Species Imperative #3 Regeneration [Mass Market Paperback]

Regeneration (2006) is the third SF novel in the Species Imperative series, following Migration. In the previous volume, Mackenzie Conner convinced the Sinzi consul to stop broadcasting to the Myrokynay and the oncoming Dhryn ships also stopped. Nikolai Trojanowski and Vessel traveled back to the Progenitor with news of Ro treachery. Mac stayed behind with the gravely injured Emily Mamani Sariento, but received treatments for her alexia while keeping Emily company.

In this novel, Mac decides that Emily needs to be among familiar people doing familiar activities. She gets permission from Anchen to take Emily back to Base. With Mac and Emily leaving, Anchen also allows the Origins Team to return to the Dhryn's original homeworld (now named Myriam for the victim of Brymn's feeder form).

While trekking through the recovering Castle Inlet Preserve, Emily suddenly remembers that the Ro had hidden something in the sea nearby. Mac immediately relays this information to the Ministry and soon materiel and personnel are moving into the area. As Mac leaves to rejoin the Origins Team in orbit, Emily is quite busy rebuilding her DNA Scanner to help track down the Myrokynay facility.

Mac has a side trip on the way to orbit; the lev leaves Mudge, Sam and herself in Dawson City. That night, Mac has a surprise visit from Hollans -- Nik's boss in the Ministry -- who has arranged this layover to get some advice. She also learns that there are abandoned Dhryn ships in the Myriam system and that her team will be transferred to Myriam on the Annapolis Joy, a glorified customs cutter with massive offensive weapons.

On the way to the Naralax Transect, a Sinzi courier dart comes aboard the Joy. Mac and the Joy's Captain find that they now have two Sinzi-ra onboard, one for the Myriam system and the other to open a consulate on the Annapolis Joy itself. The Joy's Captain keeps turning over more of the ship to the Interspecies Union.

The Joy also has another passenger, Sigmund Eduardo Norris, for whom Mac develops an instant dislike. Yet Norris has an interesting exploration vehicle that seems to be invisible from the inside. He takes Mac out on a short hop to one of the abandoned Dhryn ships and sneaks them aboard. Searching the ship for clues, Mac notices an invisible Ro walker -- it has a distinctive sound -- and yells for Norris to flee. She hides under a cargo pallet and discovers that she is not alone. A Dhryn Wasted is also hiding under the cargo.

Mac listens for the walker and, after hearing nothing unusual, takes the Wasted with her back to the lander. She finds Norris's body near the lander ramp and the walker lurking close by. The Wasted spits on the walker with his acidic sputum and kills it. After contacting her escort vessel, Mac manages to get the walker body on the lander and the Dhryn ejects the lander from the ship.

In this story, Mac learns much more about the Ro and the Dhryn, discovers that Cayhill has his good points, and rejoins the Dhryn Progenitor whom she had last met on Haven. The IU seems to be breaking up because of suspicion of the Sinzi actions, but the Sinzi come to the support of the Dhryn and herself. The Myrokynay finally demonstrate their malevolence to even the idiot faction within the IU.

This story concludes with a very convincing ending to a highly realistic problem. The xenophobic Myrokynay consistantly underestimate their competition and pay for their blindness. They just can't believe that any species has as much, or more, intelligence as themselves. And they ignore the advantages of greater numbers over slightly advanced technology. Reminds me of certain humans, although greatly exaggerated.

Highly recommended for Czerneda fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of scientific discovery, high adventure and romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

REGENERATION satisfyingly concludes the Julie Czerneda sci-fi trilogy, SPECIES IMPERATIVE, centering on a salmon-cycle researcher who gets drafted into off-world intrigue with several memorable species, including two murderous ones: the migrating and world-devouring Dhryn and the more terrifying no-space Ro.

The books in this series, SURVIVAL, MIGRATION, and now REGENERATION, were the first Czerneda novels I'd read, and I must say that the author's writing style requires some acclimation. Although the narrative reveals many complexities -- such as an amazing array of aliens with exceedingly distinct biologies and natures, as well as intricately developed plotline -- one has to strain to translate what is on the page into a flowing "mental movie." The characters speak in shorthand a lot. And descriptions of critical events can be ambiguous or vague. Reading these books is somewhat akin to arriving at a bridge across a chasm made of wooden slats where random planks are infirm or missing and one has to uncertainly tiptoe over certain sections and jump across others. The books also take their own sweet time in many a scene -- i.e., the languid reconnection between heroine biologist Mac and her wayward (but also heroine) friend, Emily, in REGENERATION's opening chapters -- and that can lead to reader impatience.

However, the strangeness in the prose also companionably enriches the trilogy's theme of a human scientific woman's unasked-for immersion in extraterrestrial species' evolution, competition, and, yes, maturation cycles. Mac's struggle to stay on her bridge over the chasm (so to speak) -- or perhaps one should use the analogy "keep her head above water" since she administers the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility -- when she must deal with various races of the galactic Interspecies Union is keenly transmitted to the reader. So is her scholarly social awkwardness with her own kind, and her slowly blossoming romance with the mostly-absent cosmic spy, Nik. It takes reader investment to fully appreciate these SPECIES IMPERATIVE books (just as it does to know and imbibe a fine wine), but all three volumes are worth the effort.

REGENERATION brings the perilous and yet, often comedic, mission of Dr. Mackensie Connor and her earthly and unearthly friends (Oversight and Fourteen are among my favorite friends; they are each gratingly adorable in their own inimitable ways) to a nail-biting finale and a resolution that a salmon-cycle researcher would find befitting. This isn't a stand-alone though. Read the trilogy in order. If you are starting now, you won't have to wait on pins and needles for release of the next installment like I did.

Julie Czerneda is a very talented writer of science fiction and certainly she is destined to be one of the greats after her current trilogy "Species Imperative." The third in the saga, "Regeneration" spins the tale of Dr. Mackenzie Connor, an earth biologist who specializes in salmon life cycles, to an exciting and very satisfying conclusion.

The civilizations of the universe are threatened by the total destruction brought on by the migrating Dhryn, a very complex species of highly intelligent but driven aliens who are literally eating every living being in sight through their "feeder" form. These provide sustenance for the huge progenitors as they travel to new worlds, but no one knows why they transform from apparently gentle creatures to this monstrous life-destroying stage. Mac (as she is known) has been dragged away from her comfortable studies on the salmon to solve this mystery and help save the universe. Her associates include Emily, a South American biologist and close friend who has just returned from being a tool of the possibly helpful (or possibly evil) Myrokynay (the Ro), who live in no space. Other important humans include "Oversight", the crusty representative of the conservation organization overseeing the salmon research, and Nicholas Trojanowski (a spy and Mac's love interest). Add numerous complex aliens, such as the Mygs, the Sinzi, the Trisulians, the bear-like Gromnoii and others, and you have a classic scifi story of biological entities that will warm the heart of any hardened scifi fan.

A great series from a great author! If you like solid scifi, you should love this book, especially if you are into weird biology! But then Earth organisms have at least as weird life cycles as the Dhryn, if on a smaller scale. Czerneda's background in biology serves her well here!

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