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Stratification #3
Rift in the Sky
Third in the prequel series to the Locus bestselling Trade Pact Universe novels.
Despite all good intentions, the lure of the Talent to move through space using the M'hir dimension is too much for the Om'ray of Cersi to resist. As the awareness of this talent spreads, all those Om'ray who are capable converge on the settlement at Sona. To prevent the disruption of the Agreement and the destruction that it would unleash, the M'hiray, as they now call themselves, agree to leave Cersi forever and try to establish their own haven within the Trade Pact worlds-only to learn that not everybody wants peace.
Despite all good intentions, the lure of the Talent to move through space using the M'hir dimension is too much for the Om'ray of Cersi to resist. As the awareness of this talent spreads, all those Om'ray who are capable converge on the settlement at Sona. To prevent the disruption of the Agreement and the destruction that it would unleash, the M'hiray, as they now call themselves, agree to leave Cersi forever and try to establish their own haven within the Trade Pact worlds-only to learn that not everybody wants peace.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
7 people are currently reading
300 people want to read
About the author
Julie E. Czerneda
103 books750 followersHaving written 25 novels (and counting) published by DAW Books, as well as numerous short stories, and editing several anthologies, in 2022, Julie E. Czerneda was inducted in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Her science fiction and fantasy combines her training and love of biology with a boundless curiosity and optimism, winning multiple awards. Julie's recent releases include the standalone novel To Each This World, her first collection Imaginings, and A Change of Place, #3 in her Night's Edge fantasy series. Out July 2025 is A Shift of Time, #4 and the second last of the series.
For more visit czerneda.com Julie is represented by Sara Megibow of Megibow Literary Agency LLC.
For more visit czerneda.com Julie is represented by Sara Megibow of Megibow Literary Agency LLC.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 12, 2010
This book was fabulous until the last 75 pages or so. The ending just wasn't worthy of the characters. They spend the entire trilogy overcoming odds, sacrificing for the people, and then they just sort of settle for what they're handed, it seems. I was slightly bothered by Aryl suddenly being overwhelmed by 700 people and no longer being the leader of her people, but I could deal with it. Then they all lose their memories, which could be ok especially if they slowly regain their sense of purpose, but here it almost seems as if their characters are altered. I mean, it's such a big deal to not harm Bowman, the solitary human they know, and now they're using mind-wiping methods left and right, inflicting pain on any human? And they spend their entire existence worrying about survival, and now what do they fill their days with? We don't know. What's their purpose? Where did their dream of an ideal future go? It just sort of disappeared with their memories. Now they're not even working towards their ideal future anymore. Aryl no longer is a major player in her people's future, when she's been the leading star throughout the rest of the trilogy. And their people are totally focused on just power, not taking care of each other anymore. There's not enough development for this sudden turnabout.
I also think it's so sad when their old belongings don't even trigger any memories - things they valued to much, their seeds and hopes for a future, the name they chose for their baby, all forgotten. I understand how this is the perfect set up for the trilogy that follows it, which was written first, but I still feel that there could have been a better way to wrap up this trilogy and still lead in to the following one. This trilogy had so much promise, and was so great, til the very end!
I also think it's so sad when their old belongings don't even trigger any memories - things they valued to much, their seeds and hopes for a future, the name they chose for their baby, all forgotten. I understand how this is the perfect set up for the trilogy that follows it, which was written first, but I still feel that there could have been a better way to wrap up this trilogy and still lead in to the following one. This trilogy had so much promise, and was so great, til the very end!
November 23, 2009
Excellent!
Now I'm ready to reread the Trade Pact series, and eagerly awaiting the trilogy she let us know will be coming where that one leaves off - teasingly called "Reunification". = )
Now I'm ready to reread the Trade Pact series, and eagerly awaiting the trilogy she let us know will be coming where that one leaves off - teasingly called "Reunification". = )
July 20, 2011
Ohmygod. Pretty much all I can think right now is “holy shit, my mind just exploded.” Because seriously. This book? More dangerous to minds than nuclear weapons are to people. I don’t even know where to start.
The best place, probably and unfortunately, is the disappointment. It wasn’t at all what I wanted it to be. Now, I know that’s probably unfair of me to say, but I had high hopes for this, and it didn’t live up to them. It was too…linear? Too fast. Things moved too quickly and always only in one direction. This was the book that was supposed to answer the questions, solve the problems — not introduce more that would prove to be utterly unsolvable. Of course I know more now about the Om’ray, and the M’hiray, than I did before reading this, but not the kinds of things that I really wanted to know. Too much of this book felt like useless information, the stuff I read through to get to the “good part.” Except that the “good part” never came.
Before I skip ahead too far, I should say that the first 50 pages or so were delightful, like coming back to Italy after four years and discovering that I loved it so much more than I’d remembered was possible. Even the things that bother me about Julie’s style felt like coming home—her strange interjections, heavy overuse of fragments, none of it mattered, because I was there with Enris and with Aryl and they were adorable and in love and about to embark on something like a great adventure.
