Customer Reviews

Tropic of Creation

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kay Kenyon has written her best story so far. This one has none of the cheesy flavor of Raft (not to say it was bad, just a standard space opera, even if saved by its aliens) nor anti-science of Seeds of Time (which is excellent if you accept unrealistic time travel speculations). But it's not just plausibility of the plot that makes Tropic of Creation great. Kay Kenyon is an author who always fully develops characters of living depth, be that humans or aliens, without sacrificing the larger view of the story's world. Both of these aspects are shining brilliantly in this book.

The story is set during an armistice between the human and alien races. The humans have been beat by the older and more technologically advanced aliens and had to back off a strategic resource, surrendering all the trading rights. A transport ship is sent to rescue the survivors of a battleship marooned for three years on a desert world due to the system failures. During the investigation of the battleship's condition a number of alien machines are discovered, which eventually leads to the new contact, understanding and collaboration between the two races.

The elaborate beginning that sets up the world of the story may seem a bit slow to an impatient reader, but once the stage is set it explodes. At times the book resembles a horror story, one of the best I've read at that. But it's not gore for the sake of itself, everything is tied to the main plot and builds it from the solid foundation up. But not to a single climax, for the story is so complex and multipathed, as well as fast paced, that the excitment stays high throughout and the climaxes are many. The reader meets a self-made starship captain haunted by his luck, army men of various vices and virtues, an aristocratic family, and aliens of all strata of their exotic society, all portrayed with great detail and depth. The strange landscapes and animal life are also painted with realistic brilliance. All in all, the book has a very solid sci-fi and is a great pleasure to read. Look forward to more excellent, intelligent works by this author.

I am obliged to give one of my very rare 5-star reviews to Kay Kenyon for a deep, complex, exciting and most satisfying novel.

In this tale, failing starship Captain Eli Dammond finds himself on the desert planet Null where his responsibility is to investigate to wreck of another ship and to transport its crew to safety. Although everybody is anxious to get the job done and to leave the inhospitable world, Eli feels that it is imperative for him to spend his last moments there making a quick exploration below the surface of Null in one of the many alien hexadron boring machines found on the surface.

Thus begins a wonderfully told and realized adventure of Eli's meeting with the ancient subterranean race of Ahtra. The story is so masterfully told that we can clearly visualize and comprehend the complex alien culture, and understand their motivations in dealing with the problematic stranger in their midst.

While the story underground is evolving, life on the surface of Null is changing rapidly and catastrophically for the remaining humans. The planet has its own bioligical imperitives at work, and human life is not a high priority.

In spite of the dark events that drive this story or, perhaps, because of them, the resolution of this gripping tale is uplifting and hopeful. A fitting conclusion to a wonderful adventure.

I highly recommend Tropic Of Creation, and I anxiously await the next fine work by Kay Kenyon.

As a long time sci-fi reader, most plots and situations these days are not too hard to figure out. That is until I read this book. Ms. Kenyon has quite a knack for setting up scenarios that keep you turning the pages and trying to anticipate what will happen next. I was easily able to identify with each character and even picture the surroundings and landscape as the story unfolded. There were still many times that I said to myself, "Wow, that's not what I expected but it sure makes sense". This was the first book that I have read by Kay Kenyon but definitely not the last. I have since purchased all of her other books and thoroughly enjoyed each one. This is a unique, fresh author I really enjoy. Keep 'em coming Kay!!!

I got this book based on the excellent reviews. I've read Kenyon's `The Seeds of Time' and found it fairly entertaining. I was very disappointed with this book. The character development was adequate. The book description makes it sound very exciting and profound. It was none of these although it could have been. The major revelation is glossed over and a reader can almost miss it. The plot deals mainly with the aliens' political intrigues that are almost too human. Why they do what they do seems to make no sense. The girl is secondary to the story and certainly no warrior as the book description portrays. She manages to stay alive on a world where everything seems to eat everything else. Harry Harrison's `Deathworld' comes to mind. The overall problem seems to be that events in the book unfold without any background. It's almost as if the reader is expected to know what happened to cause the events lending up to the climax. There are several stories and plotlines occurring in this book that really need several books to cover adequately. It's almost as if this book is a synopsis of a whole series. As a result this is a book with huge possibilities that falls flat due to lack of content.

Once again, Kay Kenyon proves herself a master of worldbuilding. Her aliens, her humans, and her planet are all real, solid, fascinating, and her protagonists sympathetic. Tropic of Creation is a fast read, but don't miss any details! No one does alien planets better than this.

