The Novels of the Jaran - Book 1
I have been meaning to read these books for the longest time. I'd picked up books 2 & 3 from the second hand bookstore a few years ago, but of course, held off until I could find book 1. Well, finally, they came out in Ebook omnibus for a really great price - $2.99 - and who could resist that!
So... worth the wait? Well yes and no. The book is basically a fantasy set in a science fiction universe - maybe sort of like the Pern novels? The thing is, you'd better like the heroine, Tess, because you're going to see a helluva lot of her supposedly growing. To be honest, I found her really a bit too good to be true. She really has no discernible flaws other than a stubborn unwillingness to actually talk to the hero, Ilya, about what's happening between them. I wanted to smack both of them at different times during my read. *LOL*
That being said, I really enjoyed the world-building - or shall I say universe building in this one. Yeah, we've seen before the primitive society side-by-side with the space-faring society but the primitive world is being protected from the advanced bunch by interdictions - can you say Prime Directive anyone? *LOL* Yeah, it made me think, in a very loose way, of The Omega Glory from the original Star Trek. E plebnista y'all!
What saved the book for me was the cast of secondary characters and the society of the Jaran. Fascinating! While I did lose a couple of my faves, I'm hopeful that further books in the series (there are 4 volumes) will continue their stories as well as that of Tess and Ilya. And maybe Tess will stop being so perfect at everything. A girl can hope!
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