Ascendant Sun: A New Novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire (Hardcover)

by Catherine Asaro (Author) "Eighteen years after Kelric died, he came home..." (more)
Key Phrases: Ruby Dynasty, Radiance War, Shuttle Four (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The adventures of super-sexy space-stud Kelric Garlin continue, as he comes back from the dead in Ascendant Sun, the fifth--and so far raciest--installment in Catherine Asaro's popular Saga of the Skolian Empire series (which kicked off with 1995's Primary Inversion). But Kelric needs to keep his miraculous resurrection hush-hush: presumed dead after crash-landing on Coba 18 years ago in Last Hawk, love-prisoner Kelric endured and finally escaped the lusty attentions of the planet's swoony ruling matriarchy. Back at last, the bronze-god telepath finds that his world has been turned upside down: The galaxy-uniting psiberweb has collapsed, the Allied Worlds of Earth control the Skolian Empire, and his family, the Ruby Dynasty, are all either dead or held hostage, leaving him as the sole and long-lost Imperial Heir, a man nearly everyone in power would see imprisoned or assassinated--if they knew he was alive.

Harvard-trained physicist Asaro continues to astound by straddling the SF and romance genres so adroitly, alternating between chin-rubbing speculations on quantum theory and blushingly steamy sex scenes with all the skill of an accomplished ballet dancer (which, coincidentally, she also is). Surely junior-high kids will get their paws on this title tout de suite (and quickly skip to the "good" parts), but Asaro's award-winning prose, her knack for high-adventure story-telling, and her equal expertise in both science and romance make this a worthy read for any fan of either genre. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly
The follow-up to The Last Hawk, which was a Nebula nominee, picks up with Kelric, a cybernetically enhanced Jagernaut warrior and member of the Skolian Empire's ruling family, on his way home after 18 years on the Restricted world of matriarchal Coba. Kelric arrives only to learn that Earth's Allied Forces have assumed the job of local peacekeeper in space after the devastating Radiance War caused the Collapse, the destruction of the telepathic communication web through "psiberspace" that once linked the three vast empires of Skolian, Euben and Aristo space. With most of Kelric's family dead, he is now the only heir to a throne that may not exist much longer. Kelric isn't in great shape, though, with his Jagernaut cybernetics failing from damage incurred during his Coba getaway. Hoping to avoid detection by his enemies, he assumes a false identity and takes a job aboard a merchant spaceship--only to be taken prisoner by the Aristos, an advanced race that obtains its greatest pleasures from the pain and discomfort of its "provider" sex slaves. Even worse, the Aristos have captured Kelric's brother Eldrin in hopes of not only using his psibernetic abilities to restore and control interstellar communications, but also to open the Lock, a space-time portal that will give them incalculable power. Kelric must risk everything to foil the Aristo plot. While readers new to Asaro's world may be confused at times by how every element in the novel fits together, series veterans will find this to be yet another fast-paced and pleasing entry in the Saga of the Skolian Empire.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (March 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312868243
• ISBN-13: 978-0312868246
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #600,461 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ascendant Sun by Catherine Asaro, May 23, 2000

By	Suzanne Coleburn (Berlin, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to tell you I am hooked on Catherine Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire and all her glorious larger than life characters. It is a fantastic story of high-tech (I don't know how she does it, but I am fascinated!), intergalactic characters that fill you with wonder, and terrific romance that makes for an unbeatable combination that reels you into the story.

ASCENDANT SUN is the fifth book in the series about Kelric, the youngest son of Roca and Eldrinson, who belongs to the Ruby Dynasty. Kelric's story is told in the novels THE LAST HAWK and ASCENDANT SUN. You are going to love this golden man who is large, strong, extremely intelligent and a magnificent male. He generates more action and adventure in this story as he has escaped from the planet of Coba where he was imprisoned by some powerful women (THE LAST HAWK) who went to war over him in a role reversal of the Helen of Troy story.

After eighteen years he escapes and returns to Skolian space to discover everything has changed, and the Allied Forces of Earth, due to the upheaval of the Radiance War control the Empire. He only has the clothes on his back, his intelligence and ingenuity to get him through the danger he's in. I was awed by his ability to turn this around to serve his purpose of escaping and doing everything he could to preserve himself and his integrity. I loved all the scientific dialogue between Kelric and,Bolt, a computer inside of Kelric, and the interaction between the two when dealing with life threatening situations.

Kelric is auctioned as a slave "provider" to the cruel Aristos that are after him for his beauty, intelligence and superior abilities. He is a much-coveted prize. Kelric is a man who doesn't like everything he has to do but he has to be flexible and overcome great obstacles to accomplish his goal of saving his people and reclaiming his title. The man is truly amazing. His kindness and caring for people shines throughout the book like a beacon of peace and strength. He is a warrior and a peacemaker, which makes for a terrific negotiator and ruler.

Wait until you meet all the extraordinary people that make you want to know the entire story. I especially liked Jeejon, a woman who felt compassion for Kelric and went out of her way to help him when she was his last hope of reaching safety. By dong so she is given a gift she never dreamed could happen to her in a trillion years.

The end of this book sets up the premise for the next stellar read. This is one humdinger of a saga you don't want to miss. If you haven't read it, order it and the other books on Amazon.com. You won't be disappointed.

Ms. Asaro does an excellent job of giving you all the scientific facts blended with high adventure that keeps you on the edge of a cliff. It sometimes makes you think of free falling with all the exhilarating excitement that it entails as you travel through the galaxy. To me these books are classics.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping space drama, February 20, 2000

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

After spending nearly two decades as a prisoner on Coba, Kelric finally escapes. However, during his incarceration many changes occurred in his family's Empire. The Radiance War has left Kelric's kin either dead or imprisoned by the Allied forces of Earth, who now rule the Skoalian Empire. The powerful telepathic communication link between Skoalian, Eubian, and Aristo has collapsed.