And then things just went strange. A hundred or so pages in, I started remembering what Vikram and Melanie and my instincts have taught me about writing — start with a conflict on page one, let the reader know what the story is about, and make sure that there are new challenges and new obstacles that build upon this up until a climax. But it took far too long for this story to make its way to its eventual conflict and climax, and in the end, the storyline really meandered too much for its own good. I personally don’t see why the whole storyline about Naryn going to Vyna and Anaj showing up as her unborn child (and then the thing with going to Tikitna afterward) had to be there. The real dangers in the story are the dangers that A) more and more Om’ray are learning how to ‘port and disturbing the balance, and B) pirates are coming after Marcus’s Hoveny Concentrix finds, threatening not only his life but also the security of the Om’ray. As far as I’m concerned, the story could quite easily have started with Marcus’s fear that pirates might appear to cannibalize his find, and Aryl’s fear that the Om’ray are becoming something else, something heretofore unknown and uncontrollable.
Every scene with Marcus in it — especially those toward the end — tore my heart away. I had a bad feeling from the first time I met him and started to fall in love with him that he wouldn’t survive to the end of the series, but to see him die the way he did, and for him to live on with the sort of name that history made for him, just struck me as far too terrible to be true.
Well, I think I’ve made my way here now — the first ending. The first epilogue. The moment when I went, “oh shit, what’s going on?” The moment when the ground disappeared from under my feet and I just went falling down into a dark dark hole, not knowing if I’d ever come out again. An epilogue? But isn’t there more of the book? From the moment that the thing had started with an effective “Part One” entitled Cersi, I’d been ready for the Stratification — the leaving of the Clan homeworld, the movement outwards — but nothing could’ve prepared me for what happened next. Nothing could have prepared me for what became of the M’hiray almost as soon as they set foot on Stonerim III. All the things that mattered, the things that made them who they were, that linked them to each other and to their own memories, their own past, gone. Each and every one of them lost. Wondering what it meant to be a certain way and not know why. Aryl, knowing she loves heights, knowing how to climb and fight and protect and be strong, but not knowing who that makes her. The shock of an epilogue with at least 100 pages left in the book was nothing to the shock of seeing these characters suddenly stripped of everything I’d come to associate with who they are.
All of a sudden, the Om’ray became the M’hiray — the innocence of one world exchanged for the power games of another in less than a blink and with no knowledge of motivation. What was worse for me was the fact that the rest of the M’hiray were perfectly content to go on with their lives like nothing had gone wrong. Aryl cries to herself in her sleep, but what of the others?
Of course, their deepest natures still poked through. Aryl and Enris were still good, kind, benevolent people. Others who had had their problems back on Cersi only had them aggravated by a change of place. But the biggest disappointment about the end of the book was how soulless it felt, like all of the people had left. It reminded me of the last episode of the fourth season of Bones — the actors are the same, but where did the characters go? Only Czerneda didn’t have the decency to let anyone wake up and realize it was all a dream.
Oh, she set up the world the way that it is. She got from Aryl to Sira. But — as much as I hate to say this — I can’t feel at all proud of the way she did it. These people deserved more dignity, more respect. They deserved the honor of their own story, not tainted by their inevitable future.
When I read Julie’s stories, very rarely am I compelled to start sentences with the phrase “If I were writing this.” But so much of this book had me doing just that. And I’m going to further the sacrilege by extending it now: If I were writing this, it would have been two separate books, one centered around the conflict to leave Cersi, another centered upon the conflict of surviving upon Stonerim III. There was definitely enough material here for two books — the author appears to have realized this, since she’s set it up in such a dichotomous structure. In this scheme, the “first book” would have involved more of a threat from these alien pirates, perhaps the beginning of a war between them and the Om’ray (a war that they would only get involved in due to Aryl’s firm faith in Marcus, who would still die to give them the coordinates to leave for his old home when he saw there was no other choice).
The “second book” would have begun with the arrival on Stonerim III, and the conflict to find a place to live and people to become would have been expanded. There would have been a general panic at first about the loss of memories, more infighting, more power play amongst the M’hiray before the rest of the world ever got involved. There would have been argument over whether it was right to control susceptible humans, instead of simple acquiescence. There would have been dissent. The fate of the M’hiray would not have been unanimous. And the book would end with Aryl and Enris, alone if necessary, finding Karina Bowman, and finally remembering. Not just some of it, all of it, and knowing it for themselves, even if it meant never sharing it with anyone else because no one else would possibly believe.
If I had written this book, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this as a way to explain my disappointment and fervently hope that the next book will be better.
Again, I know I’m probably being unfair. I loved Riders of the Storm in a way that only really matches my love for The Wizard's Dilemma. Both of those stories fight through pain to make me believe in the goodness of humanity, and the ability of people to make choices for the better, to shape the world anew — to fight through the tears. Rift in the Sky doesn’t do anything like that. It doesn’t fill me. It does what its title promises — it empties. It evacuates, it nullifies, it destroys. It doesn’t try to do it, but it does. It takes everything I loved about this series and makes it truly, thoroughly alien.
