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The Chronicles of Nuala #1
Fires of Nuala
For more than 150 years, she has traveled the Seven Systems, slipping in and out of Cold Sleep. She is a free-trader, the aristocracy of con artists, able to fleece the dishonest with their own greed.
The woman is known as Silver, when she is named at all –- and she may be the finest free-trader living. But even she is not prepared for the reality of Nuala, planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest platinum group metal in the known galaxy. Eighty percent of the citizens are sterile, and the wealthy send their children out to seek mates and find others willing to expand the planetary gene pool. A Nualan can smell a lie at fifty paces. Truth, honor – and their children – are everything to the people of Nuala.
On Nuala, for the first time, Silver will be forced to use her real name –- Darame Daviddottir – and she will walk the thinnest line between truth and lie of her long and varied career.
The scam she’s come to join has just been blown to the skies, along with the throne lines of three separate sovereign nations. Now Darame has just one decision -– which group of Nualans will she support in the days to come? Mere chance threw her into the camp of the Atares, leaders of the largest clan on Nuala. Will she help them? Thwart them? Wait for the dust to settle?
The tipping point may have already occurred. Turns out she’s mentioned in Nualan religious prophecy, and has caught the eye of the last adult male of a throne line. Sheel Atare is a “hot” healer, able to close ripped flesh and draw fever with a touch. A reclusive professor and medical doctor, unprepared to rule, Sheel Atare needs all the allies he can get.
Even allies who may be connected to those who brought down his house.
The woman is known as Silver, when she is named at all –- and she may be the finest free-trader living. But even she is not prepared for the reality of Nuala, planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest platinum group metal in the known galaxy. Eighty percent of the citizens are sterile, and the wealthy send their children out to seek mates and find others willing to expand the planetary gene pool. A Nualan can smell a lie at fifty paces. Truth, honor – and their children – are everything to the people of Nuala.
On Nuala, for the first time, Silver will be forced to use her real name –- Darame Daviddottir – and she will walk the thinnest line between truth and lie of her long and varied career.
The scam she’s come to join has just been blown to the skies, along with the throne lines of three separate sovereign nations. Now Darame has just one decision -– which group of Nualans will she support in the days to come? Mere chance threw her into the camp of the Atares, leaders of the largest clan on Nuala. Will she help them? Thwart them? Wait for the dust to settle?
The tipping point may have already occurred. Turns out she’s mentioned in Nualan religious prophecy, and has caught the eye of the last adult male of a throne line. Sheel Atare is a “hot” healer, able to close ripped flesh and draw fever with a touch. A reclusive professor and medical doctor, unprepared to rule, Sheel Atare needs all the allies he can get.
Even allies who may be connected to those who brought down his house.
606 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1988
19 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
18 books103 followersNOTE TO FANS & READERS: I did NOT write the book "Finding the Strength Inside You" which someone has attached to Goodreads, and coincidentally the author's name is my name. I am contacting GoodReads to see what I can do about this.
In the beginning Katharine Eliska Kimbriel was nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary” – she has a list of itinerant occupations to prove it.
Published novels include the historical dark fantasies NIGHT CALLS, KINDRED RITES, and SPIRAL PATH. On the science fiction side you will find FIRE SANCTUARY, FIRES OF NUALA, and HIDDEN FIRES, stand-alone tales that take place on the same planet.
Katharine prefers being managed by Burmese cats and a handful of gargoyles. Her occasional hobbies have included ballroom dancing, brewing beer, antique roses, and macrobiotic and paleolithic cooking. She also plant trees. 110 so far.
Go to https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc_author/k... for the most recent publishing info. She posts ghost events at her blog (https://alfreda89.dreamwidth.org/), other stuff at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/katharine.ki...), Mastodon (https://raggedfeathers.com/@KatKimbriel), and BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/catkimbriel....).
She is a founding member of Book View Cafe (https://bookviewcafe.com/blog/). Due to her spending more time living science fiction than writing it, she makes no promises on when her last update to anything happened. Due to Life, Interrupted, she has't updated her web site in 15 years and it's not looking good for the site....
In the beginning Katharine Eliska Kimbriel was nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary” – she has a list of itinerant occupations to prove it.
