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Jul. 18th, 2022 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I 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.
(
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
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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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
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Date: 2022-07-19 03:10 am (UTC)Except the love interest, who was cardboard. And even he was more interesting in his short-lived bureaucrat disguise before he revealed himself to be Love Interest TM.no subject
Date: 2022-07-19 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-07-24 02:29 pm (UTC)Same!
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Date: 2022-07-19 07:14 am (UTC)Also, thank you for Ylvis' 'The Cabin'. I hadn't seen it before, and it's incredible. (I had captions turned on, and they turned out to be in Italian, which definitely added an extra shape and dimension.)
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Date: 2022-07-19 11:31 pm (UTC)(
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Date: 2022-07-19 11:33 pm (UTC)Recently I've had to come face to face with the hard truth that Charles Mudge III might be one of my top ten all-time favorite characters, which says many things about me, not all of them good.
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Date: 2022-07-20 04:13 am (UTC)One day I aspire to creating a frenemy-ship as hilarious AND beautiful as Mac and Charles! Honestly I feel Nic would have been more fun if he just hadn't been shoehorned into being a Love Interest, Czernda is so good at writing interesting friendships? Stick with that?!?!
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Date: 2022-07-31 11:45 pm (UTC)I love Species Imperative! :D It's great! I should reread it again at some point! I own the first two books in paperback (and thought I owned all three, but apparently when I got the m from a used bookstore ages ago they only had the first two! alas.), and am saddened to hear you could only find them in omnibus form; I love the covers for the paperbacks.
I don't think I ever read her other books successfully, though I know I tried, because I really loved Species Imperative and expected to like her other books but they didn't quite click the right way for me somehow. xD If you do read more of her work, I'd be curious what you think!
(also +1 to the above comment about Inda, which I read in its entirety while recovering from top surgery, which was an absolutely fantastic way to spend days of enforced "no really you gotta chill". I keep thinking about rereading it, too, whenever it comes to mind...)