Customer Reviews

The Dawning

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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"There is no United Federation of Planets. There are no Vulcans." This is one of my favorite lines from this book. The aliens are coming, and some of them are Not Nice. Sharon, a visitor from a female-only species planet called Pallas, tries to tell Amanda this bitter truth. Sharon herself makes lots of mistakes, not the least of which is how she treats Amanda from their first meeting. Raised as a human on Pallas, Sharon can forge mental contact and doesn't know how to turn it off, even when Amanda begs her to.

I have become a total fan of this author's work. The Dawning starts off looking like it's an alien meets human romance in a sci-fi package, but the depths plumbed in this novel go far beyond that. COnvincingly real is Amanda's grief and near-suicidal state after the Challenger explosion, and then her sheer terror when she learns exactly what Sharon is. Just when Amanda has successfully forgotten that Sharon is not quite human, she is reminded -- usually painfully -- of the truth.

I got goosebumps when Amanda gets her chance to rewrite history, and I so wanted her to succeed! The novel ends with all possibilities left open and I hope that there are more in the series. I am reminded of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, which don't have a set chronology or order. I would love if it this series (which began with Night Vision, another bravura novel from Karin Kallmaker's Laura Adams persona) ends up with as many books to savor, to puzzle over and to get fabulous goosebumps from.

The aliens are coming, and some of them are Not Nice.

The Dawning is another winner for Adams, aka Kallmaker. WhileI have enjoyed almost every book she has written and would rate mostof them as peak experiences, I was especially impressed with theamount of accurate information contained (incidentally to the story) about the Navajo nation. Being a descendent of First Generation Americans, I am impressed by this attention to detail. Plus, the story was wonderful, with very real and very believable characters exploring for us the range of human emotions not usually covered in a 'romance' novel. I can hardly wait for the next novel which will carry on the general story line of the Daughters of Pallas. END

I've read all of Karen Kallmaker's books several times and after I finally accepted that this book was not a Kallmaker romance I started liking it. There is a romance going on (a hot one, too!), but I found the story to be about picking up the pieces after something horrible has happened and you blame yourself. I sympathized with the main characters before I liked them and now I want to know what happens next! I haven't read the first book, Night Vision, yet, but I will have to because this is an engrossing "what if" kind of world created.

I want to know if Sharon decides to go back to the world that created her and becomes less human so she can breathe their air and feel that sun on her skin. I want to know if Amanda's second chance to do everything right helps J.T. and Tamar enough that they don't have to lose some of their humanity as they try to remake the world to something that cherishes life and hope.

I will always expect something different from a Laura Adams book in the future and I intend to read them because this was just too well-written and too thought-provoking to pass up just because I wish Karin would write just romances to give me my fix more often! I did find much more of the Kallmaker I expected in Christabel and I really recommend that book too!

I have read all of the books written by this author and her last two efforts have left me unmoved and dissapointed.I stumbled across her book "In Every Port" by accident three years ago, but after reading it I was so impressed with her ability to weave a beautiful love story that I purchased every book she had ever written up to that date and loved each and everyone of them. I could close my eyes and put a face to the characters of her books because they were so real.I have become so familiar with Kallmakers skill as a story teller that I was able to guess, even before it was public knowledge, that she was Laura Adams. Because only Kallmaker could write stories like Christabel and Night Visions. Stories that entertwine Romance and Sci-Fi so well that one cant help but grieve and rejoice for the characters.After reading The Dawning I realized i didnt feel a connecton with any of the characters. Unike the character Sirena, from the book Night Visions, Sharon is selfish and uses her special gifts as a means to justify her own end. Her life is not in jeopardy and she has no real reason for making contact with Amanda but the first few pages of the book describes how Sharon uses her psychic gifts on a very unwilling Amanda. Even after Amanda repeatedly pleads with Sharon to stop she doesnt. The character Amanda has been living the last 13yrs of her life almost as a hermit grieving over an accident, that she eventually learns, she played no part in. Then she spends another 13yrs waiting for the return of her true love.We are also reintroduced to the characters JT and Tamar. But Tamar has lost the tranquility that was given to her by Sirena. Tamars' character is cold and terse with no sense of happiness. And the Character JT is using her special gifts to heal the wealthy in order to fund the home run by Tamar and herself.I was also dissapointed when the character Sharon told Amanda how she had been isolated from the women of Pallas because she was different from them. She went on to explain that once those differences were corrected she would be permitted to fully enter their world. Why be a part of a world that cant accept you fully for who and what you are? I was totally shocked to find this theme in Kallmakers writting especially after reading Car Pool, Paperback Romance and Night Vision.I guess what I am waiting for is Naiad to announce the name of the person writting under the psuedonym of Karin Kallmaker.