Primary Inversion

Catherine Asaro
Primary Inversion Cover

Good speculative sci-fi, action & romance

tecolote
12/8/2013
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So Primary Inversion was Asaro's first novel. She has quite a resume. She actually is a Scientist, with degree's in physics and teaching posts in science and mathematics at various universities. That helps quite a bit in the speculative science aspects of this novel.

The story is classic adventure sci-fi. Soz and her team of Jagernauts. They are on vacation on a neutral planet when they find that there are some intersting things going on in the oppositions camp that warrent some investigation. This thrusts her into the conflict between her people, the Skolians and the enemy camp the Traders. Up until now there has been a tentative peace between these two sides but after this they find that that peace was tenuous and illusory.

The book is good - it has a lot going on and even though Asaro is a good writer, since it's her first novel she has a bit of difficulty juggling the various things going on in the book.

I found that I enjoyed the actiony bits, they are very well done. The romance is very dramatic and intense but that is to be expected in a space opera. The storytelling can get a bit all over the place at times, and the world building while pretty good has it's moments of "huh? What?" that throw it off a bit.

In the end this is a good romantic space opera with some really interesting science fiction speculation thrown in. It's well written with a fast paced and fun plot. Primary Inversion is Asaros first novel and it shows, but it's a good space opera for those who are willing to go along for the ride.