Catch the Lightning: Saga of the Skolian Empire Series, Book 2

Saga of the Skolian Empire #2

by Catherine Asaro, Anna Fields

A young girl from Earth falls in love with a handsome stranger—and becomes a pawn in an interstellar war.

In the distant future, the Skolian Empire rules one third of the human galaxy, and is the most powerful of all. For the ruling family has the power of telepathy, and through it, the ability to communicate faster than light, across interstellar space. But their most determined enemy, the traders, who thrive on human pain, need to interbreed with a Skolian to gain their powers. And now they have her.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy, Space

MP3 Book

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

The author of more than twenty-five books, Catherine Asaro is acclaimed for her Ruby Dynasty series, which combines adventure, science, romance and fast-paced action. Her novel The Quantum Rose won the Nebula® Award, as did her novella “The Spacetime Pool.” Among her many other distinctions, she is a multiple winner of the AnLab from Analog magazine and a three time recipient of the RT BOOKClub Award for “Best Science Fiction Novel.” Her most recent novel, Carnelians, came out in October, 2011. An anthology of her short fiction titled Aurora in Four Voices is available from ISFiC Press in hardcover, and her multiple award-winning novella “The City of Cries” is also available as an eBook for Kindle and Nook.

Catherine has two music CD’s out and she is currently working on her third. The first, Diamond Star, is the soundtrack for her novel of the same name, performed with the rock band, Point Valid. She appears as a vocalist at cons, clubs, and other venues in the US and abroad, including recently as the Guest of Honor at the Denmark and New Zealand National Science Fiction Conventions. She performs selections from her work in a multimedia project that mixes literature, dance, and music with Greg Adams as her accompanist. She is also a theoretical physicist with a PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard, and a jazz and ballet dancer. Visit her at www.facebook.com/Catherine.Asaro

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a simple review of a flawed book in a very, very ambitious series.

First, I noticed what others have as well — the first half of the book is much more engaging than the remainder. This appears to be related to the vast scope of the series.

The first book (written… see below) is set in a world far away from our Earth, and involves species that bear a strong resemblance to humans, but are quite distinct, with very different histories leading back to a long-disappeared ancient race.

This book starts off, quite startlingly, right here on our Earth, in more or less the present day. Somehow a character from that other universe appeared here, and seems to be stranded.

Honestly, the boldness of that maneuver, plus the scope of the series — just check out the diagram required to explain the chronology of the stories — wins Asaro a star or so. Such chutzpah should be encouraged, especially if the author doesn’t take decades to slowly spool out the epic (G.R.R. Martin, take note).

The strong sense of dislocation on starting this book is probably explained by this diagram. Note that this book — Catch the Lightning — is at the very end of the series, which actually begins with Skyfall , although this was the second one published.

(If you want to read the series in toto, the author’s bibliography page provides both the order of publication and the order of the saga’s actual chronology.)

But the second half of the book loses a star, by devolving into an extended chase sequence with too much smoke and very little fire. Asaro seems to be too fond of the products of her fevered world-building, and doesn’t understand that describing a very baroque civilization isn’t the same thing as storytelling.

Update: it seems that just two months before I read this, the author wrote an expanded book that covers the first half of this book’s story: Lightning Strike. I haven't read it, but those who have liked the re-write, so you might want to start there?

She also suffers from an annoying over emphasis on science wizardry. I was recently defending science fiction in front of a reading group, assuring them that there is plenty of scifi that doesn’t lean too heavily on robots, spaceships, etc. Well, I definitely won’t be recommending Asaro to that bunch (they’ll be reading China Miéville’s The City and the City , instead!) Anytime technobabble gets so extreme that I — a techno-nerd for decades — just glaze over and start skimming, it’s way beyond too much. Yeah, Asaro’s resume is pretty damn impressive, but I’m pretty sure the reading audience that wants that kind of technical depth is quite small.

Upon putting down this book, I didn’t intend to read anymore of the series. After seeing the scope of her saga, I have to admit to being curious what she did with all those words.

