The Moon's Shadow [Hardcover]

Catherine Asaro (Author)

Book Description

Series: Asaro, Catherine | Publication Date: March 19, 2003

Catherine Asaro exploded on to the science fiction scene in 1995 with the publication of her widely acclaimed debut novel, Primary Inversion, which introduced readers to the vast and intricate future Saga of the Skolian Empire. She won wide acclaim for her innovative blend of cutting-edge physics, interstellar intrigue, and passionate romance.

Booklist praised Primary Inversion as "an unusually masterful first novel combining hard speculative science and first-rate storytelling to look at the galaxy's distant future. This is one of the best SF first novels in years, a likely candidate for the genre's major awards." And Romantic Times called Catherine Asaro "a formidable new talent. Primary Inversion is a stunning, fast-paced novel of a future war between two human empires. Asaro's elegant scientific concepts of space and time play an exciting role in this absolutely nifty space drama."

Asaro continued the saga of the Skolian Empire in six subsequent volumes - Catch the Lightning, The Last Hawk, The Radiant Seas, Ascendant Sun, The Quantum Rose, and Spherical Harmonic - gaining a legion of devoted readers and regularly garnering nominations for the field's highest awards, culminating in her winning the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Quantum Rose--in addition to winning the two most recent Romantic Times Awards for Best SF Novel.

With The Moon's Shadow, Catherine Asaro begins a thrilling new chapter in this galaxy-spanning epic, as the titanic conflicts which have raged across the cosmos at last come to a climax.

At the age of seventeen the young nobleman named Jaibriol Qox becomes ruler of a vast galactic empire - and loses everything he has ever valued.

Born of a clandestine liaison between a renegade daughter of the Skolian Imperialate and a scion of the genetically engineered Eubian Traders, Jai Qox grew up in exile, unaware of the powers that coursed through his noble blood.

In the waning days of the bloody Radiance War that ravaged the galaxy, Jai was captured and returned to the Traders to play a role as a puppet Emperor in their scheme to consolidate their domination of space.

Now Jai must walk a razor's edge, to seize the power that is his by birthright without succumbing to its dark seduction and wield it for the good of all, and to avert a conflagration that threatens to engulf a thousand worlds.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This mesmerizing, passionate novel-the eighth in Nebula Award-winner Asaro's (The Quantum Rose) series about the Skolian interstellar empire-focuses mainly on Skolia's rival, Eube, whose rulers are addicted to the suffering of empathic slaves. Teenaged Jai Rockworth, successful claimant to the Eubian throne but also a disguised empath, wants to create a healthy peace between the warring powers, but his inexperience trips him into one crisis after another. Also, his secret is suspected by the coldblooded Corbal Xir, "one of the most feared men in settled space," and Tarquine Iquar, brilliant but unscrupulous Finance Minister, whom Jai selects as his empress. Corbal and Tarquine want to manipulate Jai; other Eubians just want to assassinate him. The Skolians, meanwhile, don't know what to make of Jai, though Kelric Garlin, their leader who was briefly Tarquine's slave, feels that the young idealist may deserve serious attention. In this formidably complicated situation, recomplicated by the characters' suspicion of each other, Asaro skillfully shows the hesitant sprouting of loyalty, trust and even love. Newcomers can count on a lot of background summary (supplemented by family trees and a timeline at the end) throughout this far from subtle narrative. Still, it's fascinating to watch these overwrought people in superheated interaction. FYI: Asaro has won the two most recent Romantic Times Awards for Best SF Novel.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Asaro's vast, splendid Skolian Empire saga continues to successfully combine space opera, hard science, and romance. The protagonist here, young emperor Jaibriol III of Eube, is the son of Soz and Jaibriol, the formidable Romeo and Juliet in The Radiant Seas (1998). Enthroned shortly after his release from slavery, he is immediately hip-deep in intrigues, most of them potentially lethal. To consolidate his power base, he marries his minister of finance, Tarquine Iquar, who is older, erotic, wealthy, and not overly honest; yet she is loyal to him to the extent of her capacity to be loyal to anyone. Meanwhile, the Ruby dynasty places Keldric, the protagonist of The Last Hawk (1997), on the Skolian throne; he has a commoner consort and has been provider (i.e., sex slave) to the future empress, Tarquine, in which capacity he scored a major intelligence coup for the Skolians. Both rulers share a commitment to peace between their star-nations, but that just raises the stakes higher than usual in an Asaro book. Good news for Skolian fandom! Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (March 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765304252
• ISBN-13: 978-0765304254
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,266,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Asaro: Renassaince Woman

