21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Science Fiction for Scientists, October 11, 2004
I used to read a lot of science fiction. I picked up new copies of the various pulp sci-fi magazines and a correspondent sent me his old copies. I especially liked GALAXY, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and later ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION, but I occasionally read ANALOG as well. I also read the novels by numerous sci-fi authors, including Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, Norton and a host of others. I don't read much of that genre these days because of time and the fact that while there was always a lot of schlock out there (as there is in any book type) it seems like many sci-fi books these days are take offs on movies or TV shows (I have a possibly snobbish dislike for such made up books).
However, after reading Julie E. Czerneda's "Survival: Species Imperative #1" I may be hooked again. Here is a sci.-fi. book actually written by someone trained in biology. Yes, I know that the space travel involved probably does not have much of a scientific base (Isaac Asimov once said that one needed such devices just to make plots work), but the depth of the work keeps the reader turning pages. While I have my doubts that we will ever (or at least in my lifetime) find aliens like the Dhryn or the Ro, they are fabulous constructs by someone who at least has a handle on how weird living things (even on this planet) can be.
The book centers on one human- Mackenzie Winifred Elizabeth Wright Conner (Mac to her friends) and one alien- the Dhryn Brymn. Mac is a biologist who studies salmon on the Pacific Coast; Brymn is an alien archeologist from a species that mostly has little use for science. Add a "spy" named Nikolai Piotr Trojanowski, a Quechua biologist named Emily Mamani Sarmiento, worlds along a inter-stellar transport line being stripped of every living thing, and of course the seemingly ever present and possibly malevolent Ro, who are invisible and thus not easily understood, and you have a fascinating experiment in imagination- the "what if" that hooked me on science fiction in the beginning.
The ending, which is far from obvious until almost the last 20 pages or so (although it starts to become somewhat plausible a bit earlier), leads us into both the light and the dark recesses of the mind- both of human and alien.
This is a very good read for those who like a bit of meat in their sci.-fi. I'm looking forward to other books by this author!
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Combine Intelligence and Culture with Biology: Stir Well, April 20, 2005
An excellent book! Julie Czerneda, winner of Canada's Aurora Award, has created a unique tale where the principles of biology underscore the essential mystery of the story.
Dr, Mackenzie Connor, known as "Mac" to her colleagues, is a research biologist, specializing in salmon spawning. Unfortunately, her research is disrupted by a visiting Drhyn, looking specifically for her. Brymn is giant, alien and blue (Ms. Czerneda is known for her ability to bring aliens to life on the page, and she succeeds again here; Brymn has a sense of humour, he is enthusiastic about his specialty and interests, he even lies when he thinks he should, to her and to his own kind--which all sounds very human, but his motives are entirely alien). He is an archaeologist who is investigating a series of disappearances occurring along a space lane which leads to his planet as well as to others. At one end of this lane--a wormhole-like technology that transects areas of space, enabling faster-than-light space travel--is the Chasm, a region of space where planets have somehow been denuded of life in the past.
Mac knows very little of this, but Brymn's visit triggers a series of incidents that draw her directly into the mystery: another alien species tries to kidnap her in the night, a human bureaucrat arrives who seems to be something other than what he claims to be, and intruders invade the living/research space of her base on the Canadian West Coast. For the sake of her species, and herself, Mac finds that she must join Brymn in his search for answers, and eventually leaves Earth in this quest.
But this novel isn't about an ordinary quest. It deals with the far-reaching issues of biological determinants in people who are otherwise intelligent, even among Mac's own colleagues. One of my favourite lines in this novel is Mac's response to a textbook on alien reproduction: "Nature found the most ridiculous ways to propagate. Adding intelligence and culture to biology seemed only to compound the issue, not simplify it" (p. 273).
This level of perception about living beings, including those not of this particular world, is what gives this novel its own life. The journey Mac makes is that she learns more about what constitutes being human, as well as alien, in her experiences off world.
Since the story hasn't finished with the end of this novel, I truly look forward to reading its sequel.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard science fiction and exceptional characterization, June 6, 2004
Julie Czerneda's Survival is a rare blend of hard science fiction and exceptional characterization. Biologist author Julie Czerneda creates unusually believable aliens in her stores, and this first novel in a projected series 'Species Imperative' is no exception, building entire races and moving scenarios as it tells of an Earth scientist caught in interspecies struggles.
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