Really liked it. I'm becoming a fan

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	• Ties of Power (Trade Pact Universe) Julie E. Czerneda DAW, 1999 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Mystical One of Drapskii

Ties of Power (1999) is the second novel in the Trade Pact Universe, following A Thousand Words for Stranger. In the previous volume, Sira di Sarc chose Jason Morgan and passed the Power-of-Choice to him, thereby emptying herself of its urges. She informed her father of her awareness of his involvement in the establishment of Yihtor's colony on Acranam and the death of Kurr. Then she and Morgan passed through the M'hir to his hidden flyer and headed back to their home, the Silver Fox.

In this novel, Barac sud Sarc -- Sira's cousin, Third Level Adept and former First Scout of the Clan -- is leaving Camos. After three refusals of Choice, Barac knows that the Clan Council will never allow him to breed. He follows the Silver Fox to Pocular.

After three unsuccessful days of searching for Sira, Barac comes to the Spacer's Haven. Since the bar is warm and dry, he decides to rest a while. The Drapsk sitting next him at the bar convinces him to stay to see the Ram'ad Witch who owns the Haven. When the witch finally appears (out of thin air), Barac is surprised to recognize Sira.

It seems that Sas'qaat, the previous owner, was not as good at Stars and Comets as Sira and she had won the Spacer's Haven from him. Now she poses as a local witch to attract customers to the gambling tables and bar. It brings in a tidy income, but she is beginning to be bored with the pretension.

Jason Morgan, her Choice if not her Chosen, is out in the backwoods hunting for truffles. Premick, his native hunting partner, prefers to hunt for furs even if they bring in only a tenth as much by weight. They are stalking game when Morgan receives a summon from Sira and calls off the hunt.

Sira signs over the Spacer's Haven to Barac so that she can return to being Sira Morgan, the Hindermost of the Silver Fox. Leaving Barac in charge, she visits Premick's hamlet. The Poculans throw a festival, with eating and dancing. After a few drinks, Morgan and Premick settle a dispute with their fists over who will serve Sira; meanwhile, someone attacks the hamlet from fliers and takes Sira away. Morgan finds her hours later in the woods where she has been dropped and brings her back to the hamlet for treatment of her wounds.

Once Sira regains consciousness, she passes her anger on to Morgan and sends him off to regain what has been taken from her. As she is recuperating, her sister Rael visits her in the hamlet. Sira flees through the M'hir as far as she can to escape her presence.

Sira comes to her senses aboard the Drapsk ship Makmora far from Pocular. The Drapsk are small, eyeless humanoids with large upstanding plumes. They are known to believe in magic and have tried to entice Sira with elaborate gifts to come to Drapskii for a festival to select the most magical personage. Now they are overjoyed to find her on their ship. They will do anything for her except take her back to Pocular.

In this story, Sira discovers that the Drapsk know more about the M'hir than does the Clan. Despite her anger at the Clan Council, she learns that she just cannot abandon the individual Clan members. After she is adopted into the Makii tribe, she finds that she also has a moral obligation to the Drapsk.

Highly recommended for Czerneda fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien relations, unwanted responsibilities and romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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Really liked it. I'm becoming a fan

I loved this story. It's a little overly romantic, but the characters are a lot of fun. Very space opera, with twists and turns throughout.

I found it hard to put down. Stayed up too late. Love the Drapsk.

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A satisfying adventure

This novel tells the continuing adventures of Sira Morgan, the most powerful telepath of the Clan, a small and secretive species whose culture is built entirely around their formidable telepathic ability, and Jason Morgan, the starship owner/captain she met in the previous volume.

Although this is a direct sequel to "A Thousand Words for Stranger", it wouldn't be such a bad idea to skip that book and go directly to this one. What you need to know about the characters and the setting is reviewed early in the book; in fact, the summary here is often a clearer explanation of what actually happened there than was given in "Thousand Words" itself, which I found frustratingly obscure at some key moments. And this is a substantially better story, with various characters and plotlines more successfully juggled, than the earlier novel.

At the start of the sequel, Sira and Jason are living inconspicuously on a backwater planet. Sira runs a small casino and bar catering mostly to spacers; Jason is trading in truffles and other rare local delicacies. An attack on Sira separates them, and Jason is off seeking to find out who was behind the attack while Sira finds herself a guest, not always willing, of the Drapsk, an alien species fascinated by her powers. Czerneda alternates between chapters relaying Sira's adventures in the first person and third person accounts of Jason, Sira's sister Rael, and various other characters. Gradually all the characters and plots converge on Ret 7, the swampy planet where the series began.

I liked this book quite a bit. Czerneda's first novel seemed a promising work with too many beginner's mistakes. With this book, still quite early in her career, she is emerging as a confident and mature storyteller.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

In this magnificent sequel to her highly acclaimed debut, A Thousand Words For Stranger, Julie E. Czerneda takes us back to the fascinating future of a humanoid race....

Sira, the most powerful member of the alien Clan, has dared to challenge the will of her people--by allying herself with a human. But can she hope to carve a new life for herself when the Clan is determined to reclaim her genetic heritage...at any cost?

Praise for A Thousand Words For Stranger:

"Space adventure mixes with romance in this thoroughly entertaining first novel...a heck of a lot of fun."--Locus

"Czernada has resurrected the classic SF themes of Norton, Heinlein, and Moore...with a distinctly modern sensibility."--S.M. Stirling

"A wonderfully entertaining SF adventure...fascinating, well-developed characters. A must read."--Josepha Sherman

"A wonderful new voice."--Robert J. Sawyer*

* The author is a Campbell Award nominee (the Hugo for best new writer)

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