Speaking Dreams

Rating:
Summary: Nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction!
Review: Action and adventure, good, strong female characters, and writing you can sink your teeth into? Absolutely! I'm obsessed with the balance of power in relationships; what's visible in how people relate to each other, and what is constantly bubbling beneath the surface. I like to explore what happens when characters present one seemingly genuine aspect, and then change the equation with the emergence of a true persona

Rating:
Summary: Even my girlfriend read this book!
Review: I loved the book.. My sister gave it to me with high recommendations.. my girlfriend started reading it while I was and we ended up competing to read it, and she never touches a book without having to! Interesting social dynamic - although it covers slavery it is not a typical slave story. I would like many more books on this storyline but alas, the author has written only one other on the subject. READ IT!!

Rating:
Summary: Even my girlfriend read this book!
Review: I loved the book.. My sister gave it to me with high recommendations.. my girlfriend started reading it while I was and we ended up competing to read it, and she never touches a book without having to! Interesting social dynamic - although it covers slavery it is not a typical slave story. I would like many more books on this storyline but alas, the author has written only one other on the subject. READ IT!!

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive first novel
Review: It's rare for the conventions of space opera to be used for characterizations of this depth and clarity. SPEAKING DREAMS functions quite well as an adventure story, but it _shines_ as a study in character -- the effects of trauma, the difficult, risky necessity of trust, and the effort needed to overcome one's past. It is also, and oddly for a book containing so much vividly realized pain, charming. I'd even use the word sweet for parts, if it didn't have negative overtones and didn't contrast so starkly with the strength and honesty of the portrayals. This is the sort of book you read several times; and also the sort that makes you determined to look at anything new that appears under the author's name. -- S.M. Stirling

Rating:
Summary: *currently my favorite book*
Review: S.M. Stirling's comments here speak for me pretty well. Rarely has a book touched me in such a way that I have read it again within a month. The character of Costa, in particular, is one of the most interesting and involving characters I've come across. I've read and enjoyed all three of Severna Park's novels, but this one remains my favorite, for reasons I'm not sure I can explain.

Rating:
Summary: Great Characters
Review: This was a really good first novel, but it could use some improvement. Although the characters are strong and realistic, the plot is unworthy of them. These characters are passionate and thought-provoking, but the plot is just a wham-bam shoot 'em up. There are memorable parts where the author shows what she can really do, like the scenes in the slave markets. The end is dissapointing, the big bad guy is defeated and everyone's problems are solved. As if an empire can be toppled by killing just one person. Hopefully in the author's next book she will allow the characters to use their minds instead of luck and violence. Having said all that, I still give the book a 7, because the charaters do make it worth reading