Author: Julie E. Czerneda
First time published: May 2006, Daw
SPECIES IMPERATIVE #3
Synopsis
With the alien Dhryn helplessly following an instinct-driven migratory path through the inhabited spaceways-bringing about the annihilation of other races that lie along the star trail they are following-time is running out for all sentient life forms. Only Dr. Mackenzie Connor and her team stand any chance of solving the deadly puzzle of the Dhryn and the equally mysterious Ro. Are the Ro the universe's last hope of halting the deadly Dhryn migration? Or are they something far more sinister? As the only human accepted by the Dhryn as one of their own, Mac perhaps can intervene and open a line of communication to the Dhryn. And her friend and fellow researcher, Dr. Emily Mamani, may prove key to the process, for she is the only human who has survived possession by the Ro. Can these two biologists solve the riddle of the Dhryn and the Ro before their part of the galaxy becomes as dead as the region known as the Chasm?
Reviews of this book
By Torbjørn Pettersen
from Stavagner, Norway
Date: 01.05.2006
You can’t help feeling sorry for Dr. Mackenzie Connors, Mac for short, the salmon researcher who in the first two SPECIES IMPERATIVE books found that she had been picked to save the universe. Torn out from her safe haven, she was packed and shipped (literary) into space. She befriended the Dhryn, who turned out to be the evil that threatened to lay known space waste. Then discovered that the Dhryn was a tool, a tool in the hands of the Ro, the real enemy, and the species who had taken her best friend with them, altering her to something Mac almost didn’t recognize.
Now the time has come to end it all. The only question; what will end, the universe or the Ro. And what happened to the Dhryn? Will they be back, with a vengeance? Or are they so reduced that they’ll never be able to be back at all? There are so many questions, and so few answers. Without the answers the universe is at risk from the Ro. A risk no one can ignore, but a risk some are willing to take to gain their own goals. Then a discovery is made, and Mac is once again sent whirling into a maelstrom of events, some that might prove to be fatale, both for Mac and everyone else.
Mac and a group of scientist from the IU are sent investigate Myriam, and the frightening objects discovered there. And guess what. All Hell brakes loose. And this is not Hell in a handbasket, this is bigger, way bigger, more like Hell in a huge huge crate.
As with many of other Czerneda books I felt this one was a bit slow in the beginning, but they soon change pace. And then just accelerates like missiles, missiles that tend to explode on unexpected places throughout her books. You can never, or at least I can’t, predict what will happen in a Czerneda book, and this one is no different from the rest.
There were twists and turns that left me breathless, laughing and almost looking under my bed. No one writes aliens as Czerneda, she writes them as we would like them to actually be when we finally do make first contact (OK, we don’t want to meet all of them) and like the aliens themselves would dream to be. Czerneda is the Queen of Aliens.
Romance, mystery, science fiction, humor… it’s all in here, and knitted together to make a book to be placed on top of your “To Read Pile”. A top shelf pick, recommended read for all fans of good literature.
