The Great Succession Crisis

Peers of Beinan #1

by Laurel A. Rockefeller

Power play!

The future of planet Beinan hangs in the balance. After the Great Council upholds the law limiting female inheritance, young Princess Anlei must navigate the dangerous adult world of gender politics to become the person she was born to be.

Extended Edition features two bonus chapters, all five data files, plus a look behind the history and science that makes the Great Succession Crisis so special.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Passionate about animals, history, and STEM literacy.

Born, raised, and educated in Lincoln, Nebraska USA Laurel A. Rockefeller’s passion for animals comes through in everything she writes. First self-published in 2012 as social science fiction author (the Peers of Beinan series), Laurel has expanded her work into the animal care/guide, history, historical fiction, and biography genres.

Find Laurel’s books in digital, paperback, and hardcover in your choice of up to ten languages, including Welsh, Chinese, and Dutch. Audio editions are published in all four available languages for audible: English, French, Spanish, and German.

Besides advocating for animals and related environmental causes, Laurel A. Rockefeller is a passionate educator dedicated to improving history literacy worldwide, especially as it relates to women’s accomplishments. In her spare time, Laurel enjoys spending time with her cockatiels, travelling to historic places, and watching classic motion pictures and classic television series.

Reviews

[Kristeen Shuga · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I wasn't sure what to think of this book. I had so many emotions through it that I finally decided that I loved it. I feel like Princess Anlei (the main character of the book) could have been stronger in a sense that the world is on her shoulders. I loved the fact that she (the author) had made up her own world, in which had it's own time, weight, and history. It slowed me down a bit to having to go back and forth from the glossary in order to figure out what I was reading, but otherwise, it was a fantastic read.

I can't wait for the second book to see where the story will be heading. Great job Laurel! <3

[Jason Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of The Great Succession Crisis by Laurel A. Rockefeller : 3.75/5
I was provided a free copy of this novel in exchange for a review. As always, the following reflects my true opinion of the work.

I rate this book 3.75/5 stars. Here is my breakdown:

Characters: 4.5/5. This is a real strength in this novel. Rockefeller created an intriguing world populated by interesting people. The motivations for the characters are realistic and solid, and the cultures in which they thrive are fascinating to read about. With the right mix of sci-fi and high fantasy, I cared about these people from beginning to end. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Corann and Anlei.

Plot/Storyline: 3.5/5. Okay, I'll be honest (of course); in a novel entitled "The Great Succession Crisis," I thought there would be more focus on the Great Succession Crisis. <.< >.>. The problem is mentioned in the beginning and is the backdrop for why Anlei needs to find a suitor, but it is resolved very quickly at the end of the novel. I loved the story (although it felt like it ended a bit quickly), but, at the end, I was left feeling like I must have missed something about what I thought was the main focus of the story.

Flow: 3.5/5. The story read well and smoothly, for the most part. Aside from a few grammar/spelling issues (addressed below), my main issue with the flow of the story is that the characters have a tendency to...pontificate? Is that the right word? They expound a lot, and the other character will just sit still for the five or so minutes it must have taken the first to say what he/she was saying. Corann was especially guilty of this :)

Spelling/Grammar: 3.5/5. There weren't that many spelling/grammar issues, although there were enough for me to notice. Another proofread of sentence structure might be a good idea, just to make sure that the issues are taken care of.

Overall: 3.75/5. This book is enjoyable, a solid read, and certainly worth picking up. I think that the author has a great imagination and has created a deep, realistic world. The few technical problems I had were not enough to steal my joy in reading this book. Keep refining your talent, and you will do very well!

Original review on http://curtainofreality.blogspot.com/

[Susan Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book as a gift from the Author. It did not influence my review.

I enjoyed this book, even though it is not my usual genre. The story takes place on the planet Beinan, and involves the ruling Gurun dynasty. The daughter of the queen is unable to succeed the throne, and the Gurun dynasty may be at an end.

