Customer Reviews

Speaking Dreams

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

 

 

S.M. Stirling's comments here speak for me pretty well. Rarely has a book touched me in such a way that I have read it again within a month. The character of Costa, in particular, is one of the most interesting and involving characters I've come across. I've read and enjoyed all three of Severna Park's novels, but this one remains my favorite, for reasons I'm not sure I can explain.

It's rare for the conventions of space opera to be used for characterizations of this depth and clarity. SPEAKING DREAMS functions quite well as an adventure story, but it _shines_ as a study in character -- the effects of trauma, the difficult, risky necessity of trust, and the effort needed to overcome one's past. It is also, and oddly for a book containing so much vividly realized pain, charming. I'd even use the word sweet for parts, if it didn't have negative overtones and didn't contrast so starkly with the strength and honesty of the portrayals. This is the sort of book you read several times; and also the sort that makes you determined to look at anything new that appears under the author's name. -- S.M. Stirling

I love good Sci Fi. I enjoyed the fresh and new plot of this book. It makes a good read the characters are believable and well rounded.It has a good ending which is great for a us gal's to enjoy. No, the lesbians do not jump of a window, hang themselves in despair, take poison or are killed at the end. They move on to be happy. Well done Severna.

This was a really good first novel, but it could use some improvement. Although the characters are strong and realistic, the plot is unworthy of them. These characters are passionate and thought-provoking, but the plot is just a wham-bam shoot 'em up. There are memorable parts where the author shows what she can really do, like the scenes in the slave markets. The end is dissapointing, the big bad guy is defeated and everyone's problems are solved. As if an empire can be toppled by killing just one person. Hopefully in the author's next book she will allow the characters to use their minds instead of luck and violence. Having said all that, I still give the book a 7, because the charaters do make it worth reading

Loved this book, I couldn't put it down. The characters are well developed, the writing is A-1. If you want a book with non stop action this is the one for you

I loved the book.. My sister gave it to me with high recommendations.. my girlfriend started reading it while I was and we ended up competing to read it, and she never touches a book without having to! Interesting social dynamic - although it covers slavery it is not a typical slave story. I would like many more books on this storyline but alas, the author has written only one other on the subject. READ IT!!

Wow. I disagree with the other reviewers so strongly it's a little hard to believe we read the same novel. This book takes on the incredibly emotionally charged subject of slavery and does so with plot and characterization that are so thin I would describe them as cartoonish. I usually enjoy a good space opera, but this one is so far gone into ludicrous coincidences and unexplained plot holes I found the last few chapters impossible to read without literally cringing.

The first section of the book details Costa's life as part of a "breeding population," a civilization which is essentially held in thrall by the Faraqui, the bad guys of the book. The social dynamics of this defeated populace are reasonably well fleshed out, and this part of the book is actually quite engaging. Unfortunately any reflection or insight that the author displays in this early portion of the book vanishes once Costa is "collared" and sold as a slave. Through various twists of fate she becomes the property of Mira, a diplomat and antagonist of the slaveholding Faraqui, who is required to take on a slave for her latest assignment. I found the relationship between Costa and Mira extremely disturbing as we are apparently supposed to accept Mira as a good-hearted person and reluctant master, but she falls wholeheartedly into the role of slave-owener, ordering her new property around, criticizing her performance (or lack thereof) and insolence, and using her for sex almost immediately upon acquiring her. I found it impossible to see this as a sweet and romantic relationship, which is how the author tries to portray it. I don't know how other readers could consider characterization one of the strong suits of this novel when Costa, a woman who has suffered a lifetime of servitude and brutalization, who has been repeatedly raped and beaten, jumps happily into bed with her new owner with no residual emotionl consequence from her years of suffering, and we are expected to believe that the two of them are going to live happily ever after. This is absurd. It is also rather disturbing that the author portrays the sexual relationship between master and slave as anything other than rape. I doubt readers would be willing to swallow this at all if the owner were male instead of female or light-skinned instead of dark-skinned.

The series of absurd coincidences that pass for a plot aren't even worth expounding on. The ending comes absolutely out of nowhere and everything that has previously happened in the book is basically thrown out the window in order to make for a gee whiz happy ending in which slave and slave owner can saunter off together romantically hand in hand. Not. There are a few thought provoking elements thrown in along the way: the drug given to slaves which keeps them in a perpetual state of health and youth for twenty years followed by an agoizing death, the lottery which is used to select who will become a slave, and Costa's prescient dreams. However, none of these elements is explored or reflected upon. Costa's dreams, one of the cntral facets of the book, are not examined or explored at all, simply taken as writ, so that by the end of the book they have become nothing more than a convenient plot device for rescuing our heroines from impossible situations.

I really found this book to be utterly meritless. If you are looking for a completely brainless space romp I suppose it would do, but, frankly, there are so many space operas out there it wouldn't be hard to find better.