Blade Dancer (Hardcover)

by S. L. Viehl (Author) "All I was trying to do when they caught me was bury my mother in an unmarked grave..." (more)
Key Phrases: blade dancer, red challenger, quad floor, Blade Master, Snake Boy, Jory Rask (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Viehl's (StarDoc) latest far-future space opera boasts un-put-downable action, more potentially lethal twists than an electric eel, a spunky yet vulnerable seven-foot heroine with retractable claws and a blue-skinned supernally endowed warrior hunk who's determined to remain a virgin. Young Jory Rask, veteran of the Terran big league shockball circuit, assembles her six ClanChildren of Honor siblings, half-breed offspring of Jorenian mothers raped by an assortment of alien hooligans and spurned by the warrior culture of paradisical planet Joren. Bent on avenging their mothers' honor, Jory and her spooky sibs join a mysterious assassins' training school of "blade dancers" on the planet Reytalon, where they inevitably distinguish themselves gruesomely in a Ninja-like kill-or-be-dismembered sequence of training levels. Viehl briskly incorporates Jory's adolescent anger and grief for her dead mother into the young woman's hunt for her father, Kieran, who just happens to have become a blade dancer himself. Despite the predictable, breathlessly paced plot, Jory's flip manner and wry one-liners cover a convincingly breaking heart. Viehl's strengths lie less in depth of characterization and motivation than in cinematic fast cuts, splices and tech effects. She also can yank herself back from the brink of the black hole of political polemic with another slashingly good sword fight or a juicily feline love tryst: plenty of fun, plenty of gore, probably plenty of sequels in the offing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Fast moving, thought-provoking, and just plain damn fun. S.L. Viehl has once again nailed it. -- Linda Howard

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Roc Hardcover; First Edition edition (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451459261
• ISBN-13: 978-0451459268
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,355,300 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Stardoc with a twist, February 14, 2004

By	Jenn "jenncw" (SoCal) - See all my reviews

I didn't mind the tangent universe. I liked the story. The characters were strong and convincing. The plot was well-strung, with tension and resolution in the proper places.

What I didn't like, however, was that this was just Stardoc, with names changed to protect the innocent. Rebel daughter with genetic anomolies, secret about her birth, controlling father with exact-duplicate-of-my-perfection complex, mother who talks to her after death, issues about reproduction, betrayal by some stranger she trusted the instant she met him, issues with the Jorenian "Choosing," boyfriend with that strong Jorenian morality code, what about this is sounding one bit different from the first Stardoc book? Um, well, she didn't wisecrack quite as much as Cherijo, but other than that, it was all too similar for my taste.

I bought this one, I'd probably get the next one from the library or borrow from a friend. Not one I'd recommend to anyone who had already rad the Stardoc books and was expecting something new and different from SL Viehl

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Half-Jorenian Jory Rask is a heroine with humor and valor, September 28, 2005

By	Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Jory was one of the finest Shockball players on Earth, until it was discovered she was half-Jorenian and kicked off the xenophobic planet. When her mother died, she gave Jory an undertaking; to go to Joren and find the rest of the half-Jorenian children who were the results of the same 'raid-and-ravage' from which she was born.

Including Jory, there are seven half-breeds. Once Jory delivers her message to them, a message of truth, the others decide to join her in her quest. Jory is off to learn how to become a Blade Dancer, the deadliest of assassins, in order to hunt down and kill the biological father that violated her mother so many years ago.

The gang is trained on Reytalon in the Tana, to become Blade Dancers, but in the midst of the tests of strength and endurance, the seven must learn to trust each other also. And even Reytalon is not immune to conspiracy and evil alliances with the warring League and Hsktskt factions. Will what these seven learn at Reytalon be enough for them to avoid the same fate of their parents?

S.L. Viehl is one of my favorite authors. Definitely lighter than most of my other fare, Viehl is always able to bring in tense, taunt situations with realistic and likeable heroines, and create a story that I can literally pour myself into.

Her worlds are extraordinary, her characters so real that I would know them on the street, her aliens imaginative and believable, and her plots thick with action and adventure.

I was introduced to Jorens in Viehl's StarDoc books, and was intrigued to see a darker side of their clannish ways in Blade Dancer. Viehl gave us a little peek at just how stubborn those big blue guys are.

If you liked the 'StarDoc' series, you will love 'Blade Dancer'. 'Blade Dancer' is a good starter book to introduce yourself to Viehl's writing also, though I promise you will be running for more of her work when you finish. Enjoy!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great space opera, August 5, 2003

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the far future, Earth belongs to the Allied League, which consists of many different species, but the inhabitants on Terra are very xenophobic. Aliens are not allowed to live there and mating with another race is a crime. The children of that mating are denied citizenship and if discovered are deported, their money and property confiscated. Jory Rask is a world famous shockball player but when it is discovered she is part Jorenian, she is kicked off-planet.

She travels to her mother's home planet but on board she meets an assassin from Reytalon who says she could go there for training as she has the moves to become a lethal BLADE DANCER. She thinks it is a fine idea once she accomplishes her mission on Joren but when she leaves she takes six other half-breeds with her, all Children of Honor whose mothers were sold into slavery but were recovered. The half-breeds were treated as pariahs but on Reytalon they are all treated as equals. Their common heritage forges a bond so strong that they become their own clan house, a fighting force that is almost unbeatable.

After reading S.L. Viehl's "Stardoc" novels, reader's curious about the Jorenian home planet and culture will find it is very different than that of Earth's. BLADE DANCER satisfies the audience's curiosity through a story line that details the philosophy that Jorenian is based on. There are many twists and turns in this stand-alone novel and there are some unexpected surprises in store for a group of half-breeds who have become a family.

Harriet Klausner