Published novels include the historical dark fantasies NIGHT CALLS, KINDRED RITES, and SPIRAL PATH. On the science fiction side you will find FIRE SANCTUARY, FIRES OF NUALA, and HIDDEN FIRES, stand-alone tales that take place on the same planet.
Katharine prefers being managed by Burmese cats and a handful of gargoyles. Her occasional hobbies have included ballroom dancing, brewing beer, antique roses, and macrobiotic and paleolithic cooking. She also plant trees. 110 so far.
Go to https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc_author/k... for the most recent publishing info. She posts ghost events at her blog (https://alfreda89.dreamwidth.org/), other stuff at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/katharine.ki...), Mastodon (https://raggedfeathers.com/@KatKimbriel), and BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/catkimbriel....).
She is a founding member of Book View Cafe (https://bookviewcafe.com/blog/). Due to her spending more time living science fiction than writing it, she makes no promises on when her last update to anything happened. Due to Life, Interrupted, she has't updated her web site in 15 years and it's not looking good for the site....
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
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October 4, 2010Now offered at Book View Cafe as an e-book, this space opera/mystery is just as much fun to read as it was when it first came out.
Kimbriel has created a fascinatingly complex culture in the Nualans, who have adapted to a dangerously radioactive planet. This is the kind of space opera I love most, with larger than life characters, interesting cultures, culture clashes, romance, action, and just enough intriguing threads left dangling to promise further explorations.
Darame is a con artist, but she only goes for the big con, and her marks are other con artists. When she meets the Nualans, she is fascinated by people who do not lie. But when there is a vicious attack that nearly wipes out the ruling family, she finds herself involved . . . and as someone is lying somewhere, she has to use her skills to figure out who.
I am so glad that Kimbriel is bringing these novels out again, and is planning a fourth.
Kimbriel has created a fascinatingly complex culture in the Nualans, who have adapted to a dangerously radioactive planet. This is the kind of space opera I love most, with larger than life characters, interesting cultures, culture clashes, romance, action, and just enough intriguing threads left dangling to promise further explorations.
Darame is a con artist, but she only goes for the big con, and her marks are other con artists. When she meets the Nualans, she is fascinated by people who do not lie. But when there is a vicious attack that nearly wipes out the ruling family, she finds herself involved . . . and as someone is lying somewhere, she has to use her skills to figure out who.
I am so glad that Kimbriel is bringing these novels out again, and is planning a fourth.
October 8, 2010
This was just such a lovely discovery of a great space opera book by an author I had only read fantasy (with an alternate history twist) of before.
It's a gripping story centered around two protagonists, one the clever outsider female planning the ultimate heist (for Robin Hood-like purposes furthermore, although Darame certainly wants her own share of the proceeds), and one the very competent, healer-gifted scion of a royal family-equivalent who never expected to be thrust into a role of prominence when a major intrigue is set off, killing most of the available contenders for the throne.
The book introduces outworlder Darame as the major viewpoint character, but Sheel, the ruler-to-be, gets a lot of point-of-view time as well. So do a few major side characters, all of them well defined and interesting as is the world, Nuala, that is the scene for all of this.
Really, I ought not to say space opera, this is more a science fiction of manners and intrigue (does that concept even exist? I've only heard it used with fantasy). The author has added lots of appendices at the end of the book (and lots of maps), but if you read carefully the strange names of important objects and concepts are explained clearly enough within the text without it turning into an info-dump.
That said, this isn't a high-action story, although the body count is high. It is intrigue and information gathering, so people speak to each other a lot. I prefer this kind of story. The action we get is effective and shocking in the right place.
The two protagonists develop very slowly into friends and eventually beloved, but don't read this for the equivalent of a current sf romance, because it isn't written that way.
K.E. Kimbriel has said that the other Nuala books to be re-released are still set on the planet but are standalone. On the one hand I'm happy to see more of this world in any case, on the other I would have liked to read more about Darame, Sheel, his sister Avis, his guuard Mailan and all the others.