Dedicated fans of epic science fiction will probably bear with it, but I’m ambivalent.
­

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

Currently on Audible + (Publication Order)

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having enjoyed the first volume of the Skolian Saga I started this book with high expectations. They were met - in part.

The beginning of this book is wonderful and the story of Tina and her friends helping Althor escape Earth is exciting. Where the novel failed for me was in the depth of mathmatical and scientific detail. Catheraine Asaro is no doubt brilliant and her excitement for her subject leaps from the page, but I would have been happy with less. I grasped her theories well enough to 'believe' them for the purpose of her story, the pages and pages of further argument and detail were mind numbing.

While I understand making entries in a series work as stand alone novels, having to re-read the explanations of the Skolian genetics and how their minds work was also tedious. I think I'd personally prefer to see that information simplified in the story and expanded upon in an index. If I have to 'rediscover' how their Kyle scale quantifies and how their brains work and who the Rhon are in every volume, I am going to become weary of it.

The story itself is rather simple. Althor has slipped into a different time and an alternate universe and happens to meet Tina, who is his perfect mate in every way. His ship is captured by the government and they pull off a thrilling escape only to fall into another plot, the one that damaged his ship and caused him to arrive on Earth in a different where/when in the first place.

We learn a little more about the Ruby Dynasty and meet another player who, again, is a cool, calm and collected matriarch.

I enjoyed the story for its simplicity and I felt the emotion between Tina and Althor. I liked the personification of Althor’s Jag. What I found lacking was a sense of future. The entire story was indispersed with comments such as ‘I didn’t know then’ or ‘at the time’. It feels like a prelude or a prologue and it finishes before we get to the actual novel.

Though I’ve listed several difficulties I had with the book, I am not dissuaded from my course. I like Catherine Asaro’s writing and I’ve read too many of her novels to be put off by one I did not enjoy so much. I’ll keep moving through the Skolian Saga and hope to find the further adventures of Tina and Althor picked up at a later date.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire Saga and is also another not-to-be missed read for hard-core scifi fans and romance readers looking for a well-written futuristic love story.

Ms. Asaro has created another extraordinary heroine and hero while maintaining a non-stop action filled read. I now know why these books appeal to so many different types of readers - there's adventure, romance, political intrigue and interesting future societies and theories that boggle the mind.

The best thing about this book for me was the characters. If I can't care about them I just won't be able to get into a book no matter how interesting others may find it. The author takes as much care developing her characters as she does her plot which makes this book so special. Tina may only be seventeen but she was forced to grow up early and her actions, and responses to the unbelievable situations she's thrust into are very realistic. She's vulnerable and tough, smart and easy to like. Althor is a perfect match for her, he's strong, sensitive and moody and with her strong empathic abilities she's probably the only one who would be able to fully understand and love him.

My only complaint, and it's a minor one really, that can probably be attributed to the fact that I don't read much hard scifi, is that sometimes the book lapsed into long technical explanations that jogged me out of the story and because I read this book immediately after finishing PRIMARY INVERSION some of the explanations didn't seem necessary to me so I skimmed them. Despite that nit I can't recommend this one highly enough. The characterization is flawless, you'll love and route for these people as they face impossible odds.

[Suz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of me wants to say I liked this a lot more than 3 stars, but parts of this book really annoyed the crap out of me.

Asaro brings the awesome-sciencey fun like she always does with the physics and explanations of physics terms and ideas that I am not terribly knowledgeable in. Her ability to bring complex physics theories and ideas into her books are why I like this series so much.

She didn't have as much political intrigue in this book, which is something else I really enjoy about the Skolian Saga books, but it makes sense that some of the interplay between people/societies wasn't as well developed.

Althor is probably my second least favorite character so far - he is written entirely too inconsistently.

The romance part of the story fell incredibly flat and occasionally creepy (graphic sex between a 17 year old and an almost 50 year old? No thanks). It even got downright annoying, which is why this one doesn't get 4 stars for me. Also, I know the series features a slaver-race/society, but the rapeyness in this book really could be toned down.