The telling of Princess Anlei and Lord Corann was wonderful. I enjoyed reading about their courtship and love.

The only note I found jarring were the use of strange words for hours, days, and measurements. For me, it slowed the flow of reading and interrupted my pleasure of the story. I understand the story was on a different planet than ours, but it was like a little speed bump each time.

I recommend the book, and can't wait to read the second in the series.

[Athena Nagel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Succession Crisis was very entertaining. It captured my full attention due to its multiple genres it covered - romance, mystery, politics, hope etc...Everyone can certainly find something to enjoy about this book. At the end of the book you can find translations and definitions for all the weights and measures etc...It is the sci-fi weights and measures that really slowed down my reading and staying focused on this story. I don't have a suggestion as to how the author could have proceeded differently but I felt that all those new concepts made this story not such a casual read. It is for that reason only that I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

I received this book directly from the author. All opinions, good or bad, are my own.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Great Succession Crisis I was overjoyed to be tremendously entertained by the compelling characters and magnificently created world. This book had a little bit of everything in it from political drama to mystery to romance. There were a few parts that slowed down the storyline a little but it did not distract from the plot and characters overall.

I also received a companion of sorts to the book as a separate ebook that includes an interesting glossary that was quite helpful.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the extended edition of the book more than the original edition. The additional details added really helped to flesh out the story.

[Squire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Poor Princess Anlei. As the oldest child of Queen Isabelle, she is the Crown Princess of Beinan--except for the fact that an ancient law governing the society states that no woman may pass the crown to her daughter. Her younger brother Anwell doesn't want the crown, so a power struggle between the Great Houses of Beinan begins with Anlei as the pawn.

Okay. A story line that has been done before, but still intriguing.

The characters are all archetypes with very little interesting about them, but the story is okay.

Bouts with exotic weapons and declarations of chivalric devotion that mask deeper feelings--the kind of stuff I went in for when I was about 10, but okay.



My first serious wtf moment in the book (on page 2), but that's okay, there's always a period of acclimation to a new jargon in a sci-fi/fantasy book, so I looked it up in the datafiles the author provided and moved on. But it became oppressive when every character was XX.123456789 cun tall (followed by a parenthetical notation of the symbol for cun--Chinese in origin). More was to follow. Units of time and length are all given in the Beinan language, but explanations are provided in the handy datafiles.

Sometimes, my fingers just couldn't find the right datafile to look up a term, so I just googled it. It worked for "cun" so why not the others? Of course my spelling was off and "beinor" became "benoir." Look THAT one up in the urban dictionary!



But enough of all this. I found The Great Succession Crisis: Extended Edition a fairly interesting read, but the story was very sparse, keeping to the main storyline with no fleshing out of subplots which is too bad, because the author has created a potentially gorgeous world in Beinan. Her characters are straight out of a virginal wet dream and some snatches of dialog had me

,

but a there was heart behind the writing, and that can make all the difference sometimes.

Finally, the datafiles included in this volume shed some light on the incredible breadth of the author's world building. She credits Tolkien with teaching her to flesh all the details out before beginning because it makes the writing a lot easier. Fair enough, but I would have liked to have some of these details related in the story itself to give it some scope rather than just get it in a textbook-like package in the appendices/datafiles.

In the end, the book is written for a younger reader than myself, but a younger version of myself wouldn't have been satisfied with the story and wouldn't have wanted to read the datafiles, so I'm left with a feeling of averageness for this work. It would have helped if the author were as in love with the reader's experience as she is with her own writing.

I'm afraid this is where I'll leave Princess Anlei and Lord Prince Corann. Though I did like the character of Lord Prince Bevin. Pity.

[Kyra Halland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kyra's star ratings:
Characters: ****
Story: ***
Writing mechanics: **
Worldbuilding: *****

(I received a free copy of this book for the purpose of giving an honest review.)