Bonus points for lots of competent and dangerous women in a book that was first released in 1988. If you liked Ann McCaffrey's Crystal Singer trilogy, you should like this (Darame comes across as less self-centered than Killashandra, but the second Crystal Singer book has a similar situation to Fires of Nuala of a competent undercover heroine helping to solve a crisis situation on a foreign planet). Other worlds I was reminded of are the Liaden Universe and the Atevi Universe.
It's a gripping story centered around two protagonists, one the clever outsider female planning the ultimate heist (for Robin Hood-like purposes furthermore, although Darame certainly wants her own share of the proceeds), and one the very competent, healer-gifted scion of a royal family-equivalent who never expected to be thrust into a role of prominence when a major intrigue is set off, killing most of the available contenders for the throne.
The book introduces outworlder Darame as the major viewpoint character, but Sheel, the ruler-to-be, gets a lot of point-of-view time as well. So do a few major side characters, all of them well defined and interesting as is the world, Nuala, that is the scene for all of this.
Really, I ought not to say space opera, this is more a science fiction of manners and intrigue (does that concept even exist? I've only heard it used with fantasy). The author has added lots of appendices at the end of the book (and lots of maps), but if you read carefully the strange names of important objects and concepts are explained clearly enough within the text without it turning into an info-dump.
That said, this isn't a high-action story, although the body count is high. It is intrigue and information gathering, so people speak to each other a lot. I prefer this kind of story. The action we get is effective and shocking in the right place.
The two protagonists develop very slowly into friends and eventually beloved, but don't read this for the equivalent of a current sf romance, because it isn't written that way.
K.E. Kimbriel has said that the other Nuala books to be re-released are still set on the planet but are standalone. On the one hand I'm happy to see more of this world in any case, on the other I would have liked to read more about Darame, Sheel, his sister Avis, his guuard Mailan and all the others.
Bonus points for lots of competent and dangerous women in a book that was first released in 1988. If you liked Ann McCaffrey's Crystal Singer trilogy, you should like this (Darame comes across as less self-centered than Killashandra, but the second Crystal Singer book has a similar situation to Fires of Nuala of a competent undercover heroine helping to solve a crisis situation on a foreign planet). Other worlds I was reminded of are the Liaden Universe and the Atevi Universe.
March 7, 2011
In this second "Nuala" novel, Kimbriel takes us to the distant past with an entirely new set of characters. Nuala began as a scientific colony left to shift for itself against terrible dangers. The foremost of these is the constant mutagenic threat posed by the planet's radioactivity. Kimbriel posits that intelligent people have found creative survival solutions, not only as a colony but as individuals, but with the inevitable clashes in values. What serves society as a whole may not ensure individual happiness. Hence, the enshrined necessity for the members of ruling families to seek mates off-world to ensure fertility and vigor all too often results in personal unhappiness.
As in Kimbriel's previous "Nuala" novel, the external drama, although present in the form of political intrigue, assassinations, schemes and deceptions, provides a backdrop to the real story. Despite the cover copy, this is not a shoot 'em up space adventure, but a thoughtful and tender story of human relationships. Darame, like many others, is drawn to Nuala by the promise of riches; in her case, she's part of a team of con artists, as savvy as she is exotically beautiful, and she accidentally stumbles into the middle of an elaborate plot aimed at the ruling family of Atare. Sheel Atare is a healer, happy to remain outside the line of succession until events catapult him into the most dangerous position, the only legitimate claimant to the throne.
Dramatic lines of tension echo and enhance one another as the story progresses. Who's behind the coup (murder/political mystery)? What happened in "the Emerson disaster" to make Sheel, otherwise sensitive and open-hearted, so guarded in love (psychological mystery)? Where does Darame's heart--and her future--lie (love story)?
I found this second "Nuala" tale more focused than the first. The world is just as fascinating, the plot twists and character revelations as intricate, but I found the focus on Sheel and Darame more deeply satisfying. I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next "Nuala" book, Hidden Fires.
As in Kimbriel's previous "Nuala" novel, the external drama, although present in the form of political intrigue, assassinations, schemes and deceptions, provides a backdrop to the real story. Despite the cover copy, this is not a shoot 'em up space adventure, but a thoughtful and tender story of human relationships. Darame, like many others, is drawn to Nuala by the promise of riches; in her case, she's part of a team of con artists, as savvy as she is exotically beautiful, and she accidentally stumbles into the middle of an elaborate plot aimed at the ruling family of Atare. Sheel Atare is a healer, happy to remain outside the line of succession until events catapult him into the most dangerous position, the only legitimate claimant to the throne.
