Rating: 
Summary: A favorite read
Review: My very favorite sci fi book. The story is about a young woman who has the massive responsibility of being the heir to the one man who has any status among the aliens who have conquered Earth. She's not comfortable with these responsibilities and . . . runs. She manages to become stranded on another planet among a "simple" plains people who help her to become the strong, independent woman she barely knew was inside herself. In the process, she manages to uncover a secret that could free the Earth.The depth and complexity of the many characters in the story is impressive. The Jaran culture is practically a character itself, and I enjoy it very much, with its gender roles that are a very different mix from what we ourselves are familiar with. And I freely admit to enjoying romance in my fantasy and sci fi and this story delivers that perfectly. I recommend readers who enjoyed this story try the author's first series, The Highroad Trilogy, written under the name Alis Rasmussen. They serve as a loose sequel to the Jaran stories (after the Chapalii have been driven out) and are a highly enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: What an amazing, epic tale!
Review: Tess Soerenson, sole heir to her brother's dukedom, cannot face the responsibilities that this position requires and flees to Rhui, a primitive planet whose inhabitants know nothing of the other technologically advanced worlds around them. She is taken in by a band of nomadic people led by Ilya Bakhtiian, a ruthless and ambitious man who is determined to unite the Jaran tribes. And as fate would have it, she finds herself caught up in a dangerous and mysterious conspiracy involving the Chapalii, an alien race that have conquered humankind. But the Chapalii have secrets they wish to keep from the humans, secrets that could be vital to her brother's plan of releasing their people from the Chapalii domination.
Jaran is an amazing story! It gripped me from the very first page and would not let me go! It is an epic tale with fantastic world building, wonderful, unforgettable characters, richly detailed cultures and societies, and a truly fascinating plot that just sucks you in and leaves you begging for more. This is a book that has everything; love and loss, friendship and betrayal, action and suspense, and much, much more! And all of it is set against the backdrop of a beautiful world and way of life. I was so completely immersed in the story, so charmed by the lives of these characters, and so desperate to figure out all the secrets and motivations, that I read the entire book in two days! I did NOT want to put it down! Kate Elliott is obviously a fan of Jane Austen (as am I), and if you are familiar with Austen's work, you will undoubtedly recognize many of those wonderful elements that Elliott has lovingly woven into the story of Jaran. I just finished the book this morning and already I am eager and excited to continue the story. Don't miss this one. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Very, very good! Highly recommended.
Review: Tess, a young woman on her way back to her home planet from university on Earth, accidentally finds herself marooned in the middle of a vast prairie. She had been puzzling over a shuttle that seemed to have horses in it, and sure enough, the horses have been delivered to a tribe of Russian-like nomads on this planet owned by Tess's brother, who had declared the planet off-limits except for limited, incognito exploration. The natives are a primitive, pre-space society, unaware of their origins in the distant solar system.
Tess is not completely helpless. She does speak a language that the natives can understand, but she does undergo great hardships while she tries to adjust to the conditions in which she finds herself. It is, indeed, a society dominated by women, though it feels more as if the usual male dominance is merely absent. The women are presented as all preoccupied with domestic and social matters; it would have been nice to have one of them show some interest in logical, or scientific things. (Okay, there is a woman who is an expert maker of fabric and clothing.)
The personalities are beautifully drawn, their relationships depicted very plausibly. (The various reactions to the personalities and the "plot" seem to reflect Ms Elliott's success in drawing on her readers' experiences of the various types she depicts. To some, the basis of the Slavic culture will be an obstacle, to others, something that enriches the texture.) No prior knowledge of Russian or Slavic culture is needed to enjoy the book; enough is provided to make it all understandable.
The story takes place, as others have reported, in the context of mankind finding itself in the control of an impossibly powerful alien empire, to which --apparently-- mankind is no more than a minor footnote. (But the aliens are humanoid, which makes things very interesting.) The interdicted planet, with its puzzling earth-like natives turns out to have been established in antiquity by the aliens themselves--a "Seeded" planet. No doubt the author would have some day revealed more about these coincidences, but having read only this first book, I'm quite ignorant of the overall logic of the historical background.
Ultimately, my enjoyment of the book was based on the wonderful female characters. They really live and breathe, and you ache to meet them again, when Tess has been away from the tribe. There is plenty of SF-sociology to satisfy the most rabid fan of such things, but not so much as to turn others off. Tess, who is destined to own the planet someday, is close enough to Royalty to please those who like such things, but is level-headed enough not to be too obnoxious. The men are believable (and believable in the context in which they find themselves). I'm very sad to hear that subsequent volumes were less enjoyable; I guess I have to find out for myself!
Arch
Rating:
Summary: An author who does her homework!
Review: The fact that Kate Elliott does her research shows throughout a novel like JARAN and its sequels (or in her later series, CROWN OF STARS). This is first rate anthro-SF with fully-drawn cultures from an author who has the courage (and knowledge) to avoid the pit-fall of modern characters with modern mindsets wearing costumes. ;> The rare sort of book where the more the reader knows, the more enjoyable it is (instead of less). [Her later series, CROWN OF STARS is full of inside jokes for those who know about life in the middle ages and the literature of antiquity and the early church. She's created a plausible and theologically-realized church as it might have been if gnosticism and docetism had prevailed as the orthodox view.] A couple of remarks on comments in previous reviews. Regarding the lack of clear ending to the JARAN series.... My *understanding* is that the series isn't finished--which is why there's no "ending" book. To move on to another series was a marketing / publishing decision, not Ms. Elliott's. In short, don't blame the author. :) Also, I got a real laugh from the comparison to Jean Auel. This book is what Auel tries to be and fails (imo). And *gay* fiction? ? What book did that reviewer read? Sure wasn't this one....