Into that void, Kelric, now the heir to the Skoalian Empire flees by accepting a job on a merchant vessel, but he is captured by the Aristo, who also hold his brother prisoner. The Aristo plan to use the siblings to open the Lock to the time-space continuum portal that will make them the most powerful beings in the universe. Kelric is the only hope to stop this dastardly plan of universal domination.

ASCENDANT SUN, the fifth novel in Catherine Asaro's fabulous Skoalian Empire saga, is an exciting and enthralling work of science fiction. The primary story line is crisp and never slows down for a nanosecond. Kelric is a wonderful hero whose previous struggles (see THE LAST HAWK) seem soft compared to his current troubles. Though newcomers will be lost with the complexities of the tale, they, like series fans, will become gripped by the lightning speed of the action and the radiant vastness of the plot, sending new readers searching for the previous novels. Ms. Asaro continues to rise in ascendancy to the apogee of the science fiction universe with this triumphant novel.

Harriet Klausner

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Catherine Asaro: Writing (and Thinking) Outside the Lines, June 15, 2000

By	David W. Kriebel (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

Male-female relations are thoroughly explored in Asaro's Skolian Empire series. In this universe, humans are separated into three major political configurations-the Skolians, ruled by the Ruby Dynasty (a family of empaths who run the "psiberweb," a network of pure thought that permits fast interstellar travel, among other things), the Trader Concord, ruled by the cruel (and anti-empathic) Aristos, and the Allied Worlds of Earth, a.k.a. "us." The first two are descendants of humans removed from Earth c. 4,000 B.C. by an alien race and transplanted to the planet Raylicon. In those times, women were dominant and treated men as their slaves. That legacy lingers on (particularly in some backwaters, such as the planet Coba), alough in the Skolian and Trader empires the two sexes enjoy a rough equality. In fact, the hero of her latest hardcover, Ascendant Sun, often finds himself being treated as a sex object, a role reversal which Asaro handles quite nicely, avoiding cliched images of leather-clad dominatrices. Her men and women are both fully realized humans. When Asaro learned that I had just read Ascendant Sun, she laughed. "It's controversial, because of the sex scenes. Everyone focuses on that. But I was trying to say something with that book." The source of a lot of the confusion is the cover, which depicts the hero as a Fabio-like hunk. And in fact he is a hunk, but hardly a brainless one. Kelric, heir to the Skolian Empire, is an introspective empath who returns to Skolia from a long sojourn on matriarchal Coba, where he married several times and became the catalyst for a war to possess him (a tale chronicled in her first Kelric adventure The Last Hawk) only to be captured and enslaved by the sadistic Aristos, rulers of the Eubian Concord. As an outsider in a strange and repellant culture, he assumes the role of an anthropologist, collecting data through participant-observation, learning that the people he has known as enemies are more complex and more human than he had believed. As a moral being in a culture which does not share his morality, he makes the most honorable choices he can. The book depicts his struggle, not only to save humanity from its worst angels (embodied in the Trader Aristos) but to find his identity in situations in which his heredity and upbringing is sorely tested by circumstance. Asaro also explores the relationships between humans and their machines, particularly the increasingly permeable boundary which separates them. Throughout Ascendant Sun, Kelric must deal with all manner of machines, from the nanobots which maintain and heal his body to the giant starships which ply space. His dependence on machines mirrors our own. At the time of this writing, my own computer is down and has been for over two weeks, cutting me off from my e-mail contacts and keeping me from printing or accessing the Internet. I am reduced to using WordPerfect 5.1 on my laptop, without even a mouse for company. I can feel Kelric's frustration as at one point he stumbles and breaks his palmtop computer terminal, severing his link to a vital cybernetic helper. Whereas Kelric's people, the Skolians, have mastered the art of "biomech" in order to expand human capabilities, the Aristos have redefined the humans they enslave as living machines. To the Aristos (or most of them, anyway), only Aristos are human-the others are creatures to be subdued and put to the task of serving Aristos. Yet Kelric learns that the Aristos, while deriving pleasure from the pain of their psion slaves-"providers"-are capable of love toward them. He also learns that the differences between his people and the Aristos go deeper than he had imagined, into their very way of thinking, and manifest in unexpected ways. Asaro's treatment of the body reflects a sensitivity which probably relates to her ballet training. Throughout the book are little sensory details we experience everyday-the numbness of prolonged pressure on a thigh, the discomfort of certain kinds of clothing, the pleasurable sensation of other kinds. Great care is paid to the movements and posture of the characters as they move through their world, bringing us along for the ride. The sexual encounters feel natural as well, never forced, cute, or exploitative. Perhaps because Asaro herself is a bridge builder between apparently opposing realms-male/female, science/art, intellect/emotion-she has constructed a vision in which two sides of humanity, Skolian and Aristo, are able to come together, both at the peace table and even physically. Kelric's adventures are instrumental in making this happen. To go further would be to give too much away, especially for those unfamiliar with Asaro's other books. The natural solution, of course, is to read all of them first! I will admit that, as a newcomer to Asaro's work, I was a little disoriented when I first entered the world of Ascendant Sun. It is, after all, the sequel to The Last Hawk, and the fifth novel in the Skolian Empire saga. However, compelling characterization, driving narrative, and deft description soon remedied that. I found myself actually caring about the fate of the people in this book, wanting Kelric to win through and escape the clutches of the Aristos. Her writing is full of poetry, whether specifically identified as such or not. Others have noticed this, too. "People say I'm a poet because there's poetry in my books. I'm very flattered when people say that." As an editor, I have become somewhat jaded by wading through floods of submissions, but this one moved me. That is a rare thing these days.