Dramatic lines of tension echo and enhance one another as the story progresses. Who's behind the coup (murder/political mystery)? What happened in "the Emerson disaster" to make Sheel, otherwise sensitive and open-hearted, so guarded in love (psychological mystery)? Where does Darame's heart--and her future--lie (love story)?
I found this second "Nuala" tale more focused than the first. The world is just as fascinating, the plot twists and character revelations as intricate, but I found the focus on Sheel and Darame more deeply satisfying. I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next "Nuala" book, Hidden Fires.
May 7, 2012
4/5; 4 stars; A-
I really liked this book. It is the first book I've read by this author. I'm not sure how to classify it as there are elements of fantasy as well as sci-fi. It guess its mostly 'soft' sci-fi, where the emphasis is on social aspects as opposed to scientific.
I loved the female protagonist in this story, Darame, as well as Mailan, Avis, and the many other strong female characters. The plot was interesting.
The only weakness in the book was that I thought it was pretty hard to follow in the beginning. I was confused fairly often by the 'voice'. Trying to pick out when the character was thinking to themselves or remembering. The used of italics quite often in the 'thinking' paragraphs did not add any clarity.
I really liked this book. It is the first book I've read by this author. I'm not sure how to classify it as there are elements of fantasy as well as sci-fi. It guess its mostly 'soft' sci-fi, where the emphasis is on social aspects as opposed to scientific.
I loved the female protagonist in this story, Darame, as well as Mailan, Avis, and the many other strong female characters. The plot was interesting.
The only weakness in the book was that I thought it was pretty hard to follow in the beginning. I was confused fairly often by the 'voice'. Trying to pick out when the character was thinking to themselves or remembering. The used of italics quite often in the 'thinking' paragraphs did not add any clarity.
November 14, 2010
Great! I read this one and the next one in one gulp, over two days. over 1000 pages and I LOVED IT! Classic royal intrigue SF plus adventure plus romance, nom nom.
February 25, 2013
2.5 stars...
Surprisingly, I am disagreeing (and I almost never do!) with the lovely and discerning Estara Swanburg so please refer to her review for a second opinion.
Have you ever been on a date where the guy/girl does something that turns you off early in the evening and then little mannerisms, ones you would overlook in any of your friends, start to drive you completely up the wall? The initial turn-off act doesn't even have to be that big -- maybe something unintentional and completely understandable to everyone else in the world. Say he/she offhandedly scoffed at chihuahua dogs but you happen to be a chihuahua dog owner. Or he/she tried to inform you of some quack-scientific theory, such as how black holes produced by the large hadron collider could consume the earth, and though you are not an expert, you are getting a PhD in astrophysics and know the total improbability of something like that, plus trust the physics community in general, and does this MBA-toting fool really think he/she can understand this without taking a semester or two of calculus, and doesn't he/she know that you don't really feel like talking about physics at a bar anyway? (Ha ha, if you have a hard time relating to this, please see chihuahua example, or take my word for it that it is annoying...) My point is that if these aren't deal-breakers per say, and your date might still be good-looking and smart and kind to children, you start to fixate on how he/she slurps his/her drink and walks a little funny, has an annoying laugh, etc. And you decide early on that not only will you not invite this person in at the end of the date, you will go to great lengths, including embarrassing, awkward ones, to duck a goodnight kiss, barring some miraculous change in date mid-evening. That's how I felt about this book and there were no mid-book changes.
I think the personal button pushing began with description of the heroine:
A pale visage greeted her, the brightly polished metal a poor mirror... Tiny, elfin, bearing a beauty at odds with her long-dead, tall, fair cousins.... Loosening the wipe, she let the mass of silver hair fall around her face and shoulders... Pulling on a white, sleeveless stretch-top to hold her full breasts firm, Darame dug for her white pants.
I find it annoying when a)back flips are taken to describe the heroine early on -- I want appearance to be incidental to the story and hence come out incidentally b)when the heroine sounds like a playboy bunny -- not to be prejudiced against playboy bunnies, but the characterization must be done thoroughly for me to get into them otherwise it's all just centerfold imagery to me which isn't typically my thing.
