Turning Point (Mass Market Paperback)

Carrie Hamilton is a resident of a colony world in its first stages which has recently been conquered by the alien Valtegans. She is also a psychic with a powerful link to her twin sister; but the psi skills make her seem bizarre in the conservative farming community she lives in.

After her sister dies, she forms a new link. She soon discovers that her new connection is also a first contact with a non-human, Kusac, a trained psychic of the feline Sholan species, which also has had colonies overrun by the Valtegans.

The resulting story is filled with familiar elements: dangerous treks, mutually suspicious allies, and a dramatic mission into the planet's main Valtegan base. The story does explore a theme which is relatively rare in written SF, the problems of interspecies sexuality.

The greatest weakness of the book is the villains, undeveloped and uninteresting. The Valtegans are mysterious nasties about which we learn almost nothing; presumably this is remedied in the sequels. The other villain, a xenophobic Sholan, is equally bland and not especially formidable.

THe weaknesses are significant, but the main test of a series starter like this is whether it draws me in enough to be interested in the subsequent volumes. I do want to read more about Carrie and the Sholans, so the book gets a good, if not exceptional, rating.

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That having been said, beware! This series seems to be interminable, having already run to six more fairly thick novels (at least 600 pages), with more in the works. This is a saga of titanic political and religious forces and their impact on a small cast of characters who play a starring role in forming the history of billions.

Turning Point is by far the shortest entry, but consequently is a very quick and fun read. It introduces Carrie, a young Human woman on Keiss, an Earth colony planet newly overrun by Valtegans, lizardlike alien oppressors. She forms a telepathic bond with Kusac, a Sholan male who crashlands on the colony while seeking out the Valtegans, who have destroyed two of his species' planets. The delicate relationship between Carrie and Kusac is handled with imagination for the real species differences and miscommunications; the characters are not static figures. Because this short entry ends leaving you wanting more, I recommend having the next volume, "Fortune's Wheel," close to hand.

I have tremendously enjoy these books. Enjoy!

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I really wanted to like this book, but by the end I was left thinking, "That's it?" The story is a Romance with SF trappings, similar to the _Stardoc_ series by S.L. Veil. Another reviewer mentioned the _Rowan_ books by Anne McCaffrey, which I would also recommend, along with _Psion_ or the other Cat books from Joan D. Vinge (one of my favorite writers).

What bothered me most was the odd development of the relationship between the lovers. It develops from almost nothing into full bloom close to the end of the book. There is some kind of half-hearted attempt to "explain" this as an effect of their telepathic link, but it reads like she's trying to head off the reader's question of, "Where the heck did this come from?"

There are some interesting traits that never seem fully developed in the characters. The main character's codependency and hate/fear of the conquering aliens is never fully explored, being mentioned several times, but not shown and developed. Her furry lover's character was basically a cipher aside from showing protectiveness toward her and a reluctance to use violence except to protect her. Too much of the writing is surface, not enough character building or basis for motivation. I would love to see some development of these characters since they seem to have some potential.

I would also have liked some exploration of the culture of both the invading aliens and the catlike potential ally race. We are shown next to nothing of their cultures and so we have nothing to go on in explaining their actions. For instance, what would a reptilian species find attractive in a mammalian species? Why would they ever want to have sex with hairy, sweaty, stinky monkeys that have awkward fat deposits under their repulsively soft doughy skin? I also have some questions about the human culture, like: Why spend precious resources and time--as well as space on the colony ship--on tobacco? Even if it's been modified to do nothing harmful (the author does not mention such a modification) there are a ton of other plants that would be a lot more useful to bring with you. If you want dual-use pleasure/practical plants, coca, cannibis, and opium are less addictive, have far fewer debilitating side effects, and can be used for healing, unlike tobacco which is useful only for causing addiction and cancer.

In this book, it seems like "one damn thing after another" with the action, consequences, and development coming late or not at all. Most of the first half of the book needed to be either completely developed and integrated into the larger story, or just cut. I may try the second in the series sometime, but unless it was done better than this one, I may never finish it.

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