- Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: DAW; Reprint edition (Oct 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0886778182
- ISBN-13: 978-0886778187
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.7 x 3.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #156,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Julie E. Czerneda is going to make it into the awards nominations very soon, if her first two books are any indication. Her first novel, A Thousand Words for Stranger, was called "thoroughly entertaining" in Locus. Czerneda's second book, Beholder's Eye, is even better.
Esen-Alit-Quar is the youngest of her Web, a "family" of extremely long-lived shapeshifters. Web-beings live in the diverse cultures and forms of intelligent life to learn and preserve their accomplishments. On her first assignment Es rescues a human, Paul Ragem, from the culture she's studying. But he and some on his first contact ship learn about her shapechanging. This could be fatal for Esen's Web, as an Enemy has appeared, seeking to destroy them and consuming all intelligence in its path. Es must elude pursuit by humans, who believe she is the Enemy, warn her Web members, and defeat this danger. Paul Ragem offers help, but asks Es to trust him with knowledge of her kind. He could lose his friends, his career, and his life, or he could betray Es to his human colleagues out of fear.
The characters, races and cultures are marvelously distinctive and well drawn, the action swift, and the conclusion satisfying. If you've enjoyed Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books, give Beholder's Eye a once-over. --Nona Vero
Book Description
They are the last survivors of their race, beings who live on and communicate through energy, who are capable of assuming the shape of any other species. When their youngest member is assigned to a world considered safe to explore, she is captured by the natives. To escape, she must violate the most important rule of her kind, and reveal the existence of her species to a fellow prisoner--a human being. Now her race is in danger of extinction, for even if the human does not betray her, the Enemy who has long searched for her people may finally discover their location....
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
great!,
By
This review is from: Web Shifters #1 Beholders Eye (Mass Market Paperback)
I loved this book, as well as the whole series. It's very interesting, and the plot and characters are great.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent start to new series,
By
This review is from: Web Shifters #1 Beholders Eye (Mass Market Paperback)
"Beholder's Eye" is one fantastic novel.Esen is an alien shapeshifter with a twist; her race shares memories quite literally, by eating of themselves. It's rather disgusting to contemplate, but that's what they do -- and they're used to it. Thing is, Esen wasn't expected. The rest of her race happened by fission; she happened through sexual experimentation with a different race, which might be why she's different than the others. Although all are female, she's younger, more nervous, more innocent, and much more childlike overall. During her first "assignment" elsewhere to pick up new information for her people (all six of them), Esen finds a human man in trouble. She liberates him, and gets him away; this causes immediate problems for him, but also opens up a world of possibilities. While they're getting to know each other in a sort of father-daughter way (she's much too young for him), a big, bad version of something similar to her own race happens by. They're doing bad things, for bad reasons; her own people aren't pleased. The rest of the novel basically shows what Esen and Paul try to do to keep the situation from escalating any further, while continuing to deepen their relationship. Very strong start to a new series. Highly recommended.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Beholder's Eye,
By A Customer
This review is from: Web Shifters #1 Beholders Eye (Mass Market Paperback)
I got only through the first 50 pages of this before giving up. Though the idea of shapechangers is interesting, I found the sentence-level writing plodding and the character not alien enough for what she's supposed to be--the disgusting bits at the beginning notwithstanding. Her psychology seems human, and that doesn't work for me in this context.The plot didn't draw me in either. However, it's only fair to point out that other readers enjoyed the book.
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