Customer Reviews

Eternity Row: A Stardoc Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a continuing story, and I very much recommend that you start with the first book, Stardoc, and read the sequels in order: Stardoc, Beyond Vallarean, Endurance, then Shockball. If you haven't, the rest of this review will contain spoilers for the first four.

Contrary to what a lot of other readers seem to think, I believe that Eternity Row has brought Cherijo back into her groove.
In this Fifth installment of the StarDoc series, Cherijo Grey-Veil is back on board The Sunlace with her husband/linguist Duncan Reever, and their new child Marel. With them on the huge HouseClan Torin ship are their two tag-alongs from Shockball; Hawk Long Knife, a Terran/Taercal halfbreed, and Dhreen, an Oenrallian who is Cherijo's former-friend and recent betrayer.

Eternity row starts with HouseClan Torin decreeing that they will no longer turn their backs on their enemies, and have outfitted The Sunlace for war, willing to declare ClanKill on any who attack. Being upset enough about this, Cherijo goes to visit Dhreen and accidentally shoots him, causing a grievous injury. When Dhreen wakes from his surgery, he has trauma induced global amnesia. And everywhere Cherijo goes, she is now followed by the suspicious new psychiatric resident Qonja, cousin to Clan Torin.

Eternity Row is packed with more adventure than the third and fourth books, which bogged down a little on the war between the League and the Hsktskt. Although The Sunlace rescues some ships disabled and floating with both League and Hsktskt survivors, Cherijo treats them aboard the Sunlace until they can be offloaded, and thankfully does not return to this in this installment.

Instead, they head for Hawk's home world of Taerca hoping that he can locate his father. What they find is an openly hostile race of dying people, living under strict religious standards. It's trouble on Taerca, and trouble after the leave the planet when Squilyp's mail order bride from Omorr arrives, a haughty little thing who immediately begins to push around the big Jorenians. Trouble waits for Cherijo still when they arrive at Dhreen's home world of Orenrall, where things are not what they seem to be. Orenrall is hiding a horrible secret from the universe, and its up to Dhreen to remember it before the Bartermen sell them all as slaves.

Eternity Row is back on the 5 star list along with books 1 and 2 in the series, recapturing the excitement, bizarre worlds and species, and helter-skelter race against life and death that Cherijo always gets herself tangled into. Strange planets, purple moulds, feline deities, squishy worms, planetary drug addictions, the strange ClanCousin Qonja watching her every move, and a racial struggle for death rather than life all will plant themselves in Cherijo's path and force her to confront them.

What I really liked about this installment in the series is that they put aside the war for a while to concentrate on bringing back the more sci-fi elements of the series. I like the books better when Cherijo and Duncan get along, their squabbling can get tiresome at times. And I love the places and Beings that S.L.Veihl can dream up, and was getting tired of the Hsktskt/League conflict.

The worst and most annoying thing about this installment is the baby talk that Marel speaks. Okay, I know she is supposed to be a precocious child, but I dearly hope that her speech is better in the next StarDoc book. And Ms. Veihl, you had better be working on it now, because I can't wait to take off again with Cherijo on her adventures. Enjoy.

Eternity Row stars the super-bio-engineered doctor Cherijo, her standoffish husband Duncan Reever, and now the latest addition, Cherijo's daughter Maril.

This latest installment was by far the weakest in the series. As we found out in the last four novels, Cherijo was bio-engineered by her demented father/brother to be the perfect wife (erk). Fortunately, this book fortunately gives the demented father/brother character Joe Grey Veil a rest, and concentrates on Cherijo.

Cherijo and Duncan have had a child (see Shockball) cliff hanger. The child, Maril is precocious, gifted, and as annoying as can be, talking in 'baby talk' throughout the book. She manages to be underfoot at every opportunity, taking Eternity Row into new levels of corniness. Duncan Reever, usually cool-headed, becomes a testosterone crazed fiend in this novel, slathering Cherijo with a 'romance novel' level of protectiveness and ordering her about in uncharacteristic fashion.

As usual, Cherijo is impervious to harm, as she bludgeons the readers (and the rest of the galaxy) with her own version of doctoring and philosophy. (While I love these books, I think the author may have painted herself into a a corner with this character by making her all-perfect, all-powerful, and just plain TOO superhuman). As it is, there is nothing Cherijo cannot do. From discovering cures for an STD(last novel), to solving interplanetary incidents. Cherijo is not only smarter than everyone, she is tougher, stronger, and knows what's best for everyone too. Please.

