Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre and Meandering
Review: I wish I could give this book 2.5 stars, because it probably falls right in the middle, between really good and completely unreadable. I will use the truncation method of rounding for emphasis, however. Ok, I do realize this is a 1 based system, so 3 is the average, but I will continue to assume that there are items so bad that they deserve no stars, but they are just so horrible that people couldn't even stomach writing reviews about them.There are a couple of problems that I had with this book. The one that bugged me the most, and bugged me constantly, was that the original interstellar travelers' genes were modified in such a way that entire planets of the same "sub-species" came up. It would seem to me that, assuming they could even produce viable offspring, the mutations would be so varied that there wouldn't be anything approaching homogenity on any planet. Therefore, the whole concept fo the Guerans being the only society able to produce multiple outpilots just didn't sit well with me. Along with that hole in the storytelling, there was the mechanical problem of the fact that the main character, Jamisia, never really got my attention or my sympathy. There were a few points in the book where she seemed to be something more than flat, but those were few and far between. The other characters were no better. Some of the ideas in the book are fairly engaging, but when mixed with the implausible back story and shallow characters, the book just seems to fumble. My basic thoughts are that you can probably find something better to spend your time reading, but if this is the only thing you have on hand for some reason, it's not dreadful.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: This book is fabulous. It was the first book by Friedman that i ever read and, i beleive, his best. The coldfire trilogy had great ideas, but bored me out of my mind when compared with Robert Jordan, Robin McKinley, Anne Bishop, and other masters of fantasy.this masterpeice of science fiction kept me enthralled like no other. I could not put this book down for days, and I wish that friedman would write a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: An uneven sprawl
Review: Nicholson Baker wrote U and I - his appraisal of John Updike - based on little more than a brief encounter over a plate of cold ham cuttings, so I feel confident in reviewing C.S. Friedman's 'This Alien Shore' after reading only a third of it. Too much of the story lacks any focus or sense of direction, it jumping from one theme or character to another, with little sense of purpose other than to extend the amount of pages to say anything. Her use of imperial measurements instead of metric jarrs within a future sci-fi context. Her use of terms such as Brain-Ware, Hackers, etc, is unlikely and out of date. Such terms may be new and exciting to C.S.F., but not to me. This needs more thought for future work. And there is the rather obvious influences: Iain M Banks' The Player of Games, Look to Windward. A little bit of C.J. Cherryh even down to chapter titles such as Serpent's Reach. A touch of The Silence of the Lambs - the scene where Masada is telling his colleague about the care and attention lavished on the virus' design is an almost straight re-run of when Starling is being talked to by the insect expert about the Death-head Moth and its creator/keeper. I was expecting to see some of Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. in here as well, but I didn't spot it from what I read. I thought the links from chapter to chapter were well done, and where C.S.F. settles down to write a section with any plausible substance - such as the one in which Masada was introduced - it works fine. If only she could have pulled focus on the whole thing and kept some consistency about what she was writing about, including attention to technical details, this would have been a good read. As it is, it sprawls limply along, with an occasional suggestion of what it could have been - preferably in two thirds of its current length. Perhaps the editor-goddess should have gotten off her throne and done some.
Rating:
Summary: "God save us from an earth in which all men are the same!"
Review: "Where you see only illness, a curse to be corrected, we see the untapped potential of humanity... God save us from an earth in which all men are the same!" The first work of fiction we have seen that succeeds in portraying multiplicity and other neurological idiosyncracies as vital, positive qualities. Friedman tells of societies of mutants, descendants of abandoned Earth colonies, who have developed wonderful unique mental and physical characteristics, revel in their outrageous differences, and build viable societies around them. We were particularly impressed with her description of Iru, who are clearly meant to be Aspergers' autistics. The young heroine must come to terms with the fact that she's been the victim of a cruel commercial experiment designed to give her multiple personalities. Far from crippling her, her selves are important to her survival. Although Friedman borrows somewhat from the stereotypes often seen in therapist-written books about multiplicity, Jamisia's little community is fairly realistic. Thankfully there is no stupid integration happy solution at the end. A biotech Internet and its attendant hackers and viruses are here, in a subplot of mystery and intrigue. Echoes of James H. Schmitz, Frank Herbert and good ol'Cordwainer Smith (whom she has the courtesy to credit!). Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: best book ever written
Review: this is definetely the best book friedman has ever written. i have read some of his other work, and none of it even compares to this alien shore. i read this book in four days, and picked it up whenever i wasn't buisy. i remember reading it in the theatre before a movie started, to kill time. This book is about a girl, Jasmia, and she is struggling to figure out things about her life that she doesn't understand. it is fast pase, and very creative. It starts out right away, and you will get into it from the very first sentence. regardless of size, i will guarantee that you will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading
Review: This book tells the futuristic story of earth raised Jamisia (a girl with multiple personalities and a secrecy shrouded childhood) who is on the run but does not know why. The author interweaves her story with Phoenix (a modified computer hacker), Masada (a human variant) and the search for a deadly virus. Not only does this tell a great story, but it also makes you think! Her brainware installed into human brains, (of which the rich get the best) and her description of the "moddies" (humans who chose to have their brains altered for better interface), as well as the prejudice against the variants, are all thought provoking and story enhancing. Her heros and heroines, as well as the villans are fleshed out, with good and bad attributes. I look forward to reading more of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Literate and engaging
Review: _This Alien Shore_ tells the story of a girl, hackers, a guild, and a killer virus. It pulls these elements into a plot which plays out the elements of earth prejudice in space. Sounds familiar? Parts of it certainly are, but the writing is good enough that it doesn't feel like a retread. I was caught by the quality of the story and found it a very compelling read.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely the best Freidman has written
Review: I picked up a copy of "This Alien Shore" to experiment, to expand the list of authors I read, and it quite simply knocked me out. A fabulous piece of writing that doesnt need to concept of "aliens" to populate a universe - human beings (albeit some mutated) are more than diverse enough in and of themselves. The characters are well developed and the universe is rich with possibilities ... a fertile place for sequels and/or fan fiction perhaps? David Brin's "SunDiver" shares something in common with this book - a main character suffering with multiple personality disorder. In both cases they do a great job in their treatment of the illness and integrating it into the plot in a vital and gripping way.
Rating: 
Summary: An Alien yet intriguing Shore
Review: C.S. Friedman's novels come out in a trickle but are always worth the wait. Her worlds are well developed and constructed with enough detail to convince readers of reality. Darkness is a main theme in her novels. Evil has seemingly vast resources and power compared to the good. Only at great sacrifice does the hero or heroine triumph. For readers new to Friedman, "This Alien Shore" is an excellent place to begin. Her Coldfire trilogy is also worth reading especially for it's blend of science fiction and fantasy. "This Alien Shore" provides an interesting glimpse into a possible future. While yes, science fiction is just that, fiction. Yet considering the exponential rate technology is shrinking in size while increasing in speed coupled with the increasing popularity of the internet (outernet in this novel) Friedman's novel may not be so far off the mark. It could be a long time before understand the human brain along time before we understand it enough to fuse a computer with but it could happen some day. Viruses are more intelligent, capable of improving their programming as they continue to fry computers. It is much worse to have your computer crash when it is hardwired into your brain. Many people are quick to dismiss genre fiction as "escapist literature" but writers like Friedman are too good to pass up for any reason. You will miss a great deal if you brush her away.
Rating:
Summary: A Special Kind of Sci-Fi
Review: This was a most interesting and literate piece of work. The characters were fascinating.. When do we get a sequel?
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