The Great Succession Crisis is a science fiction/science fantasy dealing with the question of female inheritance of the throne on the planet Beinan. The most notable thing about the novel is the extensive, deeply-layered, detailed worldbuilding. The author has put a great amount of thought and work into developing Beinan: physics, history, politics, social mores, technology, food, religion, weaponry, fashion, down to measurements of time and distance.

For my own personal preferences, I would have liked to get to know the characters on a more personal level before diving into the history and politics. But once the basic situation was set up (the daughter of a female ruler cannot inherit, and Queen Isabelle's only son is unwilling to take the throne, leaving Princess Anlei the only - illegal - heir) and the story-telling turned to the characters, I found myself engaged by the romance between Caronn and Anlei and the threats to their happiness and their world's well-being.

Some stylistic quirks in the writing kept me from being able to fully immerse myself in the story. The author uses a lot of different words in place of "said" in dialogue attribution. I found this distracting, especially when the word being used is not a functional synonym for "said." The novel is also dialogue-heavy, and both dialogue and narrative contained more detail than I was able to absorb.

There's an interesting framing device, setting the story as "data transmission files" sent by someone from Beinan who crash-landed on a planet referred to as D425E25 Tertius. I'm curious to know more about this storyline.

The author classifies The Great Succession Crisis as science fiction, but me being a fantasy nut, I consider it science fantasy because of some quasi-magical foretelling and empathic abilities that some of the characters display.

The extended edition comes with numerous appendices laying out Ms. Rockefeller's truly breathtaking worldbuilding, along with a couple of related short stories, some of her non-fiction essays, and a recipe for Beinan-style fruit pastries.

Overall, The Great Succession Crisis is an interesting story with characters I came to care about in a richy-developed world. Rated a solid 3 stars, meaning I liked it. (A note on star ratings: I'm pretty tough with the star ratings - even most of my most favorite books ever get 4 stars. 5 star ratings get saved for the few books that truly rock my world. So 3 stars from me is pretty good.)

[Soma Rostam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am having a very hard time to express my feelings for this book. Since they are so confusing, I appreciated some parts, but didn't know the point of some other parts. So bear with me (as long as you can...)
I am not doing a summery of this, since all the plot is about one little twist, and if I, voluntary or involuntary, write that twist down, it will ruin the whole experience of reading the book. I appreciate the uniqueness of this book. It is pretty obvious, that one of the things Laurel Rockefeller is very good at, is the world-building. The world is not the Earth we know, it has many similarities but many differences, too. Loved the fact that the author took careful note of every little detail in the book, even the way the years are measured, the way length and weight are measured, the religions on the planet, and many other aspects. This part of the book was perfect.
What I had a little problem with is the characters. Okay, so Anlei, our main character is not much of a smart-ass. She is just a typical princess, but her humbleness and kindness blew the love interest away. Corann is definitely the all-too-typical, still-swoon-worthy male lead whose love confessions will leave you gaping. Unfortunately the other characters were not developed very much and i felt like they were lacking "character" or "charisma".
The pace was a little rushed sometimes, but otherwise, it fit the story. The ending wrapped things up well, but left some room for future material, too. This book was not what I expected. On some bases, it was good and on some other bases, not so good. But I don't regret reading this, and I might give the second book in the series a try.

[Haniya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review Link: http://booknauthors.blogspot.com/2016...

There were loads of 5 and 4 stars rantings of this book on Goodreads... It seemed like every person was loving it  and I thought I'd love it too. So i started it, totally excited. I only knew that like the series novellas, it will be sci-fi too. Considering, how I liked The Poisoned Ground, I was totally excited.