I hate to say it, but I’m afraid. It used to be the case that anything Julie wrote would be enough to pull me out of the worst of my life , enough to celebrate the best of my joy. Now, for the first time, something she’s written has left me feeling less than whole.
Maybe I just need some time. Maybe a second reading, in due course, will salvage this novel’s merit. But for now? I guess I’ll have to learn what it’s like to read a book that empties where I’d had such high hopes that it would fill.
The best place, probably and unfortunately, is the disappointment. It wasn’t at all what I wanted it to be. Now, I know that’s probably unfair of me to say, but I had high hopes for this, and it didn’t live up to them. It was too…linear? Too fast. Things moved too quickly and always only in one direction. This was the book that was supposed to answer the questions, solve the problems — not introduce more that would prove to be utterly unsolvable. Of course I know more now about the Om’ray, and the M’hiray, than I did before reading this, but not the kinds of things that I really wanted to know. Too much of this book felt like useless information, the stuff I read through to get to the “good part.” Except that the “good part” never came.
Before I skip ahead too far, I should say that the first 50 pages or so were delightful, like coming back to Italy after four years and discovering that I loved it so much more than I’d remembered was possible. Even the things that bother me about Julie’s style felt like coming home—her strange interjections, heavy overuse of fragments, none of it mattered, because I was there with Enris and with Aryl and they were adorable and in love and about to embark on something like a great adventure.
And then things just went strange. A hundred or so pages in, I started remembering what Vikram and Melanie and my instincts have taught me about writing — start with a conflict on page one, let the reader know what the story is about, and make sure that there are new challenges and new obstacles that build upon this up until a climax. But it took far too long for this story to make its way to its eventual conflict and climax, and in the end, the storyline really meandered too much for its own good. I personally don’t see why the whole storyline about Naryn going to Vyna and Anaj showing up as her unborn child (and then the thing with going to Tikitna afterward) had to be there. The real dangers in the story are the dangers that A) more and more Om’ray are learning how to ‘port and disturbing the balance, and B) pirates are coming after Marcus’s Hoveny Concentrix finds, threatening not only his life but also the security of the Om’ray. As far as I’m concerned, the story could quite easily have started with Marcus’s fear that pirates might appear to cannibalize his find, and Aryl’s fear that the Om’ray are becoming something else, something heretofore unknown and uncontrollable.
Every scene with Marcus in it — especially those toward the end — tore my heart away. I had a bad feeling from the first time I met him and started to fall in love with him that he wouldn’t survive to the end of the series, but to see him die the way he did, and for him to live on with the sort of name that history made for him, just struck me as far too terrible to be true.
Well, I think I’ve made my way here now — the first ending. The first epilogue. The moment when I went, “oh shit, what’s going on?” The moment when the ground disappeared from under my feet and I just went falling down into a dark dark hole, not knowing if I’d ever come out again. An epilogue? But isn’t there more of the book? From the moment that the thing had started with an effective “Part One” entitled Cersi, I’d been ready for the Stratification — the leaving of the Clan homeworld, the movement outwards — but nothing could’ve prepared me for what happened next. Nothing could have prepared me for what became of the M’hiray almost as soon as they set foot on Stonerim III. All the things that mattered, the things that made them who they were, that linked them to each other and to their own memories, their own past, gone. Each and every one of them lost. Wondering what it meant to be a certain way and not know why. Aryl, knowing she loves heights, knowing how to climb and fight and protect and be strong, but not knowing who that makes her. The shock of an epilogue with at least 100 pages left in the book was nothing to the shock of seeing these characters suddenly stripped of everything I’d come to associate with who they are.
All of a sudden, the Om’ray became the M’hiray — the innocence of one world exchanged for the power games of another in less than a blink and with no knowledge of motivation. What was worse for me was the fact that the rest of the M’hiray were perfectly content to go on with their lives like nothing had gone wrong. Aryl cries to herself in her sleep, but what of the others?
Of course, their deepest natures still poked through. Aryl and Enris were still good, kind, benevolent people. Others who had had their problems back on Cersi only had them aggravated by a change of place. But the biggest disappointment about the end of the book was how soulless it felt, like all of the people had left. It reminded me of the last episode of the fourth season of Bones — the actors are the same, but where did the characters go? Only Czerneda didn’t have the decency to let anyone wake up and realize it was all a dream.
Oh, she set up the world the way that it is. She got from Aryl to Sira. But — as much as I hate to say this — I can’t feel at all proud of the way she did it. These people deserved more dignity, more respect. They deserved the honor of their own story, not tainted by their inevitable future.
