Snare

Rating:
Summary: Snare Failed To Capture My Interest
Review: Despite an intriguing premise, Snare was ultimately a disappointment. Katherine Kerr is an accomplished writer and I've enjoyed both her Deverry fantasy series and her occasional forays in science fiction such as Polar City Blues. What's even more frustrating about Snare is that it's hard to identify just what didn't work. The plot about various factions of humans who end up stranded on an alien world is an intriguing one. How those various cultures have survived, i.e. Islamic, scientist, and "comnee" or specially designed humans, and interacted with each other and the alien ChaMeech seems like it would make for compelling reading. There are a number of interesting and sympathetic characters such as Zayn, Ammi, Loy, Jerzo, the Sibyl, etc. Yet as much as I cared about them, the story just dragged along.

One of the reasons things dragged was the split story. The reader follows two main groups of people as they both race to locate Jerzo Khan, a potential ruler in exile. Along the way the two groups occasionally interact but they are kept so conveniently seperated that it's hard to generate much conflict to drive the story. The one group is hoping to stop (they think) a deadly assassin and yet as we follow the assassin's tale, you realize that he isn't this bad person after all. You know he'll never kill the Khan, so the worries of the other group seem trival.

The plot is further stewed by the arrival of the alien ChaMeech who add more complications to the plot but never any real danger. They supposedly slaughtered a whole community of humans ages ago hich everyone knows about and resents, yet the characters are so noble they never have any doubts about hooking up with the aliens to hammer out their difference. Admirable? Certainly. Interesting? Not so much.

Ultimately the lack of real danger for most of the characters makes for boring reading. And the fact that they were almost all too good and noble for them to be interesting either. The crazy sorcerer doesn't seem to serve any purpose. He's sort of 'bad' without any motivations. I was also troubled by the haphazard feminist message that was once in a while tacked onto the plot. The culture Zayn was raised in is a patriarchal one, the woman kept secluded for the most part or relagated to minor roles, yet he doesn't have any problem with being the Spirit Rider's servant - I find that hard to believe. I find it also hard to believe that the Khanate would be so tolerant of the Tribes and their ways, yet they are. The reason the crazy sorcerer is 'bad' is because he not only does he attract followers and lead them on with false hopes for the future, he also rapes little girls too. At the beginning of the book there is a flashback to a woman saying the horses are freedom, a point that is dropped for the next 500 + pages, only to reappear at the very end as a point that the horses had made the women of the Comnee free. What!? I'd buy it if that had played a significant role in the story, but it doesn't really, so why was it included in the first place? As with the plot, potential cultutal conflicts ripe for drama end up coming to nothing.

So why, you're probably asking yourself, did I finish it? Mostly because I was intrigued by Zayn. He had actually done some bad things and in a way was trying to find himself, or maybe reinvent himself is a better desscription. The other stories felt incidental to his journey of self-discovery. He was the character with the most hang-ups, the most past, the most problems, therefore his story was worth readng about. An extremely flawed novel that could have been much, much more.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, worth reading
Review: Entertaining book, good and original story line. After finishing the book I got the feeling that something was missing, though I still reckon its worth 2.5-3 stars. I think there probably wasn't enough focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the main characters and when the last "lock fire" command was sent I didn't feel that the suspense was built up enough. Also as another reviewer has mentioned, the inter-racial conflict seemed to dissipate too easily. Overall though I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a good winter (or summer if you're in the North) read.

Rating:
Summary: delightful world building tale
Review: Former Kazrak cavalry Captain Idres Warkannan and "high tech sorcerer" Yarl Soutan seek Jezro Khan, the exiled brother of the corrupt ruler of Kazrajistan, to lead a revolt to overthrow the worthless dangerous regime of his sibling. At about the same time, the fanatical Muslim sect The Chosen sends assassin Zayn Hassan to stop Jezro's rumored return.

To reach the isolated region where Jezro resides, the two enemy groups cross a grassy wilderness inhabited by the alien Cha'Meech and by human nomads. On his trek Zayn meets Ammadin, the Spirit Rider healer of a nomadic tribe. Not long afterward, he begins to wonder if his chosen profession and his current assignment are justified. Meanwhile the "magician" Soutan learns of the Hassan mission and his allies send out their assassins to kill their competitor. Soon the Cha'Meech encounter Ammadin, the first step towards the quartet of rivals confronting one another, but where this global conflict will lead to when the events unfold is anyone guess.

The key to this science fiction novel is that the four major societies are complex, feel genuine, and their rivalry definitely feels real. To achieve such a deep objective, segments of the plot slow down in order to introduce and develop the cast. Still the contrast between the groups and the varying ethic stands of the key players on each side of the square make for a meandering yet delightful world building tale that SNAREs the reader and never lets go until the final page.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A book killed by too much tolerance
Review: There are some books that take you by the scruff of the neck and fling you straight into story of strange worlds and stranger people, that set up a seemingly uncomplicated situation and make it seem intricate because we see it through the eyes of intricate, complex people.