Propped against the bookcase in Catherine Asaro's home office is the framed diploma of her Harvard Ph.D. in chemical physics. Nearby, dangling from the doorknob, is a bag stuffed with the tights and leotards she wears when she pulls herself away from her writing for ballet classes. A former professional dancer, this California native has little time for the ballet barre these days. Instead, she's fielding speaking offers and meeting deadlines for her novels.

Winner of the Nebula (R) Award for her novel, THE QUANTUM ROSE, and her novella, "The SpacetimePool," Catherine blends exciting adventure, science, world building, romance, and strong characterization into her fiction. Her latest science fiction novel is DIAMOND STAR (Baen), and her most recent fantasy is THE NIGHT BIRD (Luna). She also writes thrillers, including ALPHA and SUNRISE ALLEY.

DIAMOND STAR (is about a rock star in the future. The book's release is the culmination of what Catherine describes as "one of the most exciting collaborations I've ever done." Working with the Baltimore rock band Point Valid, she recorded a music CD that offers readers a soundtrack to the book. Starflight Music released the CD, also titled Diamond Star, performed by Point Valid--Hayim Ani, Adam Leve, and Max Vidaver--with Catherine as a guest artist. Catherine wrote the lyrics for most of the songs, and Hayim wrote the music with Point Valid. Catherine also composed several cuts on the album, and Hayim offered her several of his original compositions.

After Point Valid dispersed to college, jazz pianist Donald Wolcott joined the project as the accompanist for Catherine's vocals. Asaro and WOlcott perform and book conventions and other venues, doing selections from the soundtracks to Catherine's books as well as jazz and pop songs.

Catherine's short fiction has appeared in Analog magazine and various anthologies, including "Walk in Silence," "A Roll of the Dice," and "Aurora in Four Voices," which all won the Analog Readers Poll for best novella, and were nominated for both Nebula(R) and Hugo Awards. Her novella, "The Spacetime Pool" (Analog, March 2008), is currently up for the Nebula(R). Catherine has also published reviews and essays and authored scientific papers in refereed academic journals. Her paper,"Complex Speeds and Special Relativity" in the The American Journal of Physics (April 1996) forms the basis for some of the science in her fiction. Among the places she has done research are the University of Toronto, the Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She was a physics professor until 1990, when she became a consultant and writer.

In Catherine's youth, the arts were her focus. She studied ballet from age of five, trained in classical piano, and spent hours curled up with books. She successfully pursued London's Royal Academy of Dance syllabus through the first professional level and enrolled at UCLA as a dance major. Then she discovered she loved math and science. "I hadn't studied it much in high school, but at UCLA I ended up taking a lot of science and math," she remembers. "I struggled at first and sometimes I felt like I had no clue. Then one day I read the chapter in my chemistry book on quantum theory--and I was hooked. It felt more right than any other subject I had studied." She went on to earn a BS with Highest Honors from UCLA, a masters in physics from Harvard, and a doctorate in chemical physics, also from Harvard.

Catherine attributes her ability to entertain a broad reading audience in part to her upbringing. "My father is one of the four scientists who postulated that a comet hitting the earth caused mass extinctions, including the demise of dinosaurs. My mother was a student of English literature who loved to write, so from the beginning I was influenced by both the sciences and arts." While pursing her degrees, Catherine continued to dance, founding the Mainly Jazz Dancers and Harvard University Ballet. Perennially on deadline, she now focuses more on her writing than research, but she often speaks on the intersection of science and art at venues such as the Library of Congress and Georgetown University.