While I liked Eternity Row, I felt the novel ending was a tad contrived. I disliked the baby-talk which the author used as a speech device for Cherijo's child. Scratch that, I also disliked the child as a plot device. Whatever happened to Cherijo's protestations that she 'just wasn't maternal?' And who in their right mind would produce a child with a stalker like Joe Grey Veil loose? I also felt the cast of characters needs to be parred down some, and some minor plot threads should've been resolved, such as Ilona... Etc. Overall, this was a okay read, but with all the 'pairing up' that goes on in this novel, I began to feel like I was reading a Romance Novel, rather than Sci Fi.

I recommend this for readers of the other books, but it definitely was the weakest in the series.

Eternity Row is Viehl's fifth StarDoc novel, and there's no end in sight. The series has been entertaining, and Cherijo Torin's quest to discover-and perhaps alter-her destiny has taken some creative turns. Viehl's characters, medical scenes, and action sequences have always been strong. Her basic writing skills have shown slow but steady improvement. Unfortunately, her plotting remains weak in terms of both her series-long story arc and her finer touches within each book.

For those who by now feel a vested interest in Cherijo's fate, Eternity Row is worth reading, but it's decidedly the least inspired effort in the series to date. There's little sense of focus throughout much of the book, as the plot takes far too long to develop. The story's climax and wrap-up are then overly rushed, with no really satisfying pay-off at the end. Too many plot elements are poorly rationalized, overly contrived, or simply irrelevant. Most disappointing of all, there's no delightful, demented, Viehl-crafted villain powering this piece.

The bare-bones outline is simple enough. The Sunlace will head for the planet of Oenrall so Cherijo can investigate the mysterious plague afflicting Dhreen's people. From there, it's on to Jxinok, to finally learn why Maggie involved herself in Joe's experiments to create Cherijo. Since Hawk's father is from a planet in the same quadrant as the other two, Sunlace will stop there along the way.

The story lines as they actually play out become a good deal muddier. Cherijo's ClanBrother Xonea still seems to have designs on her; they unfold in a couple of related plot elements that splutter along through the main story lines. The ongoing war between League and Hsktskt forces affects life aboard the Sunlace. Cherijo's pals Squilyp and Alunthri are both having personal problems. A belief-straining connection turns up between Hawk's people and Dhreen's, and possibly Alunthri's. The Bartermen reappear. In addition to high intelligence and rapid healing, daughter Marel shows signs of at least one ability not demonstrated by Cherijo. There are unexpected side effects to Joe's experimental surgery on Duncan's kidney. Cherijo and Duncan still haven't gotten their joint act together, for which Maggie lectures them sternly-something readers have wanted to do since Endurance.

Like earlier StarDoc books, Eternity Row has its better moments, mostly limited in this case to minor details. The book probably contains information essential to the larger story arc, though it's difficult to see how most of it could possibly matter in the long run. The back cover blurb promises that Cherijo and Duncan "intend to find Cherijo's foster mother-and the truth behind the subliminal messages she left in Cherijo's brain." Duncan does eventually spring a surprise about the nature of the messages; however, when Cherijo at last gets to hear their purpose, she rejects it out of hand as a pack of lies. After waiting through most of the book for a substantial revelation like those in past stories, this feels like a pretty cheap trick.

Book I: Cherijo finds out she's a clone, escapes from her father/creator, and has adventures in space. Great sci-fi. Rating: 5+

Book II: Cherijo travels through space trying to escape from bountry hunters. Excitement and suspense follow. Rating: 5

Book III: Cherijo is captured and lives as a slave among an ultra-frightening alien race. Personal conflict and social commentary. Rating: 4

So these were the good books of the Stardoc series. Unfortunately, S. L. Viehl has managed to reduce them into a silly soap opera where the most original characters are moody fiances, the issue at hand is breeding, the technology is so ridiculous, it's not even plausible (even for a sci-fi novel) and the plot is driven by the character's hallucinations.

Book IV was sort of readable, mostly due to the mutant characters presented in the novel. Otherwise, let's just say that space novels should take place in space.

Book V ends up a total disappointment. Cherijo finally finds out what Maggie really has to say to her, which Cherijo finds ridiculous (which is ironic, because the readers will find it even more so) and she says she disapproves of it and people who like control are bad, right? The novel offers no unifying plot, just a series of insignificant events as in a daytime soap opera. Sure, there are new planets and new species, but they are executed so poorly, they do not take away from the mediocre effort S. L. Viehl put into this book.

Overall, I recommend books 1-3 of the series, they're pretty good sci-fi fluff with strong characters and interesting plots. Book 4 and 5 are kind of lame and published only because the fans of books 1-3 will buy them.

Eternity Row (2002) is the fifth SF novel in the StarDoc series, following Shockball. The initial volume in this series is StarDoc.

