Rating: 
Summary: A Thrill a Minute
Review: Action, responsibility, family, romance, and more. I read all kinds of SF and I loved this book. Who cares if its hard SF or if the science is real, after 10 minutes I was hooked. It is more a story about duty and obligation vs doing what is right, and by whose standards. The main characters have to make choices and I was totally engaged in their thinking process. I read Asaro's Catch the Lightning first, it is the weakest of the Skolian series but I was interested enough to read The Radiant Seas which is the most thrilling. I recommend that you start with it and then go back to Primary Inversion which is more insightful. The Last Hawk was just okay, however, I anxiously await Asaro's next entry which I hope will pull all the family together. Asaro is a nice break from some of the more plodding, linguistic challenges "serious" SF writers sometimes feel the need to present.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves a Nebula award
Review: After reading PRIMARY INVERSION, this sequel is comparable to DUNE in scope and originality. It is the perfect blend of hard science with humanity. Technology will always affect and be subject to human strengths and weaknesses. The plot was fast-paced and fascinating! I just wish it had been at least twice as long!
Rating:
Summary: Another terrific read from Catherine Asaro.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Do buy this book
Review: Buy this book. After reading a short biography of Dr. Asaro, I purchased Primary Inversion, Catch the Lightning, The Last Hawk, and Radiant Sun. I had hopes that she might be another five-star writer of hard science fiction (i.e., in the same league as Benford, Bear, Clark, and many others). She is: compared to her peers, she rates five stars. She writes like a very smart (and nice) person who, after years of gorging on books, movies, and television, now presents us with a collage of intelligent scenes and characters, avoiding using formulae from a writer's workshop. This book should appeal to mostly everyone. It will NOT appeal to the reader who is seeking a novel with an unoriginal, stupid, poorly-crafted plot and uninteresting, simple characters. Try Catch the Lightning while you're at it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fast Paced Mixture of Cyberpunk and Interstellar Intrigue
Review: Catherine Asaro's "The Radiant Seas" may be her finest work of fiction to date. It certainly kept me interested, and I read it in a single day. She does a splendid job in offering what may be some of the most realistic battles between opposing fleets of manned and unmanned interstellar warships. And those interested by romance may find most intriguing the saga between Sauscony and Jabriol, heirs to two rival interstellar empires founded by humans who left Earth mysteriously thousands of years ago. Yet I will caution readers that she leaves too many gaps in her fast-paced story, starting with her too terse description of "psiberspace" to the seemingly implausible acceptance of Jabriol as the new emperor of the Eubian Concord towards the end of the tale. Those who seek more eloquent tales from a literary perspective will certainly find other, perhaps more rewarding, accounts from the likes of Dan Simmons, Iain Banks and Gene Wolfe, yet they may agree with me that Asaro is certainly a writer worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Fast Paced Mixture of Cyberpunk and Interstellar Intrigue
Review: Catherine Asaro's "The Radiant Seas" may be her finest work of fiction to date. It certainly kept me interested, and I read it in a single day. She does a splendid job in offering what may be some of the most realistic battles between opposing fleets of manned and unmanned interstellar warships. And those interested by romance may find most intriguing the saga between Sauscony and Jabriol, heirs to two rival interstellar empires founded by humans who left Earth mysteriously thousands of years ago. Yet I will caution readers that she leaves too many gaps in her fast-paced story, starting with her too terse description of "psiberspace" to the seemingly implausible acceptance of Jabriol as the new emperor of the Eubian Concord towards the end of the tale. Those who seek more eloquent tales from a literary perspective will certainly find other, perhaps more rewarding, accounts from the likes of Dan Simmons, Iain Banks and Gene Wolfe, yet they may agree with me that Asaro is certainly a writer worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not buy this book.
Review: Do not buy this book. After reading a short biography of Dr. Asaro, I purchased Primary Inversion, Catch the Lightning, The Last Hawk, and Radiant Sun. I had hopes that she might be another five-star writer of hard science fiction (i.e., in the same league as Benford, Bear, Clark, and many others). She is not: compared to her betters, she only rates one star. She writes like a very smart (and nice) fan who, after years of gorging on books, movies, and television, now presents us with a collage of her favorite scenes and characters, using formulae from a writer's workshop. This book should appeal mostly to lonely, powerless (perhaps abused) lost souls seeking to escape their painful lives with a few hours of adolescent narcissistic fantasy. It will NOT appeal to the reader who is seeking a novel with an original, intelligent, carefully-crafted plot and interesting, complex characters. Try Cryptonomicon, instead.
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Done Sequel to Primary Inversion!
Review: For fans of Catherine Asaro, THE RADIANT SEAS does not disappoint! In it is the continuing saga of the Skolian Empire. Although the blurb implies that much of the book is focused on Sauscony and Jaibriol, it's actually an epic of two empires struggling for power and the political intrigues involved.Asaro takes time to develop her characters and make them believable. She evokes the readers' emotions with introspective examinations of characters' decisions and actions, and the sacrifices that each of them makes. But she also keeps the action and plot moving along at a rapid pace. I literally could not put this book down and found myself wanting more when it ended. Fans of sci-fi, romance, and action novels will definitely want to read this once you finish with PRIMARY INVERSION.
Rating: 
Summary: Not My Cup of Tea
Review: I bought this novel based largely on the reviews here at Amazon: I loved the concept that a woman with a Ph.D. in science was writing sci-fi novels about space adventures and romance! (And, I absolutely LOVE novels by women writers!) I was hoping for a truly fine reading experience; unfortunately, although I did not hate this book, I came away feeling that I had wasted my time reading it. ....while it is true that her novels are about relationships and romance, it is worth mentioning that the relationships are between truly screwed-up people (in whom I had NO interest). I found most of the relationships in this novel to be either sick or pathetically immature. Even so, I gave this novel three stars because the plot is somewhat interesting and moves well. .... Is this a novel about relationships? Sure, including relationships between torturers and tortured. I had absolutely no interest in reading about the relationship between the sadist and his victims, or the resulting emotional damage experienced by a victim of abuse. So, when you read that Ms. Asaro writes about relationships, realize that the sadomasochistic “relationship” is one of the them. Is this a novel about relationships? Sure, including a relationship between a grown up woman who is emotionally broken inside and a 19-year-old boy who is too inexperienced to know how screwed-up she is. In a Catherine Asaro novel there is typically some young, virginal, inexperienced character (who is alienated by those around him or her); and then there is the older, powerful (but broken), royal warrior who falls desperately in love with the young virgin. ....In this novel, Ms. Asaro SIGNIFICANTLY improved as a writer when she was writing about the main characters' lives during their exile. I imagine that she was drawing on her own relationship with her husband and child for this portion of the novel --- and she did a very good job. I only wish that she would write like that all the time. ....I agree ...this book is little more than adolescent narcissistic fantasy. Ms. Asaro is a competent writer; but she is NOT an equal of five-star writers. Ms. Asaro has great potential. I would love to read a novel by her in which the characters are mature, real, and emotionally healthy. .... ....
Rating:
Summary: Excellent SF
Review: 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.
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