Catherine is also proud to coach the Howard Area Homeschoolers, whose students have distinguished themselves in numerous national math programs, including the USA Mathematical Olympiad, MathCounts, and the American Regional Mathematics League. She has served two terms as president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA).

Born in Oakland, California, Asaro grew up in El Cerrito, north of Berkeley. A challenger of rules since her childhood, she explores the boundaries of genre fiction in her novels. "It's like stretching different muscles for dance class," she says, adding that dancing and math aren't as dissimilar as people may think. "There is a beauty in seeing a math problem come together just as there is in performing a ballet. And the discipline it takes to do ballet well is similar to that needed to do math." But no matter what the style of her novels, she writes from the heart. "The flashy adventure is fun," she says, "but the characters mean the most to me, both as a reader and as a writer."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sheep Among Wolves, March 1, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moon's Shadow (Hardcover)

The Moon's Shadow (2003) is the eighth novel in the Skolian Imperialate series, following Spherical Harmonic. In the preceding novels, the Skolians and Eubians have brought each other to their knees, Sauscony has rescued Jaibrol II and Althor and then fled under cover of an exploding decoy that convinces everyone that their shuttle has been destroyed, and Jaibrol III has exchanged himself for his uncle Eldrin and then has become the new Emperor of Eube (The Radiant Seas).

Kelric has come back to Skolian space, is captured and enslaved as a provider by Eubians, but escapes to the Sphinx Sector Rim Base, where he declares himself Imperator through the stolen Lock, disables it, and therein meets the new Eubian Emperor; he flees from the SSRB in a stolen ship to Spikedown outpost and then on to Earth with his consort-to-be, Jeejon, a former Eubian taskmaster (Ascendant Sun).

Furthermore, the Allied Worlds have been driven away from the Valdoria homeworld by public pressure (The Quantum Rose) and the Ruby Pharoah, Dyhianna Selei, has come back from Hilbert Space, reclaimed her husband, Eldrin, from the Allied Worlds, and, in a military coup, taken the rule of Skolia, which she graciously shares with the Assembly (Spherical Harmonic).

In this novel, in 2277 AD, these events are replayed from the point of view of Jai, the new Emperor of Eube, and extended further into the peace talks between the Eubians and Skolians. Jai has a difficult time adjusting to Eubian manners and customs, especially the habitual use of circumlocation in speech, but an even more difficult time withstanding the telepathic noise and empathic pressure of the Aristo minds. Corbal Xir, his cousin and the power behind the throne, learns to care for him, a breach of Aristo conduct, and tries to help him, even to the extent of being direct in his verbal responses. Tarquine Iquar, his Minister of Finance, also becomes his wife and likewise learns to care for him. Both assist him in another way, for their minds are much less noisy and pressuring than the other Aristos, thus providing a quiet and restful haven for Jai.

While his associates are slowly becoming his friends, Jai is opposed by the Joint Commanders of the Eubean Space Command, Xirad Kaliga and Kryx Taratus, and by a rich conniver, Jaibrol Raziquon. These plotters kidnap providers, encourage disparaging rumors, and attempt assassinations. They are greatly helped by the way Jai responds to fine old Highton Aristo traditions, like transcending, large-scale extortion, and fraudulent provider sales.

This series is like a jigsaw puzzle that is just now beginning to provide a glimpse of the whole picture. The early works seemed to be totally independent of each other, but are finally coming together. Nevertheless, there is surely more to come.

Recommended for Asaro fans and anyone who enjoys romantic space opera within exotic -- and stressful -- cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great blend of sci fi and romance, January 8, 2004

By 

T. M. Wheaton "tmwheato" (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moon's Shadow (Hardcover)

Jaibriol Qox III has just assumed the carnelian throne of the Eubian Empire. He is the rightful heir to the throne, his DNA says so. But no one else is aware that his DNA also says that he is the son of the late Sauscony (Soz) Valdoria, the hated Imperator of the Eubian Empire's sworn enemy, The Skolian Empire. Jaibriol (or Jai as he likes to be called) was born in exile where his mother and father, Jaibriol II, fled after faking their deaths. In the aftermath of the crippling Radiance War, he now believes his parents are really dead and that he has a duty to see that they didn't die in vain.

