skolian Emperor, his sister. She is indeed a Primary in the most literal sense of the word.
Counter-pointing Her high ranking and Her deadly fighter pilot skills is Her humanity, Her soul. She is not exactly a telepath, but an empath, one who feels other souls' emotions rather than minds. Alas for Her, empaths are rare and are where they are. When She finds one, She feels a potent mutual magnetism, which results in beautiful, sensuous trysts where violence evaporates. But the stresses of Her profession, based on destruction, foster such a desperate, lonely emotional starvation that all the other empaths, poets, musicians, even the psichiatric ones, only merge like pleasant snacks.
Save one.
The one? A Jabriol Qox, the direct heir to the Empire Her civilization desperately fights. His empathic psi powers do much more than match Hers. They complement Her like She complements him, right to their marrow of Being. They LOVE each other. But, that Triumphant Empire he shall inherit has violently, mercilessly killed almost all Her family. And once, when She had been taken prisoner, one of their elite, one of this man's closest family, had personally tortured Her within a micron of insanity. She has vowed "Never again." Therefore, She, Primary, now must prepare for total war against Her soul mate, though She knows deep in Her guts that the Universe without LOVE is an absolute, desolate void.
Thus the Skolian Empire Saga starts.
6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
WOW, I didn't like this book!, 2006-06-21
In reading the other reviews of this book, I discovered the writer is female physist. That makes a lot of sense, the main character is a middle-aged very powerful woman. It reads something like the fantasy of a powerful middle aged woman. I mean, the story itself is OK. If written differently, I could have enjoyed it. It had points where it read like a trashy romance novel, this woman and her younger boy-toys in sex scenes that were a little too vivid. It's science tech was very elaborate and well thought out, and sometimes described in such detail that it detracted from the story. Maybe re-written as "made for Sci-Fi Channel movie' the story would be enjoyable, it certainly has some interesting ideas, but as presented in this book, my suggestion would be to pass it up.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superlative space opera - read it!, 2005-11-11
I was really impressed by this! Asaro's book has it all: great writing, a fascinating future universe, cool technology/science, an awesome space battle, and a climax that is as trippy as it is exciting! But what really sets the book apart is the main character, Soz, who is as complex and fascinating as they come. Her
transformation is realistic and quite moving. Asaro is a sensational writer, I already picked up two subsequent books in the series, can't wait to read them. Also check out the Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld. Peace.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Good Begining!, 2005-10-08
My least favorite of any series is usually the first book. The first seems to always be more concerned with introducing and building characters and plots than truly telling a story. I would say that is true with this series, but not as true.
My favorite character in this series is definetely Soz. For that reason alone I liked this introduction to the series more than I usually like introductions to series. Primary Inversion introduces readers to my favorite aspect of the Skolian universe-Jagernauts(Jags). Jags are cybernetically enhanced empathicly capable human fighter pilots. They can stay connected psychicly with each other and their ships which make them capable to coordinate the attacks that keep Skolia free from Eubian rule. Yet, what must it be like to be empathic and a soldier? To die with every enemy you kill? I liked that this novel focused somewhat on what long term effects of constant battle are. What it is like to be a soldier on active duty for 40 years-with no real end in sight of either the war nor your active role in it. Sauscony (Soz) is in line to inherit her older half-bothers' (Kurj) military leadership and place in the psibernet. She is competing with her older full-brother(Althor) in a battle to see not only who is best suited to replace Kurj as Imperator and leader of the military, but also who is left alive to do so. Her youngest brother (Kelric) and the third Imperator-in-waiting is declared missing and presumed dead at the begining of the story. The toll all of this death, killing and in Soz's case even capture and torture have placed on the soul of an already sensitive empath. What living under these conditions have warped and will warp her into being. Not able to lay down the load cause millions of lives are at stake and there is no one else to shoulder the burden. Having the courage to ulitmately walk away from power, from war, from hate-to build your own way. All of those conflicts are in a story that is in many ways a futuristic re-telling of Romeo and Juliet. Only in this story, Juliet is the soldier and Romeo is along for the ride.
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