So I have a mental image of Dolly Parton prancing around the entire novel, but that's not all -- Dolly is incredibly smart and kind and loyal and rides horses and is a master con-artist, but a good con-artist -- the kind who only robs greedy, rich people. So she's really Robin Hood -- a sexy-schmexy, female, sci-fi light, Barbie-Robin Hood.
The hero is hardly better -- handsome, kind, intelligent (we are told that anyway, although I must say I never noticed him doing anything particularly intelligent -- he either avoids threats by luck or keeps getting kidnapped.)
So Barbie goes flouncing off to save Ken, making friends with all his family except the evil sister. Everyone else, however, takes this stranger in and in short measure trusts her with all their secrets and she being so much smarter and more worldly, , even though she knows pretty much nothing about their planet/politics.
Barbie and Ken, unsurprisingly despite there being some initially tense moments when Barbie learns that Ken is a healer as in, *gasp*, he can heal people with his hands. That is scary because it means he is a mutant and the heroine was very scared, so there was an attempt for some romantic tension. Although since this scary ability to make sick people well does exactly that, and because the heroine is so smart, she eventually .
Another thing I felt was not explained adequately is why Barbie dropped the whole con thing on a moments notice to involve herself in planetary politics. She does a little soul-searching, "Why am I doing this? It's so atypical for me!" but I never really got it.
Also the bad guys were exactly the people who were But no, the only thing that was unexpected was how predictable everything was.
Anyway, that's my judgmental take. Due to little things at the beginning, I have now picked the book apart for every little thing that annoyed me and now can't even find anything nice to say. I must admit that I got a bit bored and had to kind of force myself to the end. ;-| But I'm sure there are non-chihuahua owners (figuratively) who will like this book more than I did.
Surprisingly, I am disagreeing (and I almost never do!) with the lovely and discerning Estara Swanburg so please refer to her review for a second opinion.
Have you ever been on a date where the guy/girl does something that turns you off early in the evening and then little mannerisms, ones you would overlook in any of your friends, start to drive you completely up the wall? The initial turn-off act doesn't even have to be that big -- maybe something unintentional and completely understandable to everyone else in the world. Say he/she offhandedly scoffed at chihuahua dogs but you happen to be a chihuahua dog owner. Or he/she tried to inform you of some quack-scientific theory, such as how black holes produced by the large hadron collider could consume the earth, and though you are not an expert, you are getting a PhD in astrophysics and know the total improbability of something like that, plus trust the physics community in general, and does this MBA-toting fool really think he/she can understand this without taking a semester or two of calculus, and doesn't he/she know that you don't really feel like talking about physics at a bar anyway? (Ha ha, if you have a hard time relating to this, please see chihuahua example, or take my word for it that it is annoying...) My point is that if these aren't deal-breakers per say, and your date might still be good-looking and smart and kind to children, you start to fixate on how he/she slurps his/her drink and walks a little funny, has an annoying laugh, etc. And you decide early on that not only will you not invite this person in at the end of the date, you will go to great lengths, including embarrassing, awkward ones, to duck a goodnight kiss, barring some miraculous change in date mid-evening. That's how I felt about this book and there were no mid-book changes.
I think the personal button pushing began with description of the heroine:
A pale visage greeted her, the brightly polished metal a poor mirror... Tiny, elfin, bearing a beauty at odds with her long-dead, tall, fair cousins.... Loosening the wipe, she let the mass of silver hair fall around her face and shoulders... Pulling on a white, sleeveless stretch-top to hold her full breasts firm, Darame dug for her white pants.
I find it annoying when a)back flips are taken to describe the heroine early on -- I want appearance to be incidental to the story and hence come out incidentally b)when the heroine sounds like a playboy bunny -- not to be prejudiced against playboy bunnies, but the characterization must be done thoroughly for me to get into them otherwise it's all just centerfold imagery to me which isn't typically my thing.