In the previous volume, Cherijo discovered that the shock ball had been tampered with to give fatal electric shocks. She got the ball from Duncan and took the shocks onto herself. She had a vision of Maggie while going into convulsions.

In this novel, Cherijo Grey Veil is a modified clone of Joseph Grey Veil. She is a physician and surgeon. She had been a healer among the Navajos.

Duncan Reever is a telepath and a very talented linguist. He can learn a language almost as fast as it is being spoken via a link to the mind of the speaker. He escaped from the Navajos with Cherijo.

Marel is the daughter of Cherijo and Duncan. She can't be locked into any area and seems to appear out of nowhere.

Squilyp is an Omorr, a four limbed alien who hops on one limb and uses the other three as arms. He is Senior Healer on the Sunlace.

Xonea Torin is a Jorenian and the captain of the Sunlace. He is a ClanBrother of Cherijo.

Qonja Torin is a Jorenian psychiatric resident. He is a newcomer on the Sunlace.

Dreen is an Oenrallian pilot. He had been spying for Joseph, but changed sides after the death of Cherijo's father. Now he is going home with the Sunlace.

Ilona Red Faun is a Navajo girl. She had a relationship with Cherijo's brother Jericho, but latched onto Dreen after the death of Rico.

Hawk Long Knife is a winged being from Taerca. He had been the shaman for the Navajo tribe. Now he is heading back to his home planet to meet his father.

In this story, Cherijo is getting ready to operate on a double hernia in a Jorenian crewman. But something is bothering her. She notices that the table linens under the operating table are moving.

After Cherijo removes Marel from under the table, she gets Sqyilyp to find Duncan to take Marel home and keep her out of the operating room. Then she goes back to the surgery.

The next morning, she attends a meeting with the Sunlace senior staff. She learns that the ship has been equipped with more powerful weapons to fight the Terrans and mercenaries trying to capture her. She also finds herself assigned to review new personnel procedures in case of an attack.

Then she has a fit when she learns that such procedures even apply to the children. Cherijo definitely doesn't like putting the children at risk. She is told that the procedures are designed to protect them from harm, but she still is not happy.

Xonea insists on demonstrating the adult procedures to Cherijo. She finds herself falling down often during combat training. She also doesn't like guns and edged weapons, but she finds a telescoping rod that can be used like a quarter staff.

Cherijo is having troubles with Qonja. He seems to be following her. She complains about it to Squilyp. The Senior Healer suspends the resident from medical duties, but then the Jorenian Ruling Council reinstates him.

Dhreen has not appeared at staff meetings for a while, so Cherijo searches for the Oenrallian. She finds him in the maintenance bay working on a shuttle. An accident occurs and he is severely injured.

Cherijo is examining his injuries when Ilona accuses her of killing him. She attacks Cherijo, but is shaken off and grabbed by crewmen. But Cherijo is charged with deliberately injuring Dhreen and locked in the brig.

After Cherijo proves her innocence, the Sunlace reaches Taerca. Two shuttles take Cherijo, Reever, Hawk and others down to the planet. Hawk finds his father, but the away party runs into problems with the Taercals.

This tale also takes the Sunlace to Oenrall, Dhreen's home planet. Then they go to Jxinok, the homeworld of Cherijo's surrogate mother. More problems occur on these worlds.

The Sunlace overcomes all difficulties, but not without casualties. The next installment in this series is Rebel Ice.

Recommended for Viehl fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures, medical practice, and contentious romance. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

While I agree with some reviwers that this is not the best of the Stardoc series, those familiar with the characters will enjoy getting more deeply into the lives of the supporting cast. If you have never read a Stardoc novel before, this is definitely NOT the place to start. The author needs to get out of the obsession with reproduction and on to other topics. If you have read the other Stardoc novels and want to see what is happening with Cherijo and her extended family I would advise buying it used if possible.

The first couple of Stardoc novels featured intresting alien cultures, excitement and ethical dilemmas. This one not only disappoints on those issues, but features the most annoyingly cute little kid since Totty in ADAM BEDE. You need a hit of insulin to get through this one. This supposedly gifted kid can't get out two words without baby talk, made exculsively of oh-so-cute misprounciations. What a tweet widdle kawaktow--not. As Dorothy Parker said, "Tonstant Weader Frowed Up."

S.L. Viehl has created a fascinating world that captivates me every time I venture into it. I love everything she (?) has written and wait with bated breath until the next book comes out. I do think the focus needs to move from Cherijo and maybe other characters introduced.

Stardoc series is excellent and I recommend you read them all, in order if you can. Great characters, great imagination and adventures.

Subject says it all: I keep on wanting to know what happens next but I'm not certain that I'll continue to buy books in this series.