When I read Julie’s stories, very rarely am I compelled to start sentences with the phrase “If I were writing this.” But so much of this book had me doing just that. And I’m going to further the sacrilege by extending it now: If I were writing this, it would have been two separate books, one centered around the conflict to leave Cersi, another centered upon the conflict of surviving upon Stonerim III. There was definitely enough material here for two books — the author appears to have realized this, since she’s set it up in such a dichotomous structure. In this scheme, the “first book” would have involved more of a threat from these alien pirates, perhaps the beginning of a war between them and the Om’ray (a war that they would only get involved in due to Aryl’s firm faith in Marcus, who would still die to give them the coordinates to leave for his old home when he saw there was no other choice).
The “second book” would have begun with the arrival on Stonerim III, and the conflict to find a place to live and people to become would have been expanded. There would have been a general panic at first about the loss of memories, more infighting, more power play amongst the M’hiray before the rest of the world ever got involved. There would have been argument over whether it was right to control susceptible humans, instead of simple acquiescence. There would have been dissent. The fate of the M’hiray would not have been unanimous. And the book would end with Aryl and Enris, alone if necessary, finding Karina Bowman, and finally remembering. Not just some of it, all of it, and knowing it for themselves, even if it meant never sharing it with anyone else because no one else would possibly believe.
If I had written this book, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this as a way to explain my disappointment and fervently hope that the next book will be better.
Again, I know I’m probably being unfair. I loved Riders of the Storm in a way that only really matches my love for The Wizard's Dilemma. Both of those stories fight through pain to make me believe in the goodness of humanity, and the ability of people to make choices for the better, to shape the world anew — to fight through the tears. Rift in the Sky doesn’t do anything like that. It doesn’t fill me. It does what its title promises — it empties. It evacuates, it nullifies, it destroys. It doesn’t try to do it, but it does. It takes everything I loved about this series and makes it truly, thoroughly alien.
I hate to say it, but I’m afraid. It used to be the case that anything Julie wrote would be enough to pull me out of the worst of my life , enough to celebrate the best of my joy. Now, for the first time, something she’s written has left me feeling less than whole.
Maybe I just need some time. Maybe a second reading, in due course, will salvage this novel’s merit. But for now? I guess I’ll have to learn what it’s like to read a book that empties where I’d had such high hopes that it would fill.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2012
I really wanted to give this 4 stars. It was a good ending to the prequel trilogy about these people and it certainly did its job of getting them from A to B. However, my biggest gripe was what happened to them in the last quarter of the book. Suddenly all the characterization up to that point was tossed out the window, seemingly for convenience to finish getting to B from A. Everyone was suddenly different, cold people with whom I had trouble connecting. I still don't understand WHAT the M'hir is, what are the Watchers or how they came to be, and seriously? you're not going to say what was in that message?? The ending just left me dissatisfied and the final note from Czerneda did not help, saying I hope you'll read the next (trilogy?) "Reunification." wth! Just not a satisfying ending.
February 16, 2020
Third volume of the "Stratification" trilogy
As third volumes of trilogies go, this is very satisfactory. The plot threads Czerneda has been juggling for about a thousand pages (counting this one) come together in a perfectly cromulent conclusion.
And then the book goes on for roughly another hundred pages.
The problem here is the fundamental problem with prequels in general: those who have read the sequels know how things are supposed to be when _this_ story is over. But the story started in _Reap the Wild Wind_ is over, very nicely done, thank you, before things are all set up. So Czerneda takes us past the end of this story and walks the characters, rather too easily, from the conclusion of their own story to the establishment of what will be the setup for the sequel.
So here's about 300 pages of really good, epic, planetary adventure fiction, in which our main character has grown from an innocent who understands nothing of her situation to, well, a not-so-innocent leader who _still_ doesn't understand _that_ much about her situation.
But at the end of the real story, the situation abruptly changes, plunging our characters entirely out of their own world and into a much larger milieu of which they know next to nothing - except, by one of sf's standard acceptable miracles, the language - and immediately take charge and control on a scale that, yes, sets up the situation for the previous trilogy/sequel, but it's just all too easy. These characters should be fish utterly out of water, and instead they immediately pull off a hugely successful (and secret) power play, which instantly makes them Players on a galactic scale. This should have taken another entire novel, or trilogy, and not been jammed in at the end of this one.
Still, the trilogy itself is complete and successful before that happens, so kudos to Czerneda and I shall doubtless read more of her books.
As third volumes of trilogies go, this is very satisfactory. The plot threads Czerneda has been juggling for about a thousand pages (counting this one) come together in a perfectly cromulent conclusion.
And then the book goes on for roughly another hundred pages.
The problem here is the fundamental problem with prequels in general: those who have read the sequels know how things are supposed to be when _this_ story is over. But the story started in _Reap the Wild Wind_ is over, very nicely done, thank you, before things are all set up. So Czerneda takes us past the end of this story and walks the characters, rather too easily, from the conclusion of their own story to the establishment of what will be the setup for the sequel.
So here's about 300 pages of really good, epic, planetary adventure fiction, in which our main character has grown from an innocent who understands nothing of her situation to, well, a not-so-innocent leader who _still_ doesn't understand _that_ much about her situation.
