Violent Stars

Rating:
Summary: Word-Weaver
Review: 'Violent Stars' is a brilliant book. It is the companion-piece to the even better 'Flesh & Gold', and while it suffers for the comparison, it is still a gem of a book. Gottlieb revels in her poetic talents: her word-weaving brings her space opera-ish universe to startling life and held me riveted. I couldn't put it down, and regretted that there isn't a part three (yet?).

The plot of 'Violent Stars' picks up where 'Flesh and Gold' left it. The Evil Empire has come back to Hydran life, and the well-crafted characters from F&G find themselves thrust once again into the heart of the fray. This time, the stakes are higher, and a new, weirder array of wicked beasties - reminiscent in the best way of the dread Shadows of the Babylon 5 series in their unexpected actions and the horror and confusion their very presence causes - are on hand.

Violent Stars is dark, humorous, thoughtful, sincere, and original. I don't want to get more specific, because I don't want to give anything away. I can say that Gottlieb has clearly lavished great effort in bringing this book to life, and it shows. Her writing burned into my head: there are sentences I can still remember, and that is not something that I can say about many other books. She brings scenes and characters to life without boring description, using her poet's sense to suggest and indirectly describe. The result is as riveting in Violent Stars as it was in F&G, and the characters as interesting.

It is unfortunate that Violent Stars, while maintaining the gorgeous, lush sound of the first, suffers in terms of its plot. It is most emphatically *not* a self-contained novel - while I read it before F&G, I didn't get the charge out of it I would have by knowing the story that preceded it.

But perhaps that is unfair. After all, there are many books that are not meant to be read as stand-alone novels, but that are superior in their proper place. I feel strongly that if you were held enraptured by Gottlieb's first work (as so many people clearly were: I cannot stress how utterly lovely her writing and pacing is), then you need to pick up her second work. It is hard to follow a mighty first novel with a second part as amazing; as I said, if it suffers, it is by comparison only.

Oh, and don't miss the monkeys ... I *sincerely* hope we run into them again.

Rating:
Summary: Word-Weaver
Review: 'Violent Stars' is a brilliant book. It is the companion-piece to the even better 'Flesh & Gold', and while it suffers for the comparison, it is still a gem of a book. Gottlieb revels in her poetic talents: her word-weaving brings her space opera-ish universe to startling life and held me riveted. I couldn't put it down, and regretted that there isn't a part three (yet?).

The plot of 'Violent Stars' picks up where 'Flesh and Gold' left it. The Evil Empire has come back to Hydran life, and the well-crafted characters from F&G find themselves thrust once again into the heart of the fray. This time, the stakes are higher, and a new, weirder array of wicked beasties - reminiscent in the best way of the dread Shadows of the Babylon 5 series in their unexpected actions and the horror and confusion their very presence causes - are on hand.

Violent Stars is dark, humorous, thoughtful, sincere, and original. I don't want to get more specific, because I don't want to give anything away. I can say that Gottlieb has clearly lavished great effort in bringing this book to life, and it shows. Her writing burned into my head: there are sentences I can still remember, and that is not something that I can say about many other books. She brings scenes and characters to life without boring description, using her poet's sense to suggest and indirectly describe. The result is as riveting in Violent Stars as it was in F&G, and the characters as interesting.

It is unfortunate that Violent Stars, while maintaining the gorgeous, lush sound of the first, suffers in terms of its plot. It is most emphatically *not* a self-contained novel - while I read it before F&G, I didn't get the charge out of it I would have by knowing the story that preceded it.

But perhaps that is unfair. After all, there are many books that are not meant to be read as stand-alone novels, but that are superior in their proper place. I feel strongly that if you were held enraptured by Gottlieb's first work (as so many people clearly were: I cannot stress how utterly lovely her writing and pacing is), then you need to pick up her second work. It is hard to follow a mighty first novel with a second part as amazing; as I said, if it suffers, it is by comparison only.

Oh, and don't miss the monkeys ... I *sincerely* hope we run into them again.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing sequel to Flesh & Gold (98)
Review: I liked Flesh & Gold a lot, recommended it, & was looking forward to the sequel. Well, here it is, and I had to struggle to finish it. The book just didn't make sense! And there are all sorts of extraneous pulpy subplots. And a setup for *another* sequel. Ick.

To be fair, there are some beautifully-written parts. And it has a nice cover. And I've seen some positive reviews.

So YMMV. But it sure didn't work for me.

Rating:
Summary: Violent Stars - My Sense of Wonder Restored
Review: Phyllis Gotlieb's earlier novel "Flesh and Gold" impressed me so much with its deeply weird and unique characters and situation that I could hardly wait for "Violent Stars." Gotlieb is not a prolific writer, taking time to craft her work and weave in the poetry of description and mood that elevates her work beyond "sci-fi" and into the literary. But don't be put off by that literary comment! Her stories are invariably rich, meaty, sexy and yes, at times violent, full of wonderfully realized aliens, quirky and strong human characters, and plots full of politics, emotion and romance. This book has been out for a while now, and is available in paperback, so I won't go into a plot summary; suffice it to say that I loved it. I read a lot of SF and I found "Violent Stars" hit all my buttons. I highly recommend the novel, and future novels Phyllis Gotlieb writes.

Rating:
Summary: Violent Stars - My Sense of Wonder Restored
Review: Phyllis Gotlieb's earlier novel "Flesh and Gold" impressed me so much with its deeply weird and unique characters and situation that I could hardly wait for "Violent Stars." Gotlieb is not a prolific writer, taking time to craft her work and weave in the poetry of description and mood that elevates her work beyond "sci-fi" and into the literary. But don't be put off by that literary comment! Her stories are invariably rich, meaty, sexy and yes, at times violent, full of wonderfully realized aliens, quirky and strong human characters, and plots full of politics, emotion and romance. This book has been out for a while now, and is available in paperback, so I won't go into a plot summary; suffice it to say that I loved it. I read a lot of SF and I found "Violent Stars" hit all my buttons. I highly recommend the novel, and future novels Phyllis Gotlieb writes.

Rating:
Summary: Bad writing
Review: Plot and characters are adequate, and it doesn't start too badly, but the quality of the writing steadily declines and by mid-book the writing is ghastly. One example:

..."Come, children, eat your suppers, and let us not dwell on grim thoughts."
Verona, among alien telepaths, managed to fork it in, with some wisp of appetite left after all the terrors, grainy wafers that were crisp enough, an unidentified vegetable, rehydrated tomato slices, and a protein something that was far from chicken.

This is typical. Not incomprehensible, but clunky and awkward. The book just isn't worth the wade.

Rating:
Summary: Bad writing
Review: Plot and characters are adequate, and it doesn't start too badly, but the quality of the writing steadily declines and by mid-book the writing is ghastly. One example:

..."Come, children, eat your suppers, and let us not dwell on grim thoughts."
Verona, among alien telepaths, managed to fork it in, with some wisp of appetite left after all the terrors, grainy wafers that were crisp enough, an unidentified vegetable, rehydrated tomato slices, and a protein something that was far from chicken.

This is typical. Not incomprehensible, but clunky and awkward. The book just isn't worth the wade.