The Wilding

Rating:
Summary: I'm just going to pretend this book was never written...
Review: "In Conquest Born" is one of the greatest SF novels ever written. Its engaging, clever, and above all fairly unique in both subject and style.

Its real strength was its characters, Zatar, the perfect Braxin and Anzha lyu Mitethe, the perfect psychic along with a host of well developed support characters and cultures.

That is where the Wilding breaks down. By chapter six you have six major characters to keep track of. And of those six, only three make it through to the end of the book...those that die, don't advance the true plot of the book in any shape or form. You watch them die one by one and think "Why was this person even here?"

Due to the "writing" being spread thin, even those characters who survive (and I suppose are the protagonist's of the story) really aren't that well developed. By the end of the book, they could have all been killed and I wouldn't have missed them a bit.

Two stars, because as another reviewer stated, even CS Friedman at her worst is better than most other SF's authors at their best. The book is well written and did move quickly, but still ranks far below In Conquest Born, or Madness Season.


Rating:
Summary: Wonderful worldbuilding, puts a whole new spin on things
Review: A lot of people who loved In Conquest Born seem to have hated this book. I was at the other extreme -- I thought ICB was the weakest of her books. And the problems I had with it were basically worldbuilding problems. I couldn't believe that the societies she'd described were viable in the long term. This book fixes that problem. She explains both how the societies reached the points they were at in ICB, and how they have changed since then. I agree with other reviewers that the characters weren't all they could be, but I think that's because the main characters in this story were really the civilizations. If she'd been starting with an entirely new world, she probably would have been able to pull a 5-star rating, but hampered by the limitations of the worlds she'd already created, she still did a very good job.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first... but still good
Review: After 15 long years, C. S. Friedman has returned to the universe that put her on the map. <strong>In Conquest Born</strong> remains one of the only space opera series I've ever enjoyed, largely because of its focus on the fascinating cultures of her far-future humanity and the even more fascinating characters who embodied them. In this long-awaited sequel set 200 years after the first book, the Azean Empire and the Braxin Holding are still locked in their endless war. However, this time around the Great War takes second place to internal strife within both civilizations. The Azeans are still struggling in the aftermath of losing their greatest advantage against the Braxins: the psychics. This is in part fallout from Zatar's attack on their homeworld in the first novel, but also because his attack revealed the psychics' hidden agendas and made the Azeans realize they couldn't be trusted. So the psychics are now hunted throughout the galaxy, believed to be helpless and scattered -- but in truth they've regrouped and begun growing in strength. At the beginning of the novel a pair of infant twins are separated as psychics kidnap one of them (Rho) and leave the other (Zara) behind.

Meanwhile, the Braxin Holding has troubles of its own. The ruling Braxana tribe is on its last legs, weak enough that other tribes are actually beginning to contemplate rebellion. Tathas, leader of an outlawed tribe, is betrayed and captured by the Braxana. His only option is to undertake a ritual called "the Wilding", in which he goes in search of genetic material worthy to be added to the Braxana bloodlines. He decides to track down the psychics in the hope of finding the descendants of Anzha lyu Mitethe, the heroine from ICB.

Zara grows up, living a normal and comfortable life in the Empire until without warning she begins to develop psychic powers. This forces her to flee before she can be imprisoned; she undertakes a desperate search to find the psychics so that they can help her learn to control her power. Tathas goes in search of the psychics as well, and coincidentally runs across Zara. Together they end up on a quest which takes them from primitive worlds to the galactic seats of power, ultimately working their way through conspiracies which threaten to destroy both empires.

As before, this sequel is full of intrigue and awesome, galaxy-shaking events. The characters are briefly but thoroughly developed, each giving further insight into their respective cultures. Tathas was my favorite character, even though as a common Braxin he's essentially a brutal animalistic rapist and murderer. He had a wry, obnoxious streak which made for a nice contrast with the austere Braxana depicted in the first novel. Zara took awhile to grow on me, but I think this is in part because I've always liked the Braxins more than the Azeans. Both cultures have their pros and cons, but I respect the Braxins' honesty about their flaws over the Azeans' secrecy. Zara <em>did</em> grow on me once we met Rho, her sister who was raised by telepaths, and who came across as an equally brutal, less funny mirror of Tathas. Ultimately Zara and Rho seemed to epitomize the different sides of Azea -- Zara the kindhearted idealist, Rho the coldhearted assassin. Tathas too had his mirror -- K'teva, the half-Braxana woman he semi-loves (since Braxins don't admit to love), but she read to me as a bit of a cliche: the scheming seductress. It was good to see more strong Braxin women, but I just didn't find her as interesting or likeable as Ni'en, L'resh, or the poet (whose name I can't recall) from the first novel.

This partially touches on what weakened this novel for me, in comparison with its predecessor. There were more prominent characters in this story, but none with the presence or power of Zatar or Anzha. ICB thrived on the love-hate relationship between these two larger-than-life characters; Wilding is by comparison a study of a bunch of very normal (for their respective societies) people. There's the hint of a romance between Tathas and Zara, but it never goes beyond a hint. Though this is perfectly plausible given their backgrounds, it's also a bit of an unsatisfying tease. At least with Zatar and Anzha we had consummation of a sort.

But what really troubled me about this novel was the weakness of the intrigue. After ICB's complex, stunning conspiracies, the ones in this novel seemed transparent and simplistic. And some of the events in this novel were borderline implausible. K'teva uses the Black Death on a man, risking her own life and probably a huge amount of her fortune for what seems to be a very trivial reason. Tathas encounters a group of mercenaries and is accepted into their ranks with puzzling ease, for no clear benefit on their part to make it worth the risk. In ICB, no one did anything without a purpose; even the most random events turned out to be part of some character or another's master plan. In this novel, the characters -- even the Braxana -- seem to "wing it" a lot more.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy The Wilding. For the second foray into the fascinating universe of ICB alone it was worth it. And I'd like to see another novel set in this universe, maybe a more direct sequel resolving some of the characters' issues from this book. The worst I can say about this book is that it's merely good, not groundbreaking like its predecessor. But for me, "good" means it's worth the hardcover price.


