Doug's Book Reviews: Genellan: In the Shadow of the Moon

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	Genellan: In the Shadow of the Moon		Rating
			C
	Scott G. Gier
	Series Info	Related Books
	#2 in series Genellan	No related books
Peace has been established between humans, the cliff dwellers of Genellan, and the kones on planet two. Well, sort of. Earth's Tellurian Legion wants to start major colonization efforts. The kones want humans to give up the secret to interstellar travel before they'll allow more than a small town on the planet. The cliff dwellers are trying to adapt to interspecies diplomacy. And Buccari and the other Survivors are trying to thread through all these wants and do what is best for everyone: humanity, cliff dwellers, kones, and the planet of Genellan itself. Meanwhile, the mysterious aliens who annihilated a previous Terran expedition and ravaged the kones' world centuries ago have shows up once again. If the three races don't get their acts together soon, the fourth may make the whole situation moot. Considering the main problem with the last book was an overabundance of momentary side problems that did little to advance the book's actual plot — most often in the form of ferocious native wildlife and technical problems with the humans' machinery — I was less than pleased to find the author included more of the same only a few dozen pages into this sequel. There aren't as many of them in this book as the last, true, but it still left a bad first impression. There's an awful lot of scheming going on in this book, which elicited in me the usual mixed feelings. Frustration at the characters who are clinically incapable of trust and straight dealings. And admiration at the author for being able to write it without making them seem like Snidely Whiplash, throwing a wrench in the works just because they're that kind of jerks. These humans and kones are shortsighted, paranoid, and greedy, true, but at least they are not causing problems just because they can. They have definite goals in mind. The frustration does at times overcome the admiration, however. Those characters are extraordinarily shortsighted, paranoid, and greedy. it was also frustrating to watch Buccari so often dismiss the concerns of someone she otherwise trusts and relies on. It helps the story somewhat, in that it added tension by leaver her less than fully prepared for some of the later conflicts and events, but it was far out of her character for her to do so in the first place. Another bothersome thing about the story here was the general technology level of the Genellan colony. We are told that this is the twenty-fifth century, but the colony feels basically like modern Montana. Considering how much the Tellurian Legion is supposedly depending upon Genellan as a relief valve and morale booster for Earth, you'd think they'd have dropped some real technology on the settlements. Where are the premanufactured mining rigs and power stations? Where are the construction machines? Everything has to be build almost by hand, making Genellan feel like a mix of nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I can fully understand Gier's toning down of the space technology, even agree with it — who's to say we'd find a better way than chemical reactants to propel our starships even with five hundred years to think about it? But these other aspects of humanity's technology seemed artificially low. Still, things get significantly better in the middle of the book. Once those schemes are set in motion, the irritations diminish. It doesn't matter if the reasons behind a character's manipulations are unsavory at that point. Plus, it is then that the fourth race makes its appearance, which brings in a whole new aspect and raises the tension level dramatically. And while the weapons and space drives may feel a little klunky compared to the typical space opera, there is enough action to let readers gloss over it. In some ways this book is actually better than the first one, once things get going, because it's not an almost episodic litany of man against the world he lives in. The middle portion almost saves the book — enough to get a better grade, at least. But not quite, because the ending has its own problems. Even as the situation at Genellan degenerates, Bucarri and the rest of the fleet are wandering nearby star systems, looking for survivors of the rapacious Ulaggi and trying to survive another untamed, hostile planet. Genellan: Planetfall had a lot of different elements brought together into one book, and it generally worked. This time, it just came across as unfocused. All in all, I still did enjoy this book, despite its flaws. Its certainly not enough to turn me off the series. Overall, its a fine, realistic exploration of what might actually take place given the situations put forth. The technology is kept as real as possible, the characters believable. And the introduction of the Ulaggi as an active story element adds a whole new angle the game, changing the focus of the series dramatically. But there were just a few too many problems to ignore. As much as I wanted to give this a better grade, in the end I found I couldn't really justify it. Still, a reader just a little less picky, or with slightly different tastes, will probably enjoy this book as much as the first.

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