So I have a mental image of Dolly Parton prancing around the entire novel, but that's not all -- Dolly is incredibly smart and kind and loyal and rides horses and is a master con-artist, but a good con-artist -- the kind who only robs greedy, rich people. So she's really Robin Hood -- a sexy-schmexy, female, sci-fi light, Barbie-Robin Hood.
The hero is hardly better -- handsome, kind, intelligent (we are told that anyway, although I must say I never noticed him doing anything particularly intelligent -- he either avoids threats by luck or keeps getting kidnapped.)
So Barbie goes flouncing off to save Ken, making friends with all his family except the evil sister. Everyone else, however, takes this stranger in and in short measure trusts her with all their secrets and she being so much smarter and more worldly, , even though she knows pretty much nothing about their planet/politics.
Barbie and Ken, unsurprisingly despite there being some initially tense moments when Barbie learns that Ken is a healer as in, *gasp*, he can heal people with his hands. That is scary because it means he is a mutant and the heroine was very scared, so there was an attempt for some romantic tension. Although since this scary ability to make sick people well does exactly that, and because the heroine is so smart, she eventually .
Another thing I felt was not explained adequately is why Barbie dropped the whole con thing on a moments notice to involve herself in planetary politics. She does a little soul-searching, "Why am I doing this? It's so atypical for me!" but I never really got it.
Also the bad guys were exactly the people who were But no, the only thing that was unexpected was how predictable everything was.
Anyway, that's my judgmental take. Due to little things at the beginning, I have now picked the book apart for every little thing that annoyed me and now can't even find anything nice to say. I must admit that I got a bit bored and had to kind of force myself to the end. ;-| But I'm sure there are non-chihuahua owners (figuratively) who will like this book more than I did.
March 24, 2016
Finished this at 2 am -- then bought book 2.
Interesting set-up & complicated political system. Just have to get past food changing dead hair color universally on your body. Apparently permanently -- otherwise she'd have polkadot eyebrows & body hair.
Interesting set-up & complicated political system. Just have to get past food changing dead hair color universally on your body. Apparently permanently -- otherwise she'd have polkadot eyebrows & body hair.
August 13, 2017
First book of a series - didn't know that when I started - but glad. It was a really good book. good story - not predictable - good characters. I listened to this book. The reader was good. He created good reliable voices for the people - but he created a style of speech (or it was his reading style) that felt a little awkward... like he was trying to keep it flat... unemotional... I'm thinking it was intentional - because he has an amazing southern accent that can be liquidly transitioned into accent-less and then back into deep south instantly... that transition alone was worth the listening.
I dont own the next two books yet - I hope I dont forget they are out there! - Neat world!
I dont own the next two books yet - I hope I dont forget they are out there! - Neat world!
November 17, 2020
First book in the series, with Sheel and Darame.
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September 30, 2010I was adding the e-book edition to Goodreads' communal memory, and then this review box pops up! Well, what I learned from this edition is that it is not easy to make a visually appealing e-book. I had to remake one of the maps, since I still haven't found the original that was copied to go in HIDDEN FIRES, another Nuala book.
But in preparing the book for its new edition, I was reminded all over again what I was trying to examine back when this book first came out -- who are we, at rock bottom, we humans? What do we value most? Can we learn to live without killing each other, and teach our children that lesson?
An amoral thief sets into motion a terrifying sequence of events, and in response, a sheltered doctor and a thief with a bedrock moral compass must somehow save an entire culture. This book has mystery, political intrigue, adventure and even some romance. I still enjoy reading it, even after all this time.
I hope others enjoy it, too!
But in preparing the book for its new edition, I was reminded all over again what I was trying to examine back when this book first came out -- who are we, at rock bottom, we humans? What do we value most? Can we learn to live without killing each other, and teach our children that lesson?
An amoral thief sets into motion a terrifying sequence of events, and in response, a sheltered doctor and a thief with a bedrock moral compass must somehow save an entire culture. This book has mystery, political intrigue, adventure and even some romance. I still enjoy reading it, even after all this time.
I hope others enjoy it, too!
November 10, 2014
Fires of Nuala has been with us a long time; published in 1988, rereleased in 2010 and hit Audible in Dec 2013. I was intrigued by a plot that includes assassinations, political intrigue and the promise of both mystery and action. Also, one of the main characters is a beautiful woman who is a con artist.
