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Jun. 4th, 2014 10:50 amI think it was ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
opusculasedfera who recced me Julie Czerneda's Survival? WELL PLAYED.
So the book is the first in a trilogy which takes place in a future in which Earth has contact and trade agreements with a bunch of alien species all over the universe. However, our protagonist Dr. Mackenzie Connor does not really care about this at all. She is a mid-career biologist studying salmon, and she is BUSY. She has salmon to research! And grad students to organize!
Then the oncoming plot hits in the form of a visiting alien archaeologist! researching a potential sinister alien conspiracy! at Mac's salmon research facility!
ALIEN ARCHAEOLOGIST BRYMN: You are a biologist! Your work on population patterns is amazing! Surely you will be able to help with our research -
MAC: Yes, I am a biologist. NOT a xenobiologist. I have no interest or background in aliens. And you are INTERRUPTING MY SALMON RESEARCH DURING SPAWNING SEASON.
Mac continues to do her level best to refuse the call with repeated plaintive cries of "I STUDY SALMON!" for about the first half of the book, because, like, sure, xenobiology is a worthy field of study and all, and she respects those who choose to invest in it, but MAC'S SPECIALTY IS EARTH FISH.
To my untrained eye, the handling of science and scientists is great -- like, the research facility and all its specialists and grad students and weird bureaucratic constraints are described with great affection, everyone is very competent in their own fields and good at extrapolating to others, but everyone is also a SPECIALIST and nobody is MAGIC SCIENCE WIZARD.
The cross-culture stuff is also very cool! Like, eventually of course plot overwhelms Mac and she does end up hanging out with a bunch of aliens, and at one point almost dies because the aliens don't actually understand that humans need water to survive. "We thought it was just a preference and we didn't have time to stock up on luxuries! SORRY."
The other great thing about this book is that while Mac does get a token hot bureaucrat-spy love interest, the driving emotional relationship is between Mac and her research partner and science bestie Dr. Emily Mamani, who turns out to have some secrets -- among which perhaps the most emotionally devastating to Mac is the reveal that Dr. Mamani might not actually care all that much about salmon. ;____;
So overall: A+. However, ( I want to talk about the ending! )
That said, I'm totally reading the next two books. But since my library does not have them, the only question is whether to splurge and get them in Kindle now, or wait until September when they come out in omnibus...
opusculasedfera who recced me Julie Czerneda's Survival? WELL PLAYED. So the book is the first in a trilogy which takes place in a future in which Earth has contact and trade agreements with a bunch of alien species all over the universe. However, our protagonist Dr. Mackenzie Connor does not really care about this at all. She is a mid-career biologist studying salmon, and she is BUSY. She has salmon to research! And grad students to organize!
Then the oncoming plot hits in the form of a visiting alien archaeologist! researching a potential sinister alien conspiracy! at Mac's salmon research facility!
ALIEN ARCHAEOLOGIST BRYMN: You are a biologist! Your work on population patterns is amazing! Surely you will be able to help with our research -
MAC: Yes, I am a biologist. NOT a xenobiologist. I have no interest or background in aliens. And you are INTERRUPTING MY SALMON RESEARCH DURING SPAWNING SEASON.
Mac continues to do her level best to refuse the call with repeated plaintive cries of "I STUDY SALMON!" for about the first half of the book, because, like, sure, xenobiology is a worthy field of study and all, and she respects those who choose to invest in it, but MAC'S SPECIALTY IS EARTH FISH.
To my untrained eye, the handling of science and scientists is great -- like, the research facility and all its specialists and grad students and weird bureaucratic constraints are described with great affection, everyone is very competent in their own fields and good at extrapolating to others, but everyone is also a SPECIALIST and nobody is MAGIC SCIENCE WIZARD.
The cross-culture stuff is also very cool! Like, eventually of course plot overwhelms Mac and she does end up hanging out with a bunch of aliens, and at one point almost dies because the aliens don't actually understand that humans need water to survive. "We thought it was just a preference and we didn't have time to stock up on luxuries! SORRY."
The other great thing about this book is that while Mac does get a token hot bureaucrat-spy love interest, the driving emotional relationship is between Mac and her research partner and science bestie Dr. Emily Mamani, who turns out to have some secrets -- among which perhaps the most emotionally devastating to Mac is the reveal that Dr. Mamani might not actually care all that much about salmon. ;____;
So overall: A+. However, ( I want to talk about the ending! )
That said, I'm totally reading the next two books. But since my library does not have them, the only question is whether to splurge and get them in Kindle now, or wait until September when they come out in omnibus...
