Ann Maxwell Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR: Debbie
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| Review Summary |
Selena Christian has spent her whole life concealing her talents from ordinary humans. When she was a young child, her parents helped her, but after their untimely death, Selena was left to fend for herself on the streets. Through luck or happenstance, Selena grew up to a be a beautiful young woman, but then she was caught and imprisoned. Left alone in a small cell with nothing to do and no one to talk to, Selena was anxious and eager when Mark Curien first started visiting her. Before long, Mark's visits were the highlight of Selena's day and she told him everything. After all, what did it matter if she confessed to be exactly what they said she was, she was as good as dead anyway. Then Mark stopped coming and Selena discovered that he was a lawyer for the prosecution and would be her enemy in her trial. Selena determined to hate Mark for as long as she was alive, even after she discovered that he was a spy and saved her life by transporting her off of Earth to a faraway planet called Change.
Change was the last hope for most humans with psychic powers, but Selena did not let herself relax her guard among her fellow paranormals and resisted making friends. She allowed them to study her and test her reactions in exchange for a home of her own and a chance to work with her beloved horses. But when a strange alien with powerful abilities lands on the planet, no one knows what to do. Only Selena, with her talent with animals, dares to approach the creature and return with it to its home planet. There she discovers the creatures she has been dreaming about all of her life and must find a way to save them or leave them to slowly die out on a brutal and barren planet...
I was quite disappointed in this book because I love romance books with a science fiction/fantasy plot and this one sounds good on the surface, but isn't. From the first page I had a hard time liking Selena as a character. She is very hard, strong willed and has little or no softness to her, I cannot understand why Mark fell in love with her at all, unless it was for her physical beauty. Mark and Selena spend a good 2/3rds of the book apart with hardly a mention of the other so there is not a lot of romance in the book. Also, it seemed that the author wasn't quite sure which plot line she wanted to focus on - the conflict between the ordinary humans and paranormals, the challenge of working with a whole new race of aliens, Selena's discovery of her powers, etc. They were all jumbled together and kind of thrown in as if the author didn't have on any single line and was looking for a filler. For these and other problems, I can honestly say that there is a reason why this book went out of print!
Debbie, Resident Scholar
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Selena Christian has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she's different, that she has incredible mental powers. Earth's government is afraid of those like her and of the aliens who have recently contacted them. Selena is caught and falsely accused of betraying Earth to those aliens. A group allied with the aliens takes Selena away from Earth and to a mixed colony of normal human beings and those with mental powers. Selena isn't used to interacting with people, and she's angry with the colony's leader, the man she fell in love with and the one who she believes betrayed her on Earth. She decides she wants to live with an alien race on a planet called Change and develop her mental powers there. However, Earth's government has decided it needs to destroy the colony; the colony needs her, and Selena must learn to work with other people and with Mark.
Melissa Cookson, Resident Scholar
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%
Tone of book
- very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Romance
Yes
Romance plotlets:
- falling in love with the enemy
Repressive society story
Yes
Inner Struggle
Yes
Plotlet:
- coping with mental/magical powers
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Who's a slave/repressed?
- discrim against people with mental powers
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- unemployed
- mage/magician
Age:
- 20's-30's
Has magical/special powers?
Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character:
- can talk to animals
- mind reading
- mind control
- is very quick
- can read emotions
- healing
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Genius
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- society
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an average amount
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Setting
Terrain
- Jungle
- Mountains
Earth setting:
- medium future 22-24th century
Spaceship setting:
- alien spaceship
- futuristic human freighter/transport
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body:
- inhabited by friendly aliens
- empty, or nearly empty world
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Planet outside solar system?
Yes
Takes place in spaceship?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 1st
- rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
- moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- some scientific explanation
- a moderate amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
- descript of kissing
- descript of touching personal anatomy
How much dialogue?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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