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: The is THE best sci-fi book I have ever read.It has its share of aliens,as well as adventure and even a love story,perfectly mixed together.I stayed up till one A.M. reading it(I certainly regreted THAT at school the next day!).It's better than most classic sci-fi,especially "The Martian Chronicles",which I fuond depressing.But anyways,I almost went insane waiting to get the sequel.If you get Jaran,get the other three books too.You WON'T be disapointed!(By the way,I know this isn't a book an eleven-year-old should be reading,but I didn't know tht when I began.)
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite books!
Review: This book and series is one of my favorites. I enjoy the depth of each character and find the story line to be comprehensive and constructively detailed, while also being very easy to read with little jargon. Many science fiction books have so many invented terms that you need a glossary to get through a passage. With this book, you don't need a dictionary to find out what the writer is trying to explain. The characters seem to have human, normal emotions and are interesting enough to make the reader care about what happens to them. The scene is historical and the action interesting. I read this is less than a day and for a somewhat slow reader, this is great. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This is one of my all time favourites. I love the character depth and veiled hints to the pasts of different characters. It's an entirely original society that does not draw at all on any other book I have read. It's well written and easy to follow, more so than a lot of other fantasy and sci-fi serieses like Robert Jordan's books. I considered it a light read that took me a few days while I took a break from harder things like Wells and Jordan, but I enjoyed it immensely and am now searching for the rest of the series. Highly reccomended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story!
Review: This is one of my favorite books. Don't let the sci-fi fantasy backdrop put you off! There is a love of the land, a love of human courage and rough challenges that shines through this book like sunlight from a clear, blue sky. Once you get past the set-up in chapters one and two, the tale just takes off, and if you've got any imagination -- you're air borne. I like most of Kate Elliott's books, but this is the best.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story!
Review: This is one of my favorite books. Don't let the sci-fi fantasy backdrop put you off! There is a love of the land, a love of human courage and rough challenges that shines through this book like sunlight from a clear, blue sky. Once you get past the set-up in chapters one and two, the tale just takes off, and if you've got any imagination -- you're air borne. I like most of Kate Elliott's books, but this is the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Astoundingly boring piece of romance-fantasy
Review: This is the dullest book I've read in several years. Combine this with its claim to be science fiction, when in fact it's some combination of romance and fantasy, and my recommendation can be summed up as: Avoid as all costs. It's hard to pick just one point where the book goes wrong, but its essential failing is that it has no plot. Tess, our heroine, is the sister and heir to humanity's only Duke in the Chapalii empire which has absorbed our society, but that doesn't really figure into the story. The book actually focuses on Tess being accidentally dropped into the middle of nowhere on an alien world (conveniently populated by humans who were seeded there millennia ago) where she hooks up with a band of nomads led by the strong, stoic and gruff Ilya Bakhtiian. It's clear from the outset that Tess and Ilya are going to walk down the rocky road of romance. Unfortunately, this road involves the nomad tribe wandering from random place to random place, having random encounters with various foes which sometimes results in some supporting characters dying. Elliott manages to avoid any dramatic foreshadowing, or building up to any of the climactic events of the story (except for the one which would best be kept hidden: The Tess-Ilya chemistry). Instead, things happen without warning, and often have little impact on the remainder of the book. It's a series of almost-disconnected vignettes, and a sterling example of how not to plot a novel. These problems are compounded by the lack of depth in the leading characters. Tess is a complete cipher, who's trying to create her own life from outside her brother's shadow, but what exactly she wants and how she'll go about getting it are vague, and even at the end of the story it's not clear why she did anything she did, except out of the 'pure goodness of her heart'. Ilya, similarly, never grows beyond being gruff, stoic and strong, except for a rather reprehensible scene where he turns out to be conniving and untrustworthy. Not a great thing for your romantic lead to display! (A handful of supporting characters are more textured and entertaining, but their screen time is all-too-brief.) These two flaws come together to undermine the climax: Neither Tess or Ilya really has to give anything up or lose anything to get what they want. They don't truly have any tough decisions to make, no strong outside forces pushing them to go one way or the other. They just need to decide whether they want A or B, and it's pretty much theirs for the taking. There's no dramatic tension in the story. Finally, while the setting of Jaran is scenic and lush, it's also fairly generic. The culture of Ilya's people is not particularly innovative or compelling. It reads like a standard mass-market fantasy novel. The few intriguing elements - involving humanity's relationship with the Chapalii - are shoved aside roughly in favor of the tedious romance. While reading Jaran I felt that the story felt much like Lois McMaster Bujold's novels Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but without the elements that made Bujold's novels work: The strong, deep characters, the powerful outside forces working against them, and complex and difficult culture of Barrayar into which the heroine Cordelia is thrust, and the morally muddy actions of her lover Aral which are born out of circumstance and which must be reconciled in the course of the story. At best, Jaran is 'Bujold lite', but why read such a book when you can read Bujold directly?
|
