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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Master of Storytelling and Alien Perspectives at Work, November 6, 2008
This review is from: Riders of the Storm (Stratification #2) (Hardcover)
Just so you don't think I didn't accomplish anything this weekend during ConClave, behold a new review of Julie Czerneda's latest in her Clan Chronicles series.
Warning: Gushing fanboy alert. That's why I'm posting this here instead of in Evolutions. There's nothing here that'll build my cred at a "critic". If that's going to bother you, skip this post.
I finally managed to pick up a copy of Riders of The Storm at a vendor's table at ConClave in Romulus, Michigan this past weekend. Since the con was small and so is my presence, I needed something to do while sitting in the public areas.
Is it good? Oh, heck yeah. I bought the book Friday evening and by a little after dinner time Saturday I was finished. My neck hurt and it felt like my sinuses were going to do a Scanners redux on my head, but I was done.
Okay, touchstone here. The aforementioned "Clan Chronicles" basically encompasses the fiction universe Julie kicked off with "A Thousand Words for Stranger" oh so many years ago. (You want exact numbers? Go visit her site, www.czerneda.com.) Anyhow, I think there's Thousand and two other books in the initial trilogy (To Trade the Stars and Ties of Power.) After Trade (I think), Julie shifted gears and did Reap the Wild Wind, a kickoff to a prequel series that will eventually explain the "Why?" of how things got to the point where they started in Thousand. Riders is the second book in her prequel series (which I think is supposed to be a trilogy, but I'm not taking an oath on that.)
So, what do you get from a series like this? Good lord, where to start. First off, you need to realize that any Julie novel is very layered. There's nuance and subtlety hiding in every odd corner of the narrative. So, you'll start out thinking, "Oh, this is just an adventure-romance," and then suddenly your trip over the fact that Julie's biologist background uniquely equips her to not just create alien races, but to extrapolate believable alien cultures and to maintain the congruency of their presentation such that they never become "people with rubber masks on." This takes a lot of discipline and organization in addition to just out and out writer talent to pull off.
Case in point, the point of view Om-ray, who are presented as externally impossible to differentiate between humans, occasionally may seem for a moment or two to be regular people, but it never lasts. Their abilities and biology directly affect not only their culture, but even how they navigate and sense the world around them. Ergo, you're never more than a paragraph away from a reminder that these creatures, although wonderfully empathic and compelling, are definitely not human. Add in the enigmatic Tikitik and Oud (although enigmatic in different ways), and you get an impression of how many balls Julie juggled to make this book happen.
But it's not just alien races. The presentation of conflicts internal, external, and sometimes just flat-out tangential beg larger questions of preservation of culture, of survival as a people and as families, and of how conflicting interests can put innocents in the path of dangers beyond their comprehension. With Riders, you get a continuation of the adventure, mystery, and romantic elements that began in Reap, with some outcomes in the end but oh so much more to come hinted at in various places.
I think that Riders does an excellent job of continuing the story while providing non-trivial events and resolutions within its own story while setting the stage for the book to come. In fact, Riders does such a good job of being a "second in a trilogy" that I honestly plan on holding it up as an example of "this is how it should be done." Not that everyone will enjoy it as much as I do (no book or story ever pleases everyone) but I honestly cannot find anything of significance to nit. This volume worked for me in technical presentation, emotional content, implication/foreshadowing, and sensory conveyance. The only time I ever had a challenge in reading was trying to keep up with the initial "trek" scenes but, in hindsight, I realized that's because it was supposed to be conveying how much trouble the Om'ray have navigating in the physical world.
Like I said. Layered. Subtle. Cool stuff. And the book's full of bits like that.
