Rating: 
Summary: Great read, better than her other book i think
Review: Intriguing story. Keeps you involved. Reasonable technology described. Beats "Fool's War' by a bit I think.
Rating: 
Summary: Definetly worth reading
Review: Lots of great ideas, maybe too many. A bit hard to follow in places. Still, a good first effort. I loved the Shessel. I hope she writes more books set in this world so we can come across these interesting creatures again.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Lots of great ideas...perhaps a few too many. I enjoyed reading this book but it was a bit confusing at times. Still, a fine first novel. I loved the Shessel characters. I hope she writes more novels set in this world.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Lots of people really liked this book. Maybe something is wrong with me.Although the novel was very good conceptually, I found it to be very long and tedious to read. I could understand what she was talking about, but the details all seemed vague nonetheless. 500 pages and I feel like I have virtually no imagery to show for it. Still, it is a very well written book. I just couldn't really sink my teeth into it. For someone else it might be a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it's just me...
Review: Lots of people really liked this book. Maybe something is wrong with me. Although the novel was very good conceptually, I found it to be very long and tedious to read. I could understand what she was talking about, but the details all seemed vague nonetheless. 500 pages and I feel like I have virtually no imagery to show for it. Still, it is a very well written book. I just couldn't really sink my teeth into it. For someone else it might be a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre first novel
Review: Reclamation inspired neither love nor hate in me. It was, for the most part, readable, but it wasn't especially involving. There were typical first novel problems with the structure and pace of the book, and also some character problems. Reclamation is about a far-distant future in which mankind has lost its homeworld to the rebellion of biological constructs and splintered into several different political or religious organizations. Two of these are utterly dedicated to finding and reclaiming Earth: the Rhudolant Vitae and the Unifiers. Our hero, Eric Born, was once a resident of a backwards, dying planet with a backwards, dying culture. He escaped, with the help of some smugglers, and has spent the last ten years trying to forget about his home world. But when the Rhudolant Vitae bring him in to communicate with a woman from that same world, Arla Stone, Eric becomes more involved than he has ever been. Together, they must save their homeworld. The plot is, unfortunately, rather standard, and poorly constructed. There are several significant gaps, including one place where several chapters seem to be missing. There are also many places where Zettel appears to think she's communicated something to the reader, but it's unclear what that might be. On a personal level, I got rather tired of the "everyone betrays everyone on Sundays planet" aspect of things - much of the early part of the book is taken up with giving the reader a view of a specific character, then revealing in the next chapter that that view is incorrect, as the character is betraying [insert person or organization here]. However, most of the plot problems could be attributable to first novel syndrome, and I have every hope that Zettel will get the hang of tight plotting in her future novels. I'm less sanguine about the problems in character development. Both of the main characters - Eric Born and Arla Stone - are much less than realistic, slaves to a plot that demands them to be first one thing, then another. One of the more ludicrous examples of characters-as-plot-slaves involves Arla's motivation. She leaves her planet voluntarily, hoping to better her children's lives. She at first is perfectly happy to remain in space, but three-quarters of the way in, she develops a sudden, overpowering urge to see her husband and children, even though she knows that her husband has most likely divorced her in her absence, which in her culture would mean that her children are also no longer hers. Nonetheless, she drags Eric through a dangerous procedure for returning home, forcing him to destroy his most valuable and important belonging - his ship. Arla gives Eric approximately four seconds to recover from the twin blows of losing his ship and returning to a home he hates, then charges ahead in search of her children. When she finds them, she hugs them, then hears that her husband is divorced and remarried. She immediately tells the kids 'I'm not your mother anymore, you need to go to your new mother now,' and walks away without a struggle or even much apparent regret. It was very hard to like characters who acted so utterly nonsensically, and who behaved so irrationally. And the rest of the book - the plot, the background, the writing - was at best uninspired, which left the book as a whole a rather unrewarding read. Perhaps Zettel's future novels will be better. I certainly hope so.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre first novel