This is not that kind of book.

It could have been. It should have been. It even starts out that way -- but that complicated humanity that can bring the most mundane story to life doesn't quite manage to animate this one, despite a very promising start. After giving it some thought, I believe I know why.

Katharine Kerr, like Anne McCaffrey, balances on the fence between sci-fi and fantasy, two genres that are often at loggerheads because of a basic conflict in the worldview of their writers and readers, which boils down to one simple question: what is more important, myth or truth? If your truth were to destroy the most beautiful of myths and strip the world of mystery, would it be better not to know it at all? Fantasy says so. Or is a beautiful lie still a lie, and therefore wrong? Sci-fi says so. To Kerr's credit, she is one of the few "speculative fiction" writers to tackle this issue without necessarily claiming to have one correct answer. In "Snare", truth vs myth is perhaps the central theme that links all the individual characters together, and ultimately they each reach their own conclusion. Some of them don't reach one, and some decide the question is not important, but either way, this is not a book that tries to provide easy answers. Perhaps the only answer it does provide is tolerance -- the importance of recognising the validity of someone else's point of view, the importance of accepting another person's choice even when you don't understand it.

Unfortunately, tolerance has a major drawback in any story: it can destroy drama. By partially or completely eliminating value judgements, all conflict loses relevance. It's impossible to feel for a character's predicament when your sympathies lie on all sides simultaneously. The result is a "wishy-washy" story that tries so hard to be all things to all people that it ends up being none of them to anyone.

This is why it's hard to care about the characters in "Snare". While Kerr's intent seems to be to avoid judgements of their actions, the result is that they often act in ways that seem incomprehensible. More importantly, it's as though nobody cares. A woman murders a man in cold blood in vengeance for his vicious rape of her daughter. Shouldn't there be some personal conflict, both within this supposedly gentle, civilised woman, and between her and other people who may not share her point of view? There is not. Even more incomprehensibly, a man who has been told his whole life that a particular thing is wrong suddenly discovers that another group of people among whom he has ended up doesn't think that there is anything wrong with it. He promptly goes ahead and breaks the taboo he'd held his whole life, and apparently feels no conflict about it later. Nobody else seems to have a problem with it, either, including people who are directly affected by his actions. Why? The list goes on.

The one villain in "Snare" suffers continually from this incomprehensibility. His primary motive is fairly believable, but most of his actions seem nothing more than an artificial attempt to inject conflict into a story diluted by all that tolerance. Thus we get a largely irrelevant "tacked on" backstory about a girl he brutalised (mainly, it seems, to establish the fact that this is an Irredeemably Bad Person). We also get absolutely no dialogue for this guy that involves anything but the immediate -- so it's almost impossible to relate to him on any level except the robotic. He'll respond to questions and occasionally taunt the other characters, but this seems to be the limit of his mental abilities. Essentially, he's a walking conflict device.

One badly drawn villain isn't enough to ruin a great story, of course -- but it's also not enough to inject tension and conflict into a story where everyone is so open-minded and understanding. The end result is, sadly, merely boring.

Rating:
Summary: Slow beginning, but worth pushing through
Review: What happens when three very different groups of people, who were actually trying to escape each other and live in isolation, end up marooned together on a distant planet already inhabited by a sentient species? How will they learn to live together and to protect the indigenous ChaMeech, while still preserving their unique heritage and traditions?

This is the backdrop Kerr, author of the acclaimed "Deverry" series of fantasy novels, sets up for her science fiction book that takes place on the planet Snare. After a few false starts and confusing twists and turns, the majority of this novel is excellent, with great characters and an interesting plot.

Two major flaws: The beginning of the book, which is confusing and really fails, in my opinion, to properly introduce some of the major characters. And the end, which trails off somewhat anticlimactically and, it seems, right on the verge of some really interesting stuff we've been anticipating for the last hundred pages! I don't know if Kerr had a sequel planned, but if ever a book screamed for one, this is it.

However, if you can push through the first hundred pages or so, it does get MUCH better, trust me. I love books that feature characters who "switch sides," or have underlying motivations that shape their actions in ways that aren't immediately foreseeable. Suffice it to say that both Zayn, an exiled Karshak who seems to be an assasin sent to kill the rightful Khan, and Soutan, the enigmatic sorcerer who promises to lead the Khan back to his people, are NOT what they appear. None of the characters are static; all grow and change in completely believable ways over the course of the book. Even the alien ChaMeech are revealed to be both more and less "human" than was assumed.

The revellation of the history of Snare and its three groups of settlers (the Muslim Karshaks, the American-Indian-like Comnees, and the technologically advanced Cantonneurs) comes a little late in the book for my taste, and as I said the ending leaves a bit to be desired. But the rest of the book was great enough that I'm dying for a sequel to tie up the loose ends! I would highly recommend this book to both devoted Kerr fans and readers of sci-fi alike.