Julie Czerneda’s Survival was pretty good. It even passes the Bechdel test early in the book. As space opera goes, it’s not the most inventive of stories, but neither did it feel like a complete retread. And for the all revealing question, Will I read the second book in the series?
the answer is that I probably will. (Though I am going to look for it in a used book store.)
Man has reached the stars and found hundreds of other species. But in one section of the galaxy, dubbed the Chasm, all life is dead. Brymn is an archeologist of the Dhryn species, which lives near the Chasm. He travels to Earth to enlist the help of biologist Mackenzie Connor (the Dhryn do not allow themselves to study biology) hoping to model how robust species need to be to survive cataclysms. While the two visit, the ancient enemy of the Dhryn, the ‘Ro, attack the research station, abducting one of Connor’s colleagues. As the presumed target, Connor is whisked away to the Dhryn homeworld for safety, the first non-Dhryn to be allowed to visit.
I think the characters in the story were done pretty well. Mackenzie Connor is likable, even if she does a few stupid horror movie things like chase after aliens at night by herself. The colleague, Dr. Emily Mamani, I didn’t like at first. Too many cliché sexpot attributes at the start, though she gets better later on. Much better. And personality-wise Brymn is a good way to introduce Connor to alien species.
The world-building is pretty good too. The primary work for this was the alien Dhryn culture and homeworld. Overall, fairly well put together. I question the biology for the species, but it doesn’t really detract from the story.
My biggest beef, if anything, was with the plotting. First off, some of the first scenes where officials rudely interrupt Connor and Mamani’s field work, destroying it in the process just seemed way too over the top. Especially considering the request that Brymn and the human government wanted from Connor. It wasn’t urgent. It could have waited a day. It could have waited for a request to go through. And second, the entire political situation was far to secretive. Neither the Dhryn nor the ‘Ro are willing to openly oppose each other. Had either side brought up the disagreement to the Interstellar Union, none of the book would have happened. Given those as a premise though, everything holds together fairly well. And there’s a pretty good swerve in the book too.
Title: Survival
Author: Julie E. Czerneda
Cover creator: Luis Royo (artist)
Series: Species imperative; 1
Imprint / publisher: DAW
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 475 p.
Publication date: May 2005
ISBN-10: 0-7564-0261-1
Subject: Life on other planets — Fiction
Subject: Human-alien encounters — Fiction
LC classification: PR9199.3.C92 S87 2004