Review: Reclamation inspired neither love nor hate in me. It was, for the most part, readable, but it wasn't especially involving. There were typical first novel problems with the structure and pace of the book, and also some character problems. Reclamation is about a far-distant future in which mankind has lost its homeworld to the rebellion of biological constructs and splintered into several different political or religious organizations. Two of these are utterly dedicated to finding and reclaiming Earth: the Rhudolant Vitae and the Unifiers. Our hero, Eric Born, was once a resident of a backwards, dying planet with a backwards, dying culture. He escaped, with the help of some smugglers, and has spent the last ten years trying to forget about his home world. But when the Rhudolant Vitae bring him in to communicate with a woman from that same world, Arla Stone, Eric becomes more involved than he has ever been. Together, they must save their homeworld. The plot is, unfortunately, rather standard, and poorly constructed. There are several significant gaps, including one place where several chapters seem to be missing. There are also many places where Zettel appears to think she's communicated something to the reader, but it's unclear what that might be. On a personal level, I got rather tired of the "everyone betrays everyone on Sundays planet" aspect of things - much of the early part of the book is taken up with giving the reader a view of a specific character, then revealing in the next chapter that that view is incorrect, as the character is betraying [insert person or organization here]. However, most of the plot problems could be attributable to first novel syndrome, and I have every hope that Zettel will get the hang of tight plotting in her future novels. I'm less sanguine about the problems in character development. Both of the main characters - Eric Born and Arla Stone - are much less than realistic, slaves to a plot that demands them to be first one thing, then another. One of the more ludicrous examples of characters-as-plot-slaves involves Arla's motivation. She leaves her planet voluntarily, hoping to better her children's lives. She at first is perfectly happy to remain in space, but three-quarters of the way in, she develops a sudden, overpowering urge to see her husband and children, even though she knows that her husband has most likely divorced her in her absence, which in her culture would mean that her children are also no longer hers. Nonetheless, she drags Eric through a dangerous procedure for returning home, forcing him to destroy his most valuable and important belonging - his ship. Arla gives Eric approximately four seconds to recover from the twin blows of losing his ship and returning to a home he hates, then charges ahead in search of her children. When she finds them, she hugs them, then hears that her husband is divorced and remarried. She immediately tells the kids 'I'm not your mother anymore, you need to go to your new mother now,' and walks away without a struggle or even much apparent regret. It was very hard to like characters who acted so utterly nonsensically, and who behaved so irrationally. And the rest of the book - the plot, the background, the writing - was at best uninspired, which left the book as a whole a rather unrewarding read. Perhaps Zettel's future novels will be better. I certainly hope so.
Rating: 
Summary: First Novel Cheers
Review: Reclamation is my first science fiction novel and I am truly
delighted by the positive feedback I've gotten from readers
and reviewers. I spent years tinkering with this
story before Eric and Arla finally dropped by for coffee and
to tell me what was really going on in the Realm. To my
surprise, what I had intended to be a straightforward
space-adventure turned into a game of plot, counterplot,
intergalactic powers and the nature of humanity. I am pleased to say that Reclamation is a finalist for the Phillip K. Dick award for distinguished science fiction
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: Sarah Zettel has crafted a well rounded future society with enough politics, intrigue, romance and action to satisfy all but the most jaded space opera go-ers. The story is well paced and satisfyingly creative revelations are delivered on a regular basis. At certain points while reading the book I was tempted to dismiss it as predictable, but then Sarah would throw in another twist that bumped up the interest level another notch. My only gripe is with the lizard-like Shessel race. Although they are physically different enough from humans, psychologically and emotionally they might as well be humans in lizard suits. A very satisfying read, overall.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: Sarah Zettel has crafted a well rounded future society with enough politics, intrigue, romance and action to satisfy all but the most jaded space opera go-ers. The story is well paced and satisfyingly creative revelations are delivered on a regular basis. At certain points while reading the book I was tempted to dismiss it as predictable, but then Sarah would throw in another twist that bumped up the interest level another notch. My only gripe is with the lizard-like Shessel race. Although they are physically different enough from humans, psychologically and emotionally they might as well be humans in lizard suits. A very satisfying read, overall.
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