But at the end of the real story, the situation abruptly changes, plunging our characters entirely out of their own world and into a much larger milieu of which they know next to nothing - except, by one of sf's standard acceptable miracles, the language - and immediately take charge and control on a scale that, yes, sets up the situation for the previous trilogy/sequel, but it's just all too easy. These characters should be fish utterly out of water, and instead they immediately pull off a hugely successful (and secret) power play, which instantly makes them Players on a galactic scale. This should have taken another entire novel, or trilogy, and not been jammed in at the end of this one.
Still, the trilogy itself is complete and successful before that happens, so kudos to Czerneda and I shall doubtless read more of her books.
September 26, 2009
It doesn't get much better for me than Julie Czerneda--especially when she concludes an epic, sweeping story like the Stratification trilogy, and does it with a book like Rift in the Sky. Here at last in this volume we see the Om'ray exiles under the leadership of Aryl Sarc having to make the leap from establishing their own Sona Clan to leaving their homeworld entirely, and what dire circumstances provoke their urgent flight--and which established characters must make sacrifices for that flight to happen. We see the first emergence of the power structures familiar from the Trade Pact Universe novels as Aryl's people--all of the Om'ray who possess the ability to move through the M'hir--rename themselves the M'hiray and begin to plan to further unions of their young based on power levels.
And once the flight from Cersi occurs, be sure to keep reading. What seems like the ending of the story in fact is not, for there's a whole extra section at the end that covers what happens with Aryl's people once they're offworld. There's tying up of loose ends there as well as bridging work done to tie back to the Trade Pact books--and to look ahead to the books to come.
Since this is the third book of the trilogy, go in expecting events on a grander scale and less time paid to in-depth characterizations; like I said, this is an epic, and it felt entirely appropriate to me to broaden the view out for this conclusion to the story. Beautifully done all in all. Five stars.
And once the flight from Cersi occurs, be sure to keep reading. What seems like the ending of the story in fact is not, for there's a whole extra section at the end that covers what happens with Aryl's people once they're offworld. There's tying up of loose ends there as well as bridging work done to tie back to the Trade Pact books--and to look ahead to the books to come.
Since this is the third book of the trilogy, go in expecting events on a grander scale and less time paid to in-depth characterizations; like I said, this is an epic, and it felt entirely appropriate to me to broaden the view out for this conclusion to the story. Beautifully done all in all. Five stars.
February 20, 2019
There are 2 parts to this book. Rift In the Sky and a sub book at the end, Rift In the Sky: Stonerim III.
Rift In the Sky:
What can I say. Just WOW. Czerneda did a wonderful job writing this book. I didn't want to put it down. Sona is home to parts of the Yena, Tuana and Grona clans. Aryl has brought the exiles of Yena to Sona. Enris saves part of the Tuana clan and brings them to Sona. Oud bring more of the Tuana clan and also bring some from the Grona clan. Aryl is a young, newly Chosen to Enris, Om'ray trying to keep peace and the balance needed for all three species, Om'ray, Oud and Tikitik to survive on Cersi. She visits the village of Tikitna, which like a holy site to the Tikitik. Learns more than she ever thought possible to the Om'ray. Answered questions about the Agrrement between the 3 species of Cersi. With her is Naryn and Enris. Both witnesses to a historic event involving Aryl and the Tikitik. When it's done she calls the stranger Marcus, a human archeologist, to help them get home. Marcus is agitated. Someone has infiltrated the planet when it's suppose to sucured under the Triad. New people have come and upset the balance of Cersi's aggrement among the poeples. Marcus takes Aryl, Enris and Naryn towards the end of the world to search site 3 for survivores. Something unexpected happens. The Om'ray teleport to Sona and find their clan has grown to over 700 people. They change inside themselves becoming the M'hiray and no longer of the remaining Om'ray. To save the Om'ray, the M'hiray decide to leave to try to restore the balance of Cersi's peoples.
Rift In the Sky: Stonerim III:
The M'hiray teleport to Stonerim III instead of the other side of Cersi as planned. With no memories of the homeworld. No memories of the agreement of Cersi or the Om'ray. Selling the Hoveny Coventrix artifacts brings them stability and power the of wealth. The people are relocated to different parts of the galaxy. Each family part of one of the 7 major clans. The Sarc clan remains on Stonerim III. Aryl seeks out Karina Bowman, daughter to her human friend Marcus Bowman. Wonderfully wriiten. Explaining the meaning of the Clans of the next part of the series.