Realizing he is the only chance the warring worlds have for peace, he reveals himself to the Eubians and thus takes his place as Emperor. But it is harder than Jai thought. He is young and inexperienced. The Hightons, the ruling class on Eube, speak in a florid meandering language that is full of subtext and hidden meaning. Jai can't seem to master the subletites so he blunders constantly. Making enemies early on, he quickly becomes the target of assassination plots

But Jai gains unlikely allies in the woman he makes his empress, Tarquine Iquar, and his wily adviser Corbal Xir. All three have devastating secrets that if they came to light mean sure death. In Tarquine and Corbal Jai gains access to the experience and ruthlessness necessary to run his empire. But he manages to maintain his own internal idealism and need to meet the Skolians at the peace table.

If you haven't read any of the other books of the series, then this probably isn't the best place to be starting. In the previous seven books, there is so much back-story, so much explanation of the events that lead to Jai taking the throne, that you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you tried to start here.

Reading this book, it made me think of Jai as a narc under deep cover. Constantly watching his back trying not to make a false move. Having to pretend to transcend is kinda like a undercover cop having to commit crime to be accepted. He is deep in enemy territory and one false move could get a slave collar slapped on his throat. The irony, of course , is that he is the rightful emperor and this is his empire. He should be right at home. He should be able to make changes if he wants, but the way of life and the attitudes of the people are so ingrained that his efforts are frightening and make him an assassination target.

But he has Tarquine, who after Soz, has become my favorite character in these books. She is tough, wily, smart, duplicitous, forward thinking, selfish, compassionate, ruthless, wise and most of all she is looking out for Jai. I thought for sure Corbal would be the power behind Jai, but it is Tarquine who bears watching.

This book has a lot to recommend it. There is Jai who is growing and learning and trying to make a legacy for his parents. There is lots of good sex. There is lots of great action that includes plotting and counter plotting, assassination attempts, murder, lawsuits and espionage. There are old threads tied up a little bit (Kelric and Tarquine). And there are the off screen developments in the Ruby dynasty. I especially love the scenes where Kelric, Roca and Dyhianna are puzzling over Jai's motives, not realizing that he is Soz's child.

Which brings me to the commenting on the whole series. I can't wait to see what happens next. The Skolian Empire series is an excellent series of books that are wonderfully plotted. I love the fact that the reader has so much great information about the goings on that none of the characters really know. I love the idea that the one of the two people who know everything has conveniently died and that the other person isn't in a position to reveal anything. I can't wait until the Valdorias all find out about Jai. I can't wait until Jai finds out about his parents. I can't wait until poor Roca learns about Soz and Althor.

So really what I am saying is: This book is good, the series is good and I can't wait til the next book.

I highly recommend

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong alien races SF, March 2, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moon's Shadow (Hardcover)

On the planet Delos, The Eubians exchange prisoner Prince Eldrin of the Skolian Empire for Jai Rockworth the heir to the Eubian Concord. Although nobody knows it, Jai, who will be the next Emperor, is related to all the high powered rulers in the Skolian Empire. The Skolians and the Eubians after centuries of war are holding to an informal and uneasy truce, one that could explode into war with the least provocation.

The Eubian economy is based on the slave trade and is condemned by the Skolians who know their enemies feed on the pain of their psychic, slaves known as Providers. Jai's most fervent wish is to forge a permanent peace between the two empires but forces within his own government try their best to kill him before he can make any reforms. When he marries his Finance Minister Tarquine, he gets a wife who will use all her dirty tricks in her mighty arsenal to keep her husband safe.

Readers get a close look at how the Eubian Concord really works and it will sicken them as much as it does the hero of THE MOON'S SHADOW. The protagonist is young but he gathers some powerful allies who help him rule and try to see that he is protected from assassination from those who disagree with his goals. Catherine Asaro has written one of the best works of her star-studded career, one that will have readers searching the shelves for her backlist.

Harriet Klausner