Basically, I'm digging out Reap when I get back to Fort Wayne, along with Thousand, Ties, and To Trade the Stars. I'm looking forward to appreciating more every time I read them, up to and including Reap and Riders.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of Czerneda, November 22, 2008
This review is from: Riders of the Storm (Stratification #2) (Hardcover)
I'm not going to go in to a long review of this book, I'll let you read it. I will say it was, in my opinion, the best I've read of Czerneda's works. Very enjoyable story line, nice flow, interesting characters. I highly recommend this one! Looking forward to the next installation.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Settling Amidst Ruins, July 14, 2009
Riders of the Storm (2008) is the second SF novel of the Stratification series, following Reap the Wild Wind. In the previous volume, Marcus and Aryl reached the Watchers and temporary safety after the crash of the aircar. Enris guided a rescue craft to them and they were carried back to Site Two. From there, Aryl escaped with Enris to Yena through the Darkness.
They found the swarm attacking and burned the village to drive back the predators. Then the Yena Adepts exiled Aryl and others who had shown new Talents. The exiles traveled to Grona, but left when Aryl was almost forced to relinquish her knowledge of the Darkness.
In this novel, Aryl Sarc is an Om'ray, an unChosen of the Yena Clan, and daughter of the Adept Speaker. Like her mother, she possesses powerful Talents, including manipulation of the Darkness. She can travel through it to a known location.
Enris Mendolar is an Om'ray unChosen of the Tuana Clan. He was a metalworker like his father. He had come to Yena as an UnChosen, but now he is an exile with the others.
Bern Teerac is an Om'ray Chosen of the Grona Clan. He had been Aryl's Heart-kin in Yena. He had left the Clan as an unChosen when Aryl was not ready to be a Choser. Now he is the Chosen of Oran and has shared his memories of the rescue by Aryl using the Darkness.
Oran di Caraat is Bren's Chosen and a minor Adept of Grona. She had tried to force open Aryl's shields to obtain knowledge of the Darkness, but Aryl resisted her attempt and left the village.
Marcus Bowman is a human Triad First in the Trade Pact. He has met Aryl several time and has some knowledge of the Om'ray language. He has promised to leave the Om'ray alone.
In this story, Aryl leaves Grona and travels into the mountains. The other exiles follow her. Enris goes with them, but stays away from the higher paths in the mountains. He does not have the Yena disdain for heights.
Enris wants to travel to Vyna, the farthest village of the Om'ray. He has heard that Vyna has some technology and wants to learn how to make and use this ancient knowledge. Still, he will stay with the exiles until he believes them to be safe.
As they travel though the mountains, both Aryl and find bones and the effects of other Om'ray. Seru Parth -- Aryl's cousin -- starts having dreams about the Sona village. Then Ziba -- young daughter of Taen Uruus -- also starts having such dreams.
Aryl's finds the Darkness talking to her. She resists it, but words and pictures come in her dreams. She finds that she is dreaming about the same things as Seru and Ziba.
Then they find the remains of a village within an area restructured by the Oud. The exiles realize that this is the village about which Seru has been dreaming. Then they find the village stores and find that Ziba knows how to prepare the rokly in the storage jugs.
Aryl finds the village Cloisters high up the path that runs into the mountain. She also finds Marcus nearby. She panics and runs away, only to fall into a hole in the ground where the diverted river runs.
After her rescue, Aryl is reconciled with Marcus. Then she is given a Speaker medallion by the Oud and finds herself in the unexpected role of representative for the village to both the Oud and Tikitik. When she returns to Soma, she also discovers that other Om'ray are coming.
When Bren, Oran and their family arrive, the Sona villagers give them a cold reception. Oran claims to have come to heal their wounded, but she is only a weak healer. Then Oran tries again to force Aryl to surrender knowledge of the Darkness and Aryl tears her spirit to shreds. But Aryl relents and restores Oran before she is Lost.
This tale gives Aryl more knowledge of the Trade Pact strangers as well as more information on the Oud and Tikitik. Enris finds Vyna, but also discovers that they are arrogant and different in many ways. Marcus gains more data on the heritage of the Om'ray.
The story is filled with action and surprises. Aryl and Enris become more tolerant of the Oud, Tikitik and Humans. But they also find that they have reasons to fear the other species.
The sequel to this volume is Rift in the Sky. Read and enjoy!
Highly recommended for Czerneda fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures, psionic powers, and strange mating customs.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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