Rating: 
Summary: Amazing, A Class Act!
Review: This is the story of two races who live several light years from us, the Kinley and the Lucien. Both are compassionate races, but neither understood each other, and a war between them that took place 5000 years ago nearly destroyed both races and sent their technologies back centuries and more. The Lucien are threatening the Kinley with more warfare, so the Kinley, in a desperate attempt to save themselves, dispatch a sleeper ship with two Kinley aboard, to Sol, eight light years away, to recover the secrets of a faster-than-light starship their ancestors sent there 5000 years ago on a survey mission just prior to the war with the Lucien, and that ship has not been heard from for about 5000 years, a mystery. The Lucien, after discovering the Kinley mission, send a mission of their own, trying also to get the ancient starship technology before the Kinley can get it, and keep it for themselves. Arwen Dayton is superb at character development and plot. The characters are fully developed, and Dayton really brings out the emotions and thoughts in the characters and projects it all very nicely right off the pages and into your mind. Personally, I do prefer to read science fiction by female writers as they seem to do much better in this area than male writers do, and if you are like me you will care about several of the people in this novel as you read it. And more than that, Dayton illustrates how two alien species, mortal enemies of each other for thousands of years, may not be so different from each other after all. And if you, Arwen Dayton, read this, I have a note for you: well done and keep it coming!
Rating:
Summary: In search of lost tech
Review: This zingy novel begins with the Kinley, a race of humans in a system eight light years from earth. There aren't many of them left, as they've been fighting a long war with the Lucien, who now have the few Kinley who remain blockaded on their home planet. The Lucien had used nukes, the Kinley bioterrorism and when the story opens the Lucien have the better of it, as the Kinley learn that their enemies have plans for their total annihilation. But the Kinley know that they once possessed the secret of faster than light travel, and so they dispatch Pruit to run the blockade and make it to earth, where a survey team had been sent 5,000 years ago, during the time of the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt, in search of their fellow humans (it's not clear, even to the protagonists, where the human race originated--here, there, or somewhere else entirely). While they were checking out the Egyptians, the Lucien had attacked the Kinley, and the survey team never returned. Pruit makes it to earth-and that's only the beginning. Arwen Elys Dayton's novel twists and turns along, from multiple points of view: Pruit, her Lucien pursuers, the survivors of the original expedition (yeah, some are still around--wait for it), a young American man who's looking for adventure, and flashbacks to the doings of the survey team at time of the Fourth Dynasty (it's not tipping things off too much to say the pyramids are involved). The author's prose hums along--she handles the action stuff very well indeed and one scene, in which Pruit and one of her enemies must escape from yet another, is an absolute gem of pacing, dialog, and plot advancement. Also deftly done is the way the author handles the reaction of everyone here on earth. Nobody seems all that surprised to learn there are space aliens among us, which makes me assume that Arwen intends this as part of the fun. And it is fun. It's a serious tale alright, but you'll probably get the sense that Arwen managed to entertain herself royally while she was writing it. She'll probably entertain you too. As for me, I can't wait to read what she's going to write next. A sequel perhaps?
Rating:
Summary: Quite a tale...something to think about.
Review: Wow! What a tale she tells. I almost wish it were true. From the notes in the back of the book, the description that she should be described as "kind of a loser" just doesn't fit with the quality of story telling she has. The research for the proper names of things in egypt was perfect, right down to Dr. Hawass. Art bell would like this story as would Whitley Strieber. I give it 10, even though Amazon only lets me give it a 5! They should make a movie a out of this one! Jon
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