Conquerors' Heritage

Rating:
Summary: An astonishing sequel to Conquerors' Pride.
Review: After reading the first book of the trilogy it looked like just another well written 'humans meet alien race' novel. When I started reading the second part I finished it within the same day. The story takes on an amazing turn, suddenly describing the events of the first part from the other side, the view of the Zirrzh. I never enjoyed reading a SF novel that much. Timothy Zahn manages to put the reader into the place of an alien race making its first contact with the humans, without giving away too much and keeping up the tension and mystique about the 'elderdeath' weapon until very late. Brilliant and highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Bad folowup to book 1
Review: After Zahn's great start to this series, the middle book suffers from the usual "middle book" syndrome of trilogies. It's not awful, but it just doesn't live up to the previous book. The aliens all talk like they just escaped from a bad melodrama compared to the sparkling dialogue of the humans in the first novel. Also Zahn makes a few goofs hither and yon, and showed that he didn't do a whole lot of research. For example, an alien drug that he made up for this book he gives the name "premarin" which had me laughing out loud. (Premarin is an estrogen replacement drug currently on the market.) Soooo, male aliens suffer from menopause? This book was so lukewarm that I doubt I'll even bother with the third novel in the series.

Rating:
Summary: The Zhurzh are awesome!
Review: I read the first book, and I really enjoyed it, and I just wanted to get the seconed one. When I realized that it was from the point of view of the Zhurzh, I started to have doubts, but it turned out to be just as good as the first. Vivid, and emotional, you find yourself feeling the way the characters do, hoping that things will turn out for them. This book compelled me to read the third.