Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "crossover"

(Tandra and daughter Shawne, the varok Orram and the elll Conn are a family committed to their mutual well being, but challenged by differences, needs they didn't forsee. Below is Tandra's point of view.) Launch event: Review Op at http://archivesofvarok.com/articles/w...

I bit my lip hard and took a deep breath. "I am a human being, Conn," I said, hoping to buy time for him to calm down. "You know that better than I do. You and I had our problems at first. My possessiveness crimped your loner style more than any school could. My assumption of dominance drove you wild, but so did my sensuality . . . because your sensuality was too much for me. We humans and ellls evolved, with all other species on our planets, with a hearty dose of reproductive hormones. Varokians did not. The mind link is everythng to Orram; it should be enough for me. Yet I am human, nothing more nor less. I couldn't possibly fill all of Orram's needs, any more than yours. The problem is simple. I can't accept Mahntik as Orram might need me to."

"Funny. I have that same trouble." Conn laughed bitterly. Then he realized I was serious.

To prepare for a reconnoitering hike across L'orkah, Conn found a tough moss in the shallows on the northern edge of the lake. There he fashioned a crude wet-sweater by lacing four-foot lengths of the moss together with tough weed stalks. Then he went hunting.

He dove to the bottom of the lake and swam in wide circles until his tiles picked up the pressure pattern of large, barbed petals scanning the water for passing fish. Slowly, he zeroed in on the voracious plant. It looked like a giant rose in full bloom, but its outer petals beckoned dangerously, ready to snap closed sensitive edges and hold fast anything that ventured too near.

For bait, Conn caught a fish hiding in the mud. He dispatched it with a bite, then, holding it by the tail, swam just out of reach of the carnivore, brushing the fish over its petals. When the petals snapped closed on the fish, Conn threw himself under the great rose and uprooted it. Too late its petals felt their new danger and reached backward to entrap the elll. A few barbs struck at the back of his arms, but he quickly found the stem of its food bladder and pulled the organ from the dying plant intact.

He cleaned the tough sack with the shell of a sand slug and fashioned its stem into a shoulder strap. Then he filled it with fresh lake water, and laced it shut with reeds. One of the largest petals of the plant made a workable pack, which he filled with edible weeds and fish.

Ready at last, he rose to the surface of the lake wearing his newly woven wet-sweater. The burden of food and water he slung over his shoulders. Nothing stirred on the western edge of the lake. He let himself drift slowly along the bottom until he reached the shore. Then he stood quickly and ran for the nearest clump of nitro-bush.

"Ae-yulll." He stifled a cry of pain as his third toe-web came down on a small rock. "How could I be so stupid?"

He walked back to the lake, much more carefully this time, and scrambled along the shore weeds. Within minutes he resurfaced, shod with tough moss sandals.The Webs of Varok

(Newly arrived on Varok, the human Tandra meets a varok who does not play by the rules of common decency.)

Like the slicing of cold steel, I felt the invasion of Mahntik's probe into my thought. I fought to keep my mind blank, but her attention leapt from image to image like an electric shock, dredging up related thoughts and flashes of memory as it went along, quickly giving Mahntik a clearer vision of our suspicions.

Back off, I demanded in thought. She did. Then she pressed deeper, beyond my natural shields. She tore at the core of my emotions, until it took great effort to protect sensitive roots. Gradually, one by one, my poorly developed human defenses fell—the anger at being badly treated on Earth, the frustration that no one would listen, then the guilt at leaving Earth's crises behind for a better life. And Orram. Fear of being too dependent on him. All was raw and exposed.

Here's the link to a review by Douglas Cobb, including an overview of the entire series THE ARCHIVES OF VAROK. WEBS is the second in the series, which is setup in A PLACE BEYOND MAN.
http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2012/1... A Place Beyond Man: The Archives of Varok

Penscript Publishing House is offering a drawing for ten free copies of A Place Beyond Man, the prequel to THE WEBS OF VAROK,now available in trade paperback, hardback, Kindle and Nook Editions. http://archivesofvarok.com/articles/n...

Neither dystopia or utopia, THE WEBS... is a realistic scifi crossover novel set in an alternate 21st century solar system, where the nearby aliens are too interesting and too nosy to ignore.

"Who knew sustainable economics could be so much fun? Served up with large helpings of adventure and novel romance, the post-growth society of Neeper’s complex but completely imagined world on a hidden moon of Jupiter is the setting for a page-turning struggle between the eternal themes of personal accumulation vs. the common good. . . ."

—Kathy Campbell, past president, League of Women Voters New Mexico

"Cary Neeper deftly weaves the various points of view she writes about into a page-turning novel that will keep you interested and wanting to read more from the start to the finish. With her in-depth descriptions of the moon, she displays incredible world-building skills and makes Varok seem like it could be a real place with a myriad of life forms.

The Webs of Varok is a spellbinding read and a great addition to Neeper’s series, The Archives of Varok. . . ."

—Douglas Cobb, author and book blogger, Book Spot Central. Here's the link to his comprehensive review:
http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2012/1...

I just received notice from reviewer Frank Kaminski that he has reviewed both books of The Archives of Varok, including wonderful synopses I wish I could have written as well. It has appeared in three online sites.
Here are are few excerpts:
"...it is an involving, well-plotted story that does justice to both the hard science underpinning its interplanetary settings and the long evolutionary perspectives typical of the old scientific romances.
"...what a worthy revival it is, in both its continued timeliness and its intelligent, believable rendering of alien values and cultures.
"Its sequel, The Webs of Varok, was a long time in coming, but it's finally here waiting to be discovered by a new generation. ...the 38-year lapse between offerings has not dimmed Neeper’s storytelling ability nor dampened her ambition: the new novel is every bit as well made, poignant and entertaining as its predecessor.
"Three more Archives of Varok novels are in the works and are set to be released between now and the end of 2014. I look forward to seeing what additional insights their alien worlds have to contribute to the growing debate about our species’ predicament."
Here are the links: Reviews at variantperception.com and
http://www.resilience.org/stories/201...