Rating: 
Summary: Alien Political Intrigue and Culture Clash
Review: A totally satisfying read -- Kenyon creates a complex alien culture, very much like a caste society, and their uneasy truce with humankind. The clash of cultures between human and ahtra is well drawn by the author. Having fought each other from space ships, both human and ahtra have much to learn from close contact.The politics of the ahtra society are presented in an intriguing manner and are central to the plot. There is a lot going on and by the end it all ties together very well. The characters are sympathetic and Kenyon writes in a very concise style, conveying a lot of action, description or meaning in a short paragraph or two. This is the 2nd work of Kenyon's that I've had the pleasure to read ("Maximun Ice" being the first) and I look forward to my next.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative and Believable
Review: As a long time sci-fi reader, most plots and situations these days are not too hard to figure out. That is until I read this book. Ms. Kenyon has quite a knack for setting up scenarios that keep you turning the pages and trying to anticipate what will happen next. I was easily able to identify with each character and even picture the surroundings and landscape as the story unfolded. There were still many times that I said to myself, "Wow, that's not what I expected but it sure makes sense". This was the first book that I have read by Kay Kenyon but definitely not the last. I have since purchased all of her other books and thoroughly enjoyed each one. This is a unique, fresh author I really enjoy. Keep 'em coming Kay!!!
Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get much better than this!
Review: I am obliged to give one of my very rare 5-star reviews to Kay Kenyon for a deep, complex, exciting and most satisfying novel. In this tale, failing starship Captain Eli Dammond finds himself on the desert planet Null where his responsibility is to investigate to wreck of another ship and to transport its crew to safety. Although everybody is anxious to get the job done and to leave the inhospitable world, Eli feels that it is imperative for him to spend his last moments there making a quick exploration below the surface of Null in one of the many alien hexadron boring machines found on the surface. Thus begins a wonderfully told and realized adventure of Eli's meeting with the ancient subterranean race of Ahtra. The story is so masterfully told that we can clearly visualize and comprehend the complex alien culture, and understand their motivations in dealing with the problematic stranger in their midst. While the story underground is evolving, life on the surface of Null is changing rapidly and catastrophically for the remaining humans. The planet has its own bioligical imperitives at work, and human life is not a high priority. In spite of the dark events that drive this story or, perhaps, because of them, the resolution of this gripping tale is uplifting and hopeful. A fitting conclusion to a wonderful adventure. I highly recommend Tropic Of Creation, and I anxiously await the next fine work by Kay Kenyon.
Rating: 
Summary: A possible series
Review: I got this book based on the excellent reviews. I've read Kenyon's 'The Seeds of Time' and found it fairly entertaining. I was very disappointed with this book. The character development was adequate. The book description makes it sound very exciting and profound. It was none of these although it could have been. The major revelation is glossed over and a reader can almost miss it. The plot deals mainly with the aliens' political intrigues that are almost too human. Why they do what they do seems to make no sense. The girl is secondary to the story and certainly no warrior as the book description portrays. She manages to stay alive on a world where everything seems to eat everything else. Harry Harrison's 'Deathworld' comes to mind. The overall problem seems to be that events in the book unfold without any background. It's almost as if the reader is expected to know what happened to cause the events lending up to the climax. There are several stories and plotlines occurring in this book that really need several books to cover adequately. It's almost as if this book is a synopsis of a whole series. As a result this is a book with huge possibilities that falls flat due to lack of content.
Rating:
Summary: I really liked this one.
Review: I got this book based on the excellent reviews. I've read Kenyon's `The Seeds of Time' and found it fairly entertaining. I was very disappointed with this book. The character development was adequate. The book description makes it sound very exciting and profound. It was none of these although it could have been. The major revelation is glossed over and a reader can almost miss it. The plot deals mainly with the aliens' political intrigues that are almost too human. Why they do what they do seems to make no sense. The girl is secondary to the story and certainly no warrior as the book description portrays. She manages to stay alive on a world where everything seems to eat everything else. Harry Harrison's `Deathworld' comes to mind. The overall problem seems to be that events in the book unfold without any background. It's almost as if the reader is expected to know what happened to cause the events lending up to the climax. There are several stories and plotlines occurring in this book that really need several books to cover adequately. It's almost as if this book is a synopsis of a whole series. As a result this is a book with huge possibilities that falls flat due to lack of content.
Rating:
Summary: Exploring the Alien Mind
Review: I loved this book. It had many of my favorite SF elements: humans meet alien race and encounter completely different worldview, customs, social structure, politics, sports, etc. I liked that it is told half from the alien point of view and half from the human. It involves both adventure and personal drama. The plot is intricate and moves at a fast pace. The characters have depth and are believable. I literally raced through the book, losing sleep to keep reading. The ending was satisfying with a few surprises. I can't wait to read the rest of Kay Kenyon's books now.
Rating:
Summary: Exploring the Alien Mind
Review: I loved this book. It had many of my favorite SF elements: humans meet alien race and encounter completely different worldview, customs, social structure, politics, sports, etc. I liked that it is told half from the alien point of view and half from the human. It involves both adventure and personal drama. The plot is intricate and moves at a fast pace. The characters have depth and are believable. I literally raced through the book, losing sleep to keep reading. The ending was satisfying with a few surprises. I can't wait to read the rest of Kay Kenyon's books now.
Rating: 
Summary: This is fantasy, not science fiction
Review: If you can accept a jungle full of monsters replacing a desert at the start of the rainy season, this may be the book for you. I abandoned it after a hundred increasingly improbable pages.
Rating:
Summary: A new master of science fiction
Review: Kay Kenyon has written her best story so far. This one has none of the cheesy flavor of Raft (not to say it was bad, just a standard space opera, even if saved by its aliens) nor anti-science of Seeds of Time (which is excellent if you accept unrealistic time travel speculations). But it's not just plausibility of the plot that makes Tropic of Creation great. Kay Kenyon is an author who always fully develops characters of living depth, be that humans or aliens, without sacrificing the larger view of the story's world. Both of these aspects are shining brilliantly in this book. The story is set during an armistice between the human and alien races. The humans have been beat by the older and more technologically advanced aliens and had to back off a strategic resource, surrendering all the trading rights. A transport ship is sent to rescue the survivors of a battleship marooned for three years on a desert world due to the system failures. During the investigation of the battleship's condition a number of alien machines are discovered, which eventually leads to the new contact, understanding and collaboration between the two races. The elaborate beginning that sets up the world of the story may seem a bit slow to an impatient reader, but once the stage is set it explodes. At times the book resembles a horror story, one of the best I've read at that. But it's not gore for the sake of itself, everything is tied to the main plot and builds it from the solid foundation up. But not to a single climax, for the story is so complex and multipathed, as well as fast paced, that the excitment stays high throughout and the climaxes are many. The reader meets a self-made starship captain haunted by his luck, army men of various vices and virtues, an aristocratic family, and aliens of all strata of their exotic society, all portrayed with great detail and depth. The strange landscapes and animal life are also painted with realistic brilliance. All in all, the book has a very solid sci-fi and is a great pleasure to read. Look forward to more excellent, intelligent works by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Long but good
Review: This is a pretty good book. The science is very thorough. The prose itself is a little long and involved. The ending is a lot bland.
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