- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Roc (MM) (July 23 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0451456971
- ISBN-13: 978-0451456977
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,443,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Ingram
At the Aya School, human children learn alien culture in a completely restricted environment to enable them to compete in the politics and economy of an alien-influenced Earth. The finest student of the school is a member of the Fine Hunt circuit, an outgrowth of traditional horse racing. As one of the up-and-coming "riders", the student is lured into the seedier world of the Claw Hunt, and discovers what the Aya aliens have really been teaching!.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
I guess I like things a little more direct....,
By
This review is from: Fine Prey (Paperback)
I won't include anything about the plot because you can read that in other reviews. My problems with the book are that too many things that are central to the story are only hinted at. The creatures used for the fine hunt, for example, are never described - you only get a vague sense of what they look like. The same goes for the Aya themselves - there's never a complete physical description of them. Maybe it's just that I like a little more directness in a book, but I found that there was a lot lacking in this story related to these shortcomings.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent and thought provoking Sci-fi.,
This review is from: Fine Prey (Paperback)
This is a sci-fi book that explores the effect of language on species differentiation. Set in the formalised world of the fine hunt where "hunters" use a knowledge of alien language to guide genetically engineered "mounts" in a blood hunt for equally engineered "prey" the plot traces the coming of age of Spider, a young Ayan language student, and the question is will she become a human, an ayan sycophant, or something else entirely?The aliens are dragon like beings, who exude chemical which are toxic to humans. Students have to wear special suits to protect them from the aliens. The Ayan language is peripheral and non-direct, making mastery of it elusive to straight talking humans. The story is set against the backdrop of a world divided between the haves and the have nots, those who have embraced the technology of the aliens and those who avoid it. And the symbol of Ayan technology is the Fine Hunt. This is a well written and very intelligent book which sets a good xenophobic theme in a Sci-fi context with a wealth of futuristic technological themes running through it. Fine Prey is an example of Fine Sci-fi!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deceptive depth,
By Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fine Prey (Paperback)
Halfway through reading Fine Prey, I started wondering: when do we get to, you know, the *plot*? It seemed like I was reading layer upon layer of introductory material, exposition - and as it's a relatively slim book, I could not figure out when Fine Prey would get around to the action. In fact, the exposition is the action. Fine Prey is a fascinating novel - a science-fiction/linguistics thriller, if there is such a thing. If not, Scott Westerfeld has invented it. Although the missing plot elements, like conflict, mean the novel is a bit slow in places, each chapter is driving the main character, Spider, towards the linguistic resolution. Just as interesting as the central premise is the world in which Spider lives. In Fine Prey, Earth is a colony world; we've been taken - bloodlessly, I would imagine - by the remote, peculiar, and mostly benevolent Aya. They've given us technologies that utterly exceed our meager abilities, and we've succumbed to their patronage. In most SF novels, that would be the source of the plot, the conflict - in this one, it's the merest background. More a part of Spider's life is the mechanics of the Hunt, a popular game born out of Earth's old equine sports and the Aya's new technologies. Though the detailed descriptions of individual hunts are a bit gruesome, there aren't many of them, and the rest of the Hunt world is fairly interesting. Overall, Fine Prey, which seems so light and insubstantial for most of the reading, is an involving book with a gripping premise and an unusual and well-described world. I think most SF fans would be glad to read this book.
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