After finishing 50% of the book I was like 'duh'... I should have stopped earlier because there was nothing interesting.... It's about Princess Anlei's royal life. She is in love with a knight, and the whole story was just focused on them too. Then there were some extra erotica scenes... The whole story was VERY confusing and boring! Princess Anlei was a nice character. I don't like books that doesn't have the quality of making the reader indulged.
I liked the fact that the story was quite unique. Although there were many confusing parts, still we don't get to read stories like these. Princess Anlei has to finsh The Great Succession Crisis by giving birth so that their future can be protected!? See I totally didn't found it interesting. The story is set in future and totally unique. Only I was interested about the Knight's relationship with Anlei. The two were perfect. But still Anlei was confused if she loved him. Seriously the whole story was just 'Make her pregnant'.

The book never even started with suspense, even at the middle of the story, there was nothing. As mentioned, I was just interested in the fact that who Anlei will end up with. Maybe because I finally found this as the main point of the book! I'm sad that I didn't enjoy the book like others.

[L.L. Watkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a bit peculiar, a bit like a mash up of a science fiction novel and a history textbook. The closest comparison I can think of is Dune, with its use of past tense and context excerpts from "later" writers. It's clear that the author has given considerable time and energy to creating a complicated and different world, including new weights and measures, religions and hierarchies. She also clearly has mapped out many generations of dynastic struggles, of which this is only the first salvo.

It's a shame then that this opening story isn't complex enough to support its scenery. The protagonist is a princess who can't inherit because of a sexist rule, so there's a gap in the succession. Her parents have known this since they ascended the throne themselves years before, but decided to use the cross your fingers and hope style of resolving problems, thus leaving our heroine in a fix. There's a modest amount of political wrangling, teenage romance and peril which may or may not warrant the title "crisis". It's all wrapped up in 200 pages.

I gave it three stars for likeable cast, solid plot, the bravery to try something different from the current fashion and the effort put in to research. I'd have given it more if that research hadn't buried the other elements so completely.

[L.L. Watkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a bit peculiar, a bit like a mash up of a science fiction novel and a history textbook, complete with inserts from a "far future looking back at it all" style narrator, reams of exposition and lengthy appendices covering the author's research into world building aspects. It's clear that the author has given considerable time and energy to creating a complicated and different world, including new weights and measures, religions and hierarchies. She also clearly has mapped out many generations of dynastic struggles, of which this is only the first salvo.

It's a shame then that this opening story isn't complex enough to support its scenery. The protagonist is a princess who can't inherit because of a sexist rule, so there's a gap in the succession. Her parents have known this since they ascended the throne themselves years before, but decided to use the cross your fingers and hope style of resolving problems, thus leaving our heroine in a fix. There's a modest amount of political wrangling, teenage romance and mild peril which may or may not warrant the title "crisis". It's all wrapped up in 200 pages (plus 100 pages of appendices).

I gave it three stars for likeable cast, solid (if traditional) plot and the effort put in to research. I'd have given it more if that research hadn't buried the other elements so completely.

[Mark Yahner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Succession Crisis is a must-read not only for die hard sci-fi fans but becomes an enthralling read for anyone who enjoys a great political drama, a great romance, an epic adventure, or a great action thriller. The Great Succession Crisis has all off these and more. Set on the planet Beinan, Ms. Rockefeller provides just the right amount of detail creating a compelling world that stands on its own.

I don't normally read novels, but the characters are so compelling I found that I enjoyed this book immensely.

Included with this book are two of The Great Succession Crisis' five data files (available in full as a separate e-book). Of these, I found the glossary particularly helpful and interesting. The navigation is very easy and quite helpful in utilizing the glossary and returning to my previous spot.

I really look forward to reading the next book in the series!

[Mark Yahner]

The Great Succession Crisis is a must-read not only for die hard sci-fi fans but becomes an enthralling read for anyone who enjoys a great political drama, a great romance, an epic adventure, or a great action thriller. The Great Succession Crisis has all off these and more. Set on the planet Beinan, Ms. Rockefeller provides just the right amount of detail creating a compelling world that stands on its own.

I don't normally read novels, but the characters are so compelling I found that I enjoyed this book immensely.