Rift In the Sky:
What can I say. Just WOW. Czerneda did a wonderful job writing this book. I didn't want to put it down. Sona is home to parts of the Yena, Tuana and Grona clans. Aryl has brought the exiles of Yena to Sona. Enris saves part of the Tuana clan and brings them to Sona. Oud bring more of the Tuana clan and also bring some from the Grona clan. Aryl is a young, newly Chosen to Enris, Om'ray trying to keep peace and the balance needed for all three species, Om'ray, Oud and Tikitik to survive on Cersi. She visits the village of Tikitna, which like a holy site to the Tikitik. Learns more than she ever thought possible to the Om'ray. Answered questions about the Agrrement between the 3 species of Cersi. With her is Naryn and Enris. Both witnesses to a historic event involving Aryl and the Tikitik. When it's done she calls the stranger Marcus, a human archeologist, to help them get home. Marcus is agitated. Someone has infiltrated the planet when it's suppose to sucured under the Triad. New people have come and upset the balance of Cersi's aggrement among the poeples. Marcus takes Aryl, Enris and Naryn towards the end of the world to search site 3 for survivores. Something unexpected happens. The Om'ray teleport to Sona and find their clan has grown to over 700 people. They change inside themselves becoming the M'hiray and no longer of the remaining Om'ray. To save the Om'ray, the M'hiray decide to leave to try to restore the balance of Cersi's peoples.
Rift In the Sky: Stonerim III:
The M'hiray teleport to Stonerim III instead of the other side of Cersi as planned. With no memories of the homeworld. No memories of the agreement of Cersi or the Om'ray. Selling the Hoveny Coventrix artifacts brings them stability and power the of wealth. The people are relocated to different parts of the galaxy. Each family part of one of the 7 major clans. The Sarc clan remains on Stonerim III. Aryl seeks out Karina Bowman, daughter to her human friend Marcus Bowman. Wonderfully wriiten. Explaining the meaning of the Clans of the next part of the series.
November 6, 2020
3.5 stars. There were several jarring switches in context in this book. My favorite parts were how Aryl and the others live and try to improve their lives. They are the first Om’ray to think about making life better for themselves. Unfortunately, the other two races are not sympathetic to that, wanting to stick to their agreement. Then they travel to Vyna, and to visit the Tikitik, where cryptic messages are exchanged. There are so many unanswered questions here. How do the tabs of the ancient Council work? What in fact is the M’hir, with its Watchers and the links between Om’Ray? Where do the Cloisters come from? How many Adepts are left in the other clans? And so on. I assume (and hope) that these will be answered in a later series. Then we get to the last quarter of the book, where things take on a completely different aspect. I absolutely hate the idea of group amnesia, especially since it was never hinted at before, and it actually changes their personalities. But the world they end up in is very interesting, and I do like the way they take steps to protect themselves, though I have a feeling they’ve gone too far. I put most of my enjoyment in the first three quarters of the book, but I suppose the story would have stagnated if the author just showed the status quo. I’m up for a change, but found this one a little too jarring.
February 18, 2021
I enjoyed this trilogy, and was especially interested in the culture of the major characters, and in the mysteries surrounding their rituals and traditions. That's why the end of this third book, which went in a sudden and really rather shocking direction, felt like a sort of betrayal to me as a reader. I was waiting for at least some of my questions to be answered, but none of them were. I suppose readers of the trilogy for which this trilogy is the prequel wouldn't be as shocked, since they would know what needed to happen to make that bridge between the end of one and the start of the next. Still, the disappointment I feel at not having my questions answered after the commitment I made reading those hundreds of pages. That's hard to live with. Do I continue on now and read the next trilogy, in the hopes of finding some answers, or do I cut my losses now and move on to something else? That's always the question with these interminable sci-fi series!!
March 16, 2018
Those who have been outcast by the tribes establish a home at a former settlement called Sona. After pirates attack and kill the archeologists on Cersi, the members of the settlement called Sona take the name of M'hiray. They find that the other two races are possibly at war and hope to avoid more bloodshed, so agree to leave Cersi forever and try to establish their own haven within the Trade Pact worlds. This book covers their attempt.
October 29, 2022
The other two were average, this is worse. The group of fools try to figure out what to do, a whole bunch more people find out they can port, bad Humans show up but good ones don't, and we still don't have a clue why the other two species are supposedly native but only live in a tiny section of the world. It's just tiresome. Also, the short story or novelette at the end is dumb and almost comic relief. Glad I'm done.
April 17, 2019
Really enjoyed this trilogy, even though this 3rd in the series has the quality of having to wrap up this pre-quil series and get us ready for the 3rd series she began right afterwards. I love the main charachter, and this idea of balance between species.
October 2, 2021
A well worked and satisfying ending to the prequel trilogy which tied everything in nicely with the original series. I've given 4 stars because it just didn't absorb me into the story quite like the previous books; it was still very good though.
December 16, 2018
I liked the story. It just seemed rushed at the end trying to wrap things up and tie it to the first series since this is the end of the prequel series.
April 28, 2020
I liked it until the end. I hate amnesia.
Read
April 5, 2021So much to say. Loved it. It was a ride. Still have so many questions, but I'm so excited for the next 6 books. Just so F-ing good!
February 7, 2023
Love this writer
April 22, 2025
I love this trilogy but am so sad about how the characters end up, it feels like they’ve undone all of the character development that occurred throughout the trilogy.
