The Radiant Seas (Skolian Web) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Catherine Asaro (Author), Julie Bell (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: Ruby Dynasty, Imperator Skolia, War Room (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Sauscony of Skolia and Jaibriol of the Highton Aristos are truly star-crossed lovers: They are the heirs to interstellar empires that are implacable, age-old enemies. When they seek to save their secret relationship in an exile disguised as death, they disturb the delicate balance of power among Skolia, Aristo, and Earth. Interstellar war erupts, empires rise and fall, and it looks as though the Highton Aristos may recover first, with their dark lust for conquest intact.

The Radiant Seas follows the critically acclaimed novels Primary Inversion, Catch the Lightning (the 1997 Sapphire Award winner), and The Last Hawk as the fourth of a proposed seven novels in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, an exceptionally well-written and well-plotted series that mixes space opera, future history, hard SF, military SF, and romance. By internal chronology, The Radiant Seas is the direct sequel to Primary Inversion. It is also Catherine Asaro's most ambitious novel to date. Fans of the earlier books will find The Radiant Seas less focused on romantic aspects, and readers new to the series may find this novel starts slow, but the complex story is always clear and soon picks up speed. Hard SF fans will revel in the numerous brilliant ideas extrapolated from physics and genetics (the author is a physicist), while readers uninterested in science will find the novel unmarred by chunky speculative-science digressions. All will find The Radiant Seas bursting with fascinating characters and subplots, and will quickly discover they can't put the novel down. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
The fourth volume of Asaro's saga of the interstellar Skolian Empire takes place in the 23rd century, when the rivalry between the Skolians and the Eubians is rising to a murderous climax. At the same time, the heirs to the two empires, Sauscony Valdoria of Skolia and Jaibriol Qox II of Eube, having fallen in love in the saga's launch novel (Primary Inversion), now fake their deaths and raise a family on an unknown planet?until the deadly intrigues of the Eubians lead to Jaibriol's kidnapping. Now Imperator of Skolia, Sauscony leads her warriors on a mission of vengeance and rescue. The strongest and clearest parts of the somewhat jumbled narrative involve the lovers' raising of their family and the final climactic campaign. Much of the remainder is too crammed with characters (albeit sometimes appealing ones), plots, subplots, counterplots and double handfuls of exotic (and not always fully developed) technologies. There's also a surfeit of sex and torture, which, after serving its purpose of demonstrating the decadence of the Eubian ruling elite, comes off as gratuitous. This isn't a bad novel, but it falls short of the state of the art even in space opera and isn't up to the level of some of Asaro's own work, including last year's The Last Hawk. Agent, Eleanor Wood.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812580362
• ISBN-13: 978-0812580365
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #215,906 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 4 in The Saga of the Skolian Empire Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another terrific read from Catherine Asaro., December 27, 1998

By	Eclectic Reader (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Radiant Seas (Hardcover)

Building on her three previous Skolian empire books, Asaro has produced a new story that is epic in scope, yet maintains a firm grasp on the human realities and dilemmas of her characters. The story has three threads--the life of the exiled lovers, Soz and Jaibriol, heirs to two empires that are irrevocable enemies, and what is going on in their respective homelands. With intricate plotting, the threads eventually converge for a dynamite, deeply satisfying conclusion, while at the same time making it clear that there must be another book to take the stories forward to full resolution. A week after finishing The Radiant Seas, I find myself still thinking about the story and characters.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent SF, November 29, 1999

By	S. Raines - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't agree with the reader below. I just finished reading the 4 books also, and found them to be a wonderful mixture of adventure and science, with a little romance thrown in. I'd say don't buy them if you like your SF to be an emotionless mix of techno-babble. But if you like original ideas, a non-stop plot, and real humans who think and feel and love, these books are for you.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That which love survives makes us strong., February 28, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Radiant Seas (Hardcover)

The scene in which Soz returns from exile to wreck her revenge on the Trader empire HAS to be made into a movie. Half throwback to the Ruby empresses, half cyborg war machine; Soz is totally human and (hard to believe) a strong woman that loves men! Love doesn't conquer all; Soz conquers all in the name of love! Believable science: we are all familiar with particle beams; only Asaro tells how they are created. Everyone has FLT, Asaro uses her own theory (as published in a journal of physics) to bend space. Psi WITH an organic explanation! Oh, and space battles with microsecond timing and lots of explosions. Romance that doesn't make you barf and hard SF that works. If there is a New Renaissance coming, it follows on Asaro's heels.