I found that I had to put in many long hours before the book became interesting and had trouble identifying with the characters. Way too perfect. Overall, not as exciting as I had hoped, but the entertainment value is decent.
I found that I had to put in many long hours before the book became interesting and had trouble identifying with the characters. Way too perfect. Overall, not as exciting as I had hoped, but the entertainment value is decent.
November 24, 2023
I quite liked the story and the characters. Throughout it I was trying to figure out who the bad guy was. The main drawback was the fertility focus, but given the world building and the fact that it affected all and not just the women stopped it from being annoying.
I also liked how the relationships developed as it never felt forced. Especially, the romance was built well.
Not sure I'll pick up the sequels but I'll keep an eye out for her name.
CW: Infertility and a lot of fertility discussion as well as discussion of miscarriages (though none happen on page)
I also liked how the relationships developed as it never felt forced. Especially, the romance was built well.
Not sure I'll pick up the sequels but I'll keep an eye out for her name.
CW: Infertility and a lot of fertility discussion as well as discussion of miscarriages (though none happen on page)
January 13, 2011
I had a hard time getting into this book at first, but after a while things started to liven up a bit and I started to enjoy it. The world that she creates is somewhat interesting if a tad cliche. I'll probably end up reading more of the stories set in Nuala but to be honest it didn't excite me the way other recent reads have...I will say this, after the slow start it did keep me reading, so for entertainment value alone this wasn't a bad read.
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November 14, 2021Did you like Pern or Darkover? Then you should try Nuala!
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"Ms. Kimbriel once again catches our fancy with a subtle and complex plot, weaving an intricate socio-political structure from an imaginative premise."
---Rave Reviews (4 Stars)
********
"Recommended."
---LOCUS Magazine
********
"I will wager that once you finish this one, you will go searching through the bookstores for the first."
---Thrust Magazine
********
"Ms. Kimbriel once again catches our fancy with a subtle and complex plot, weaving an intricate socio-political structure from an imaginative premise."
---Rave Reviews (4 Stars)
********
"Recommended."
---LOCUS Magazine
********
"I will wager that once you finish this one, you will go searching through the bookstores for the first."
---Thrust Magazine
December 27, 2010
It was not easy for me to get past chapter three in this book. I picked it up and set it down at least a dozen times before it took. It's a decent story and I find Nuala a very interesting world. If you like sci-fi for the world building, you will enjoy this book. I found the characters a bit flat and the story rather formulary.
May 20, 2016
This was a fantastic book! Very well written with the perfect amount and balance of action, mystery and political intrigue. A hint of romance and a dash of an interesting culture and this is by far one of my favorite books to have read this year. I'm very excited to read the sequels to it. I'm certain that they will be equally as good.
September 23, 2011
I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Based on the ER description it sounded interesting to me, but after several starts over several months I have to say that this story isn't working for me.
April 4, 2012
I don't give out five-star reviews on a regular basis. The main criterion for a book's earning one is that I had to drag myself away to tend to things like work and meals and bathroom breaks. Nuff said?
February 8, 2014
Read this years ago in the late '80s/early '90's for a science fiction book group I belonged to for a while. I remember that I enjoyed the who series, but at this point I'm a little fuzzy on the details!
August 9, 2015
Great story of dealing with different cultures, a bit of a scam, a mystery and a strong female protagonist. It reminds me of the strong characters in McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet and Tower and Hive series.
September 17, 2015
Exciting, action-filled
I really enjoyed this book and will be joining this author's Amazon page so I can be kept informed of new books. This world of Nuala is exciting and fantastic as are the characters in this story. Highly recommend reading if you enjoy sci-fi.
I really enjoyed this book and will be joining this author's Amazon page so I can be kept informed of new books. This world of Nuala is exciting and fantastic as are the characters in this story. Highly recommend reading if you enjoy sci-fi.
June 10, 2011
The story was overcomplicated, requiring a great deal of thought to unravel the roles every character played in the plot. The book was well written, though, and the characters were realistic.
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October 11, 2015I could not put the book down when I read it years ago. I still re-read it along with all of her other books.
October 20, 2013
I liked the first book, loved the world building, strange mutations centered around the eyes.
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