Rating: 
Summary: Could Be Better--But eventually I liked it
Review: This was given to me as a birthday present by my best friend and after I read the first couple of pages I called her to say, "What did you give me!" But she wasn't home and I read a little more and I did get into and enjoy it.The weakest parts of the book are the first few pages and the chapters on Havyrl's home world of Lyshriol. Asaro spent way, way too much time describing Kamoj's home planet's vegetation--from her point of view. Later on you realize that Kamoj's perception of color is most likely different from human normal because she has genetically altered vision that gives her feline pupils and night-vision. So, what does her world look like to Havyrl? And all these colors every where are described as these bright, lovely, fairyland colors like the land of Oz--I would have liked something more low-key and incidental throughout the story rather than whole pages describing to "turquoise tubemoss" and the like. Havyrl's home world of Lyshriol is described as a sort of happy, happy neverland complete with glitter bubbles springing up from the vegetation as people disturb it. Charming, but after a while, pretty silly, as literally thousands of people are on the march kicking up bubbles. All the references to language history were difficult to follow and did not contribute to any sense of otherness. "Argali" means "rose", while "quanta" means "quantum"--yet both are supposedly from the same ancient non-English roots? I don't think so. If a writer is going to refer to other languages, it must be done convincingly and with greater skill--otherwise forget it. I liked the romance, I liked the love triangle, the characters, and I enjoyed the world-building as I began to understand the setting. I immediately found and read _Primary Inversion_, Asaro's first novel in the series and I was very impressed with it and I just wish _The Quantum Rose_ had been as well written. I do plan to read the other books in the series now.
Rating: 
Summary: Romance Meets Science Fiction, and Sci-Fi Wins
Review: When I heard that Catherine Asaro's The Quantum Rose had won the 2001 Nebula Award for best novel my first reaction was, who is that? After reading The Quantum Rose my reaction was, why had I not heard of her sooner. The Quantum Rose is a well-crafted story that works on several levels. At first glance it is a cross between a romance and a science-fiction novel. But ignore the awful cover and plough through the first few chapters. The story delves into the interplay between personalities and how social and economic forces can influence people. It also deals with abuse and its consequences, which makes this book tough slogging in parts. Not because the book is badly written, but because the writing is good enough that the reader is drawn into the characters emotional problems. My one complaint with The Quantum Rose is that the romantic elements of the book feel like they were taken from a drugstore romance novel. This is not surprising since Catherine Asaro has written several dugstore romances, but it does weaken the book since I found myself skimming these sections. The author includes an appendix where she explains the novel in terms of quantum scattering theory. This was amusing, and fairly clever, but it is almost meaningless to anyone who has not taken an advanced class in quantum mechanics. Ms Asaro's physics are correct, and the structure of th metaphor works very well, but unless if you are intimately familiar with the details of scattering theory you will just be taking her word for it. Fortunately the metaphor works even if it is not explained, which is the hallmark of a good mataphor, so I suggest skipping this appendix and simply enjoying the story.
Rating:
Summary: Romance Meets Science Fiction, and Sci-Fi Wins
Review: When I heard that Catherine Asaro's The Quantum Rose had won the 2001 Nebula Award for best novel my first reaction was, who is that? After reading The Quantum Rose my reaction was, why had I not heard of her sooner. The Quantum Rose is a well-crafted story that works on several levels. At first glance it is a cross between a romance and a science-fiction novel. But ignore the awful cover and plough through the first few chapters. The story delves into the interplay between personalities and how social and economic forces can influence people. It also deals with abuse and its consequences, which makes this book tough slogging in parts. Not because the book is badly written, but because the writing is good enough that the reader is drawn into the characters emotional problems. My one complaint with The Quantum Rose is that the romantic elements of the book feel like they were taken from a drugstore romance novel. This is not surprising since Catherine Asaro has written several dugstore romances, but it does weaken the book since I found myself skimming these sections. The author includes an appendix where she explains the novel in terms of quantum scattering theory. This was amusing, and fairly clever, but it is almost meaningless to anyone who has not taken an advanced class in quantum mechanics. Ms Asaro's physics are correct, and the structure of th metaphor works very well, but unless if you are intimately familiar with the details of scattering theory you will just be taking her word for it. Fortunately the metaphor works even if it is not explained, which is the hallmark of a good mataphor, so I suggest skipping this appendix and simply enjoying the story.
| 