December 24, 2022
4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
The agreement that governs the interaction of Oud, Tikitik, and Om'ray on the planet Cersi is beginning to fall apart, in no small way due to changes introduced by Aryl di Sarc and the community she has re-established. Offworld intrusion brings things to a head, and changes Aryl's Om'ray in ways no one expected.
Review
It’s difficult to maintain a consistently high standard across a series, and especially a prequel series. Czerneda has managed it here, introducing a complex, credible, and interesting world that partly explains the origin of the M’hiray – telepathic humanoids who can also teleport. This concluding volume of the prequel trilogy continues its close focus on the M’hiray themselves, though with tantalizing glimpses of the universe beyond them.
Czerneda does stumble on occasion, however. The defining moment of the M’hiray – what makes them different from the Om’ray they derive from – is somewhat murky, with too little explained, and too much reliance on mysterious, ancient artifacts that no one seems very interested in exploring. Still, the book is well written, satisfying, and ends well. Except…
Except that, after the epilogue-epilogue, there’s a novelette-epilogue telling us what happens next, and … murky would be putting it kindly. It’s frenetic and under-explained, and presents our key characters very differently than the preceding three volumes. There’s not even much attempt at handwaving to explain why they act as they do. It’s an attempt to set up the Mhiray for the next/original trilogy, but to me, it felt like a rushed afterthought. It is, at best, clumsy, which is not a word I’d often associate with Czerneda.
Overall, an effective conclusion to an intriguing trilogy. If you’re just reading it for that, skip the long epilogue. If, like most, you’re interested in the larger series, the epilogue is useful, but not really much fun.
Summary
The agreement that governs the interaction of Oud, Tikitik, and Om'ray on the planet Cersi is beginning to fall apart, in no small way due to changes introduced by Aryl di Sarc and the community she has re-established. Offworld intrusion brings things to a head, and changes Aryl's Om'ray in ways no one expected.
Review
It’s difficult to maintain a consistently high standard across a series, and especially a prequel series. Czerneda has managed it here, introducing a complex, credible, and interesting world that partly explains the origin of the M’hiray – telepathic humanoids who can also teleport. This concluding volume of the prequel trilogy continues its close focus on the M’hiray themselves, though with tantalizing glimpses of the universe beyond them.
Czerneda does stumble on occasion, however. The defining moment of the M’hiray – what makes them different from the Om’ray they derive from – is somewhat murky, with too little explained, and too much reliance on mysterious, ancient artifacts that no one seems very interested in exploring. Still, the book is well written, satisfying, and ends well. Except…
Except that, after the epilogue-epilogue, there’s a novelette-epilogue telling us what happens next, and … murky would be putting it kindly. It’s frenetic and under-explained, and presents our key characters very differently than the preceding three volumes. There’s not even much attempt at handwaving to explain why they act as they do. It’s an attempt to set up the Mhiray for the next/original trilogy, but to me, it felt like a rushed afterthought. It is, at best, clumsy, which is not a word I’d often associate with Czerneda.
Overall, an effective conclusion to an intriguing trilogy. If you’re just reading it for that, skip the long epilogue. If, like most, you’re interested in the larger series, the epilogue is useful, but not really much fun.
February 21, 2020
Watch out for what looks like the ending, I nearly stopped reading three quarters in!
This is a fascinating conclusion to the trilogy.
This is the last book following Aryl (and I'll miss her). This series has tried, successfully, to tell an essentially high fantasy story, in a fantasy setting, while actually being a Science Fiction story. This is a very tough job and any well read fan of F&SF will, I'm sure, be thinking of Pern.
In the first two novels the story was essentially fantasy with very unique races and the SF elements essentially being added spice. In this volume however the SF element comes to the fore in two big stages, initially in an excellent showdown then in the final quarter which I really wasn't sure could be pulled off - but once it got going, I loved.
While this is the end for the tale of Aryl - it is so clearly just the opening for the Clan. I'm reading A Thousand Words for Stranger right away.
This is a fascinating conclusion to the trilogy.
This is the last book following Aryl (and I'll miss her). This series has tried, successfully, to tell an essentially high fantasy story, in a fantasy setting, while actually being a Science Fiction story. This is a very tough job and any well read fan of F&SF will, I'm sure, be thinking of Pern.
In the first two novels the story was essentially fantasy with very unique races and the SF elements essentially being added spice. In this volume however the SF element comes to the fore in two big stages, initially in an excellent showdown then in the final quarter which I really wasn't sure could be pulled off - but once it got going, I loved.
While this is the end for the tale of Aryl - it is so clearly just the opening for the Clan. I'm reading A Thousand Words for Stranger right away.
December 3, 2009
As always, I enjoyed Czerneda's prose and characters. I was disappointed that this book (third in a trilogy) didn't answer any of the trilogy's larger questions about the world/species. The ending left a lot of loose ends which we can hope will be tied up in what the Author's Note promises as a forthcoming trilogy (the Reunification series, I believe). In contrast to the many world-building loose ends related to Cersi and the Om'ray, the ending tied too neatly into Czerneda's related Trade Pact trilogy (A Thousand Words for Stranger, etc.). This meant an abrupt transition 3/4 the way through the book--a transition I found jarring and unsatisfying.
