(no subject)

[skygiants]

I think it was 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. I'm not talking about the overall meta-twist, which was appropriately foreshadowed and well done, but I am both sad and mad about Brymn's death! Like, on a personal level, sad, because he was a super fun character, but on a story construction level also frustrated, because I feel like a story about stopping a lovable alien species with a biological drive to murdalize everyone else is VASTLY more interesting when one of the people invested in the moral dilemmas involved IS AN ACTUAL MEMBER OF THE SPECIES, instead of it going on to be world-saving humans all the way down.

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...

Comments

[luzula]

This sounds like something I would enjoy! *puts on to-read list*

[skygiants]

It's probably the most enjoyable SF I've read in a while!

[alias_sqbr]

I quite enjoyed the next two books, I hope you do too!

[skygiants]

I fully expect to! :D

OK, I'm curious so I'm going to ask for a mild spoiler -- are there any other major Dhryn characters, post-Brymn?

[alias_sqbr]

None as major as Bymn but some who get moderately fleshed out and give their POV on the whole eating planets thing.

[buymeaclue]

among which perhaps the most emotionally devastating to Mac is the reveal that Dr. Mamani might not actually care all that much about salmon

Oh, noooooooooooooo!

[skygiants]

BETRAYAL IS EVERYWHERE.

[ashen_key]

I believe I may need this book in my life.

[skygiants]

I think you would super enjoy it! EVERYONE IMPORTANT IS COMPETENT MID-CAREER WOMEN SCIENTISTS. Or aliens.

[sovay]

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.

That was one of the best parts about Tremors (1990), a shockingly intelligent monster movie I discovered last fall—one of the protagonists is a geologist, which she goes to great pains to point out gives her absolutely no preternatural insights into the problem of giant earth-swimming tentacle monsters. She's not at all useless, and she does a great job communicating the information she can deduce to the rest of the group, after which everyone has a grounding from which to elaborate some plan or hypothesis (scientific method saves the day!), but there's a great scene in which various characters propose their personal explanations for the origin of the "graboids" and it is a veritable catalogue of bad B-picture premises. And then everyone shrugs and decides it doesn't really matter; the salient point is not getting eaten by the things. So refreshing!

[skygiants]

That sounds ASTOUNDINGLY refreshing. Scientists having to deal with science outside their field! THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Because most authors don't understand how science works.

[opusculasedfera]

\o/ I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I love Mac tremendously, and it's so good for me that even though Emily is all of those spoilery things that made her not interested in salmon, she was actually still a pretty damn good scientist on top of it all because you actually have to be in order to effectively pose as one. Science is too hard to entirely fake! Mac has standards!

Tiny spoiler you might appreciate: there are a ton of different types of aliens in the later books, including more Dhryn, so it becomes a lot less humans-save-the-world than it seems like it's becoming. :)

[skygiants]

Mac is just like, "I SECRETLY KNEW she was probably too skilled and fancy a scientist for salmon. BUT I DREAMED, MAN. I dreamed. ;___;"

Also, I do appreciate that spoiler. :D Thank you! I was gonna really miss our lovable friendly neighborhood Dhryn.

[sanguinity]

Could you answer a question for me, please?

I'm twenty pages in and am feeling deeply weirded out by the utter lack of Native peoples so far, not even in passing reference. Most especially on two counts: they're discussing salmon conservation and the first run, without any mention of the salmon peoples; the incorrect belief that the reference ecosystems for the PNW were somehow human-free instead of human-mediated. Unfortunately, my wierded-outed-ness is intensified by the use of northwest coastal art in the book design. I can strongly see the places that Native people ought to be in this story, but there's no mention of them as either present or absent.

Does the question of where the salmon peoples are (present or absent) ever get addressed in the book, to your memory? I'll have a much easier time going forward if I know what I can expect. Thanks so much!

[skygiants]

I can answer that! Unfortunately, the answer is that to the best of my memory that absence of mention continues to be a very emphatic absence, and one that, to my shame, I totally didn't notice.

[sanguinity]

Thank you. :-)

...and on the very next page we have achieved aliens, so perhaps my brain will have other things to think about now.

[asakiyume]

Aha! I started reading this on vacation (as I said I would), and at 70 percent, I was like: wait a minute: the Dryn (sp? I never pay that much attention) have scoured their haven-world of all life other than themselves and their food? What if **they're** the problem. And now I see here--minor spoilers for me, don't care (tra la!)--that I'm right! I feel vindicated.

I have many, many more arguments with all levels of storytelling in this than you do, starting with not being as big a fan of Mac as you are (and this is a book where it really helps if you're a fan of the main character, I think), but I'm still finding it very engrossing. Arguing with a book as I read is one way I enjoy books (not as much as loving a book, but still: enjoyable). And my arguments come in part from my own assumptions, so it's all very meta: I'm not liking things, but that comes down to my assumptions, and part of the book's point is to be careful about your assumptions--so A+ on that one, Julie Czerneda!

... but the continuity errors... *sigh* It must be a me-problem and not a genuine problem. Well, more anon when I actually finish.