Rating:
Summary: Not up to her potential
Review: From the high-fantasy Coldfire Trilogy, with one of speculative fictions most enduring anti-heroes, to In Conquest Born which introduced her readers to the universe of the Braxi and the Azea and their unending war, C.S. Friedman's talent has been blossoming before our eyes. But it was with her last novel, This Alien Shore, that Friedman joined the ranks of such legends as Frank Herbert and Vernor Vinge for the scope of her vision and the brilliance of her characters. As an author whose start was noteworthy and who has improved markedly with each new offering, it is only natural that science-fiction fans have been anxiously awaiting her newest novel, The Wilding. Unfortunately, such fans are destined for disappointment.
Abandoning the richly-textured and powerfully original universe of This Alien Shore, Friedman brings us back to the conflict between the Azea and the Braxi. However, in The Wilding this conflict is merely a back-drop against which the story of two girls is told: Zara and Rho, twins separated at birth. Although the separation itself was the result of a botched kidnapping, authorities on both sides of the conflict ignored opportunities to reunite the girls in order to study the effect environment had on mental development. It turns out that the twins had the genetic predisposition toward telepathy, a trait feared yet desired by each side in the conflict. By raising Zara in the telepath-hating Azea empire and allowing Rho to be raised by radical psychic separatists, both sides hoped to learn the secrets to unlocking, and eventually controlling, mental powers.
Allowing atrocities in the name of science is certainly not new ground for Friedman. In This Alien Shore the protagonist Jamisia had her mind deliberately fractured by a corporate superpower which believed that the secrets of FTL [faster-than-light] travel lie somewhere in the unfathomable minds of individuals suffering from multiple-personality-disorder. In that previous work the stakes were huge, the goals laudable and the means monstrous. Jamisia was the ultimate hero-victim, simultaneously helpless and superhuman. The Wilding has no such saving grace. Neither Zara nor Rho is likely to resonate with the reader, and the triteness of their separated-at-birth scenario is hard to escape. The Braxin warrior Tathas is barely more compelling since his bloodlust and insatiable sexual appetites are already a Braxana male stereotype for anyone who is familiar with Friedman's earlier works. Only the Braxin female K'Teva, with her obsessive political ambitions and subtle machinations, rises to the level of Friedman's previous characters, and her part in the story is sadly peripheral.
Even the epic struggle between the Azea and Braxin is trivialized in The Wilding. Whereas in previous works Friedman made a point of depicting the warmongering Braxin and the sophisticated and emotionally reserved Azea as equally sympathetic, here she has inexplicably chosen to take sides, with the Braxin cast as the villains and the Azean guardians of all that is good. Not only is this a notable departure from the precedent set in earlier novels, it makes for a much less interesting story.
The occasional mediocre book is every author's due, and Friedman has certainly earned the continued attention of the science-fiction community. Let us hope that The Wilding is simply a misstep on the road of continued literary distinction and does not represent a detour into the pedestrian.


Rating:
Summary: Even average Friedman is better than most authors.....
Review: I am a huge fan of all her work and have been since 'In Conquest Born,' but this book was a bit of a disappointment. One of her strongest gifts as a writer is really getting in to how the characters THINK, by the end of the books you feel you really know these people and they are fully developed characters, with hopes, fears, dreams, strengths and weaknesses. This book was too short to do more than touch on people, and in the first half characters come in and out so rapidly it is hard to keep track. And frankly, every time she describes Tathas it is like something out of a dime-store bodice ripper- "animal grace", "controlled masculinity", "piercing green eyes that made her feel weak inside"....give me a break!
It was an enjoyable read but it just hinted that it could be so much more, especially as it gained momentum at the end. Hopefully there will be a fully fleshed novel coming soon from this amazing author. And I will say that even an "average" C.S. Friedman novel is far superior to most authors at their best.

Rating:
Summary: the wilding
Review: I loved all of the C.S. Friedman trilogy and I loved the prececessor to the Wilding. However, I found this book not as rich in language as the other books. The stories were not as in depth as the others. It seems as if this book was a collection of stories loosely connected by the Azen culture. I would recommend you read the other books first because if you read this one you likely won't be impressed enough to go on to the earlier books.

Rating:
Summary: Good Beginning
Review: I'll be short, as I can't really argue this is her best -- especially after This Alien Shore which was extraordinary. By itself this is certainly hovering somewhere between mediocrity and good. If we're lucky, it's the beginning of a new trilogy. That ending left too many loose ends for me to wholly believe it's not the beginning of a series. Her books have ambiguous endings, it's true, but there were enough loose ends left for me to hope.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: If you've read "In Conquest Born", then this is a bit of a let down.
Cindy Friedman can, and usually does, write much better than this. It's not awful, just not up to her usual standards.

Rating:
Summary: a let down ...
Review: The ending, if one would call it that, was a disappointment. I had a similar reaction to In Conquest Born, but it's amplified to the Nth degree in The Wilding. The story wasn't very fluid, until half-way through, when I finally caught wind of the coolness I had found in In Conquest Born. And then it went downhill again. It could have been so much more.
I give it 3 stars because of the attempt to resurrect the eternally warring empires we were introduced to In Conquest Born. I wouldn't, however, truly recommend The Wilding to anyone.