Included with this book are all of The Great Succession Crisis' five data files (available in full as a separate e-book). Of these, I found the glossary particularly helpful and interesting. The navigation is very easy and quite helpful in utilizing the glossary and returning to my previous spot.

I really look forward to reading the next book in the series!

[Mark Yahner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Succession Crisis is a must-read not only for die hard sci-fi fans but becomes an enthralling read for anyone who enjoys a great political drama, a great romance, an epic adventure, or a great action thriller. The Great Succession Crisis has all off these and more. Set on the planet Beinan, Ms. Rockefeller provides just the right amount of detail creating a compelling world that stands on its own.

I don't normally read novels, but the characters are so compelling I found that I enjoyed this book immensely.

Included with this book are two of The Great Succession Crisis' five data files (available in full as a separate e-book). Of these, I found the glossary particularly helpful and interesting. The navigation is very easy and quite helpful in utilizing the glossary and returning to my previous spot.

I really look forward to reading the next book in the series!

[Viv Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, I won my copy of this book via a giveaway hosted by Goodreads.

This story should be riveting. It should be exhilarating. It should have had me in the edge of my seat at times and in tears at others. However, it did none of these things, mainly because I found the writing approach too analytical, too calculated, and too dry. Writing fiction of any kind should be an art, and the writer an artist. If this had been a painting I expect I would have only seen uniform shapes placed in a precise pattern as though the painting had been rendered by the hand of a geometrist rather than an artist. If Miss Rockefeller would loosen up here writing just a little and not be so stiff and formal with it, this series just may attract a larger following.

[Tamra LeValley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really good but a bit confusing at times. A young woman who was sought after for marriage simply because she was to be queen. She ends up marrying her best friend and confidante.

This book is a set-up for the real action in . It was a quick read which was simple and straight forward in it's delivery. It took you from the current queen and left you awaiting all the successions of their family.

A really good book.

[Laurel Rockefeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The QR Interactive Revised Edition of the Great Succession Crisis uniquely blends smartphone technology with a traditional paperback book. Throughout the book, but especially in the opening chapters are QR codes located neatly to the right of the text. Each code takes readers to a webpage, usually a special enhanced content page on the author's website where unfamiliar terms are defined. They also take you to graphics and other media content.


The book itself is a coming of age story I really enjoyed. It's subtle and clearly rooted in medieval history, but this only adds to enjoyment.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was not quite as in-depth as I was expecting from the First Reads synopsis of this first edition novel. I was expecting the main characters to face more tension or hurdles. Also, the storyline felt confused with cultural history being supplied in a separate appendix rather than incorporated into the story itself where it would have helped to explain customs or conflicts. Decent read but not what I was expecting.

[Rebecca Gatzlaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the world building in this book. I love the fact that the planet had different expressions of time and had it's own measurement system. I also love the robots. Here is my review of the book
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3t4T36QrAs
This video also includes a review on Death Note volume 1, and Phineas L. MacGuire gets cooking.

[Erika Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Succession Crisis (Volume 1)I am an avid reader of novels, and I found "Great Succession Crisis (from the "Peers of Beinan" trilogy) by Laurel A. Rockerfeller to be a gripping Sci-fi story. I creates an in depth world with characters are realistic and easy to identify with. It has intrigue, romance, drama. It is thoroughly enjoyable to read.

[L.J. Capehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author obviously gave great thought to this world she has created. She succeeded in making it interesting, and exciting. There's romance, political intrigue, and mystery. I think she developed her characters well, and I've already purchased the sequel, as I want to see how Beinan fares in it!

[Sam Funderburk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and was surprised having figured it to be more of a female fan base. All kinds of stuff going on, but it all fell together nicely.

[Abigail · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story had the possibility to be good, however the story is cliche and confusing to read.

[Kristi Cramer]

Couldn't do it. DNF
Style didn't suit me.