This is a review for those who've read the book:
I found my copy in a used book store and wanted to laugh. What a bad book this must be I thought looking at the Harlequin Romance cover of the squating damsel with windswept hair and the rugged man towering over her. To top it off it had NO plot paragraph on the back. That's like a movie that doesn't get rated. Granted there was a blurb from Robert J. Sawyer that caught my attention. Then I saw a reviewer at the SFSite give _Bright of the Sky_ his nod for best novel of the year. So I thought... hmmmm.
So I started to read it, and boy, I wasn't surprised. This was a great read, and a good book for summer reading. It's highest value as a work of fiction was Kenyon's grasp of the tenants of sci-fi page turning: New Information in Every Chapter. Either she or her editors decided that exposition and explanation wrap-ups are for puss*es. This gave the book a certain emotional and intellectual shallowness, but clearly Kenyon did not stray want to stray from her pace to answer those lingering questions. Why am I supposed to not care when our heroine's parents are bloodily murdered right in front of her? How did the ahtra develop backminds? Why didn't they breed vones for themselves? How did such a tradition based society even get remotely interested in space travel? What did they do with Sasha's discovery that the vone bred ahtra? And what happened to Tirrin? I felt most connected to Maret's character. Many of the human characters were as marked for death as characters in a horror movie, or strictly fulfilling a role. Eli the hero. Sasha the damsel in distress. Vod the working class hero. I know these aren't the complaints that you should levee at a sci fi book, but still I wondered while I read.
That all said I have no love for a paperback author who doesn't know how to hook you every chapter ( ahem...Larry Niven)so I'll reiterate I was all in from the first chapter and its big reveal "My god man this is a burrowing machine!". Second sooooo shocked to discover this book immediately broke up into two plot threads, and then broke those threads into four. The ahtra culture described here was way more multilayered, and complex than any seemingly cheesey sci fi romp had a right to be. It was morally complex view of a highly stratified society, down to their sexual outcasts. Three cheers for Kay Kenyon for finding a pleasant way to present an analogous gay community in her alien world, complete with their own ghetto, and hate crimes to defend themselves against. The rugs, the internet, the wagering, thoughtful, thoughtfully constructed alien world.
Too bad future humanity didn't get quite the same treatment. Slightly disappointed to hear that American racism will still be around in the distant future, but at least women will finally have acheived a certain equality. And enjoyed the whole an entire battalion gets eaten alive by various monsters.
Of course as a plot driven work I found some parts less interesting than others, and as a result it took me a little while to slog through the last hundred pages that just tied up the plot. I'd already gotten extreme pleasure from the book prior so I didn't care when **EXTREME SPOILER**it's discovered that our little teenage heroine was raped and impregnated by an alien monster.This would SOOO only be acceptable from a female author. lol Would have laughed out loud if I hadn't been reading it at midnight. But I was because I wanted to see how it ended. Because it was that entertaining.
So Kay Kenyon welcome to my pantheon of author's I will read multiple books of. You'll sit beside Sherri S. Tepper's "Grass" for great space planet epics resolved through bestiality.

A totally satisfying read -- Kenyon creates a complex alien culture, very much like a caste society, and their uneasy truce with humankind. The clash of cultures between human and ahtra is well drawn by the author. Having fought each other from space ships, both human and ahtra have much to learn from close contact.

The politics of the ahtra society are presented in an intriguing manner and are central to the plot. There is a lot going on and by the end it all ties together very well. The characters are sympathetic and Kenyon writes in a very concise style, conveying a lot of action, description or meaning in a short paragraph or two.

This is the 2nd work of Kenyon's that I've had the pleasure to read ("Maximun Ice" being the first) and I look forward to my next.

Anything that bears the name of scifi writer Kay Kenyon has got my vote. Excellent story lines that keep you turning you the page. I've read all her work with the exception of "leap point" which I have on order. She is a master at creating new sentient species and customs that are very believable. Give her a try you won't be disappointed.

This is a very well crafted book that deals with complex issues in a very competent way. I enjoyed the way the characters face almost hopeless situations and cope in different ways with several kinds of changing physical and political environments. It always feels good to read science fiction where the plot and character development equal or exceed the attention giving to creating the "other world." This author is very skillful at both.

I loved this book. It had many of my favorite SF elements: humans meet alien race and encounter completely different worldview, customs, social structure, politics, sports, etc. I liked that it is told half from the alien point of view and half from the human. It involves both adventure and personal drama. The plot is intricate and moves at a fast pace. The characters have depth and are believable. I literally raced through the book, losing sleep to keep reading. The ending was satisfying with a few surprises. I can't wait to read the rest of Kay Kenyon's books now.