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Jul. 18th, 2022 08:51 pmI recently succeeded in convincing enough other people to read Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative trilogy that I had to reread it myself, and was delighted to find that I still enjoyed it approximately as much or more as the first time I read it in 2015.
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genarti, who had to spend several days listening to me enthusiastically recapping plot events that she had already heard me enthusiastically recap for the first time seven years ago, may not have been quite so delighted.)
I pretty much stand by everything that I said in my post from the first time I read the books, but, because I'm still in a trilogy-hangover point when all I want to do is talk about them ad infinitum, I am nevertheless going to indulge in a brief recap of the best qualities of the books:
- the deeply affectionate enthusiasm for the minutiae of scientific research and politics
- the willingness to dive deep into alien mindsets and imperatives and push at the inevitable misunderstandings that may arise from mistaken cultural assumptions
- the wide range and compelling variety of extremely romantic dynamics in all of Mac's vitally important platonic relationships, including "we have been grimly battling for years over the bureaucratic administration of this protected land trust and as a result when push comes to shove you're the only person whose motives I trust," "we are star-crossed research partners and I love you but am deeply betrayed by your lack of genuine commitment to salmon migration patterns," and several iterations of "you're a beautiful and fascinating alien and our earnest attempts at cross-cultural communication have accidentally caused me to pledge you an unbreakable and intergalactic-civilization-altering loyalty"
- the deeply effective tragedy of [spoiler]
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream marine research facility
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream mountain vacation cabin
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream interstellar conference facility
- in fact the entire second book is 50% Ylvis' The Cabin (with aliens) followed by another 50% lovingly described interstellar academic conference and this is why it is the best book of the trilogy
- the fact that Mac's plaintive cry of "I study SALMON!" when presented with increasingly wild alien plot developments remains genuinely funny throughout the entire series
(
genarti, who had to spend several days listening to me enthusiastically recapping plot events that she had already heard me enthusiastically recap for the first time seven years ago, may not have been quite so delighted.)I pretty much stand by everything that I said in my post from the first time I read the books, but, because I'm still in a trilogy-hangover point when all I want to do is talk about them ad infinitum, I am nevertheless going to indulge in a brief recap of the best qualities of the books:
- the deeply affectionate enthusiasm for the minutiae of scientific research and politics
- the willingness to dive deep into alien mindsets and imperatives and push at the inevitable misunderstandings that may arise from mistaken cultural assumptions
- the wide range and compelling variety of extremely romantic dynamics in all of Mac's vitally important platonic relationships, including "we have been grimly battling for years over the bureaucratic administration of this protected land trust and as a result when push comes to shove you're the only person whose motives I trust," "we are star-crossed research partners and I love you but am deeply betrayed by your lack of genuine commitment to salmon migration patterns," and several iterations of "you're a beautiful and fascinating alien and our earnest attempts at cross-cultural communication have accidentally caused me to pledge you an unbreakable and intergalactic-civilization-altering loyalty"
- the deeply effective tragedy of [spoiler]
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream marine research facility
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream mountain vacation cabin
- how much time Czerneda spends lovingly describing her dream interstellar conference facility
- in fact the entire second book is 50% Ylvis' The Cabin (with aliens) followed by another 50% lovingly described interstellar academic conference and this is why it is the best book of the trilogy
- the fact that Mac's plaintive cry of "I study SALMON!" when presented with increasingly wild alien plot developments remains genuinely funny throughout the entire series