Overall, however, I found the book engrossing and enjoyable, and will certainly pick up the next series--hoping for some answers to my many questions about the fascinating world Czerneda developed in Cersi. If you're like my husband though, and world means more to you than character, be warned that your questions will not be satisfied here.
Overall, however, I found the book engrossing and enjoyable, and will certainly pick up the next series--hoping for some answers to my many questions about the fascinating world Czerneda developed in Cersi. If you're like my husband though, and world means more to you than character, be warned that your questions will not be satisfied here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2014
First of all, Julie Czerneda is one of the very best contemporary world-builders. The detail is so meticulous that you quickly accept all her strange creatures as real, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy. I can only presume it was the effort to tie this in to her previously published "Trade Pact" world plus constraints of space that made this volume such an unsatisfying book.
The major problem is the abrupt, and not clearly justified break about halfway through - I presume this was the "rift" or else the title makes no sense to me. What happens next all seems so out of character for any of the people we have come to love, and so lacking in proper explanation, that I felt very let down. All in all, the second half of this book feels rushed, and it leaves a lot of loose ends untied. I can't help wondering whether the first part of this book wasn't meant to be included in "Riders of the Storm", with a complete fourth novel to fully describe the diaspora. Or did she just get bored?
The major problem is the abrupt, and not clearly justified break about halfway through - I presume this was the "rift" or else the title makes no sense to me. What happens next all seems so out of character for any of the people we have come to love, and so lacking in proper explanation, that I felt very let down. All in all, the second half of this book feels rushed, and it leaves a lot of loose ends untied. I can't help wondering whether the first part of this book wasn't meant to be included in "Riders of the Storm", with a complete fourth novel to fully describe the diaspora. Or did she just get bored?
June 11, 2017
I really don’t understand the ending to this series. I know this is a prequel and has to have an ending that fits into the original Trade Pact series, but I did find it a unsatisfactory way to end an intriguing story that has last well over a thousand pages in length.
It seemed that about three quarters of the way through the book the author got bored and couldn’t be bothered to finish the ‘Cersi’ story before getting back to her ‘Trade Pact’ trilogy. Given the last quarter of the book, the rest of the series that led up to it was almost irrelevant.
I was so annoyed by the end of the book I would have given 0 stars if this was possible, but this wouldn’t have been fair to the rest of the series so in the end I settled for 2 stars.
It seemed that about three quarters of the way through the book the author got bored and couldn’t be bothered to finish the ‘Cersi’ story before getting back to her ‘Trade Pact’ trilogy. Given the last quarter of the book, the rest of the series that led up to it was almost irrelevant.
I was so annoyed by the end of the book I would have given 0 stars if this was possible, but this wouldn’t have been fair to the rest of the series so in the end I settled for 2 stars.
January 23, 2016
I really love Julie Czernada's writing! I've now read every novel she's written. This book, is the 3rd, in the "Stratification" trilogy, and the best, by far. This trilogy, is a "prequel" to her "Trade Pact Universe", which also contains 3 books, the first of which, "A Thousand Words For Stranger", was her very first novel. Together, she's now calling them "The Clan Chronicles", and has created, and expanded an extremely believable, very detailed, very exciting universe. I strongly urge you to read all six novels, and when you've completed those, she has two more trilogies, "Web Shifters", and "Species Imperative" to enjoy.
August 10, 2016
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first two in the trilogy, and I think that's because it is the book where Czerneda links to the previous trilogy. While this is a prequel, with the first two books I didn't feel at a disadvantage for having not read the initial series. But with book three, things became muddied and unsatisfying as the two series reached a convergence point. I assume that if I had read the Trade Pact books first, I would have enjoyed or at least better appreciated the epilogue section.
August 22, 2016
The ending was disappointing, I don't know what else to say because I'm in love with the characters, different species and the mystery of the Hoveny Concentrix and the Makers. I may have expected some closure even in the context of this being prequel. The first two novels in this trilogy are spectacular.
August 3, 2009
I adore these books. There are detailed, intense, and lovable characters. The action moves right along and it's meaningful. This makes me want to go back and reread the first trilogy - which I still remember loving when it first came out.
December 26, 2009
One of my favorite authors...Rift is the third in the Clan Chronicles, the startlingly unique evolution of one of the Trade Pact Universe's most complex and powerful beings. Told, as ever, with heart and care.
July 29, 2010
Avery saisfying bridge book connecting its prequel triology to the Trade Pact Trilogy. Good characters but I am not quite the person I was when I read the Trade Pact Trilogy and could not sink into it as deeply.
July 10, 2011
I'm a big fan of Julie E. Czerneda. My only complaint is that it's been so long since I read the other books in the series. I feel as though I missed a lot in Rift in the Sky by not easily recollecting the other books. My own fault, though.
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