It was alright - I did like the later parts of the book a whole lot, and it definitely wasn't as bad as Diamond Star.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely like the short summaries of the Skolian Empire books. I always enjoy the stories. What makes me like them so much is the characters. In CATCH THE LIGHTNING, a young Earth woman is plucked from her 1987 life of poverty by a Skolian prince. Her Mayan genetic heritage creates an attraction between Tina and Althor that they cannot deny. It also offers hope for the dying, inbred Skolian family, if Althor, Tina and their Jag ship can escape their many enemies and get home.

CATCH THE LIGHTNING is the last book on the Skolian Empire timeline so far, even though it is the second one Asaro wrote. Her way of writing the stories out of temporal order makes it especially important for these books to be able to stand alone; and they do provide the necessary background so each book can be read alone.

[Deb F · Rating 2 out of 5]

TL;DR version - Tina is a waitress. She meets Althor. They run away. They're captured by mercenaries, they run away, they end up on Raylicon and escape through the web.

I was disappointed.
I read this (as an audiobook) after listening to 'Primary Inversion' and 'The Radiant Seas'. This is quite different.

For starters, the main character is a 17 year old empathic waitress on Earth in 1987, but in a different VERSION of Earth, one where the time streams may have been different, so it's behind by about 400 years. The reason for that delay was never properly explained.

The heroine, Tina, is living on her own in LA and has Mayan ancestry. That gave the opportunity to put in some stuff about Mayan culture which could have been really interesting, but which generally wasn't. Every time it came up, it was in reference to the similarities to Raylicon, which just got annoying. It was like the author was saying 'Here, let me show you how similar my made-up world is to a real thing..'

(SPOILERS FROM HERE)

Bear in mind that at the end of Radiant Seas, Althor was married off, and expecting a child, so I was a little confused, but figured something must have happened to him in the years since. Whatever that was, it was never mentioned in this book.

Tina's on her way through the gang-controlled streets of LA after work, when she meets Althor, who is supposedly on his way to Washington DC, to attend a diplomatic function in honour of his mother. His JAG insists he's in the right time, but Tina's version of Earth has a Federated (not United) States of America, and technologically, is way behind where the equivalent Earth is in his time. Luckily, between him and the JAG, they can speak enough English to communicate.

The JAG has been damaged by sabotage, and even though the Earth is SO far behind, FSA authorities at Yeager base manage to capture it, damage it further, and begin to examine it. Because Althor is linked to it, that has adverse impacts on his brain function.

Up until this point, I thought the book had real potential, but from the point where Tina is attacked at the library, things go downhill.

They run from the police even though they're guilty only of self-defence, spend some time hiding out at CalTech for no good reason except to introduce some minor characters, then head out to an Althor's Universe Earth-based station (at Epsilon Eridani?) where they're married in a Catholic ceremony, even though Tina is under-age.

They're captured by mercenaries, partly because of a betrayal by one of those closest to Althor. After being sold to one of the enemy, they effectively become Providers, but with (apparently) no slave cuffs, or any of the other Providery things mentioned in the previous books. That means they can escape, and make it to Raylicon. Largely, they escape because of the JAG, and by the end of the book, it was the only character with whom I had any sympathy. Tina had no spine, she just did whatever she was told to do - including get married!

Again, the whole culture on Raylicon could have been fascinating - it's populated by clones who are dying off (not really sure the explanation for this made sense), and letting the buildings decay as a result. They also ride things a bit like T-Rexes - but all that good background stuff was minimised in favour of them getting married again in a Raylicon ceremony, and then being trapped by a space fleet.

The end of the book has them meeting Althor's mother (who apparently made it out of the web alive), and finding out that THIS universe's version of Tina had lived a very different life. Suddenly there's the potential of a convenient enclave of Mayan-descended Earthlings, who no-one knew existed, but who don't have the dangerous genes that are causing extreme birth defects in the Rhoan line. Sorry, but after ALL that in-depth discussion on the specifics of WHY the Rhoan interbreeding has caused such damage, to the point where Althor was born deformed, that's taking authorial convenience just a LITTLE too far.

Effectively the plot could have been summarised in a paragraph, and you wouldn't have missed out on much. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the first two books.

[Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was strong but apparently not strong enough to complete this book. I want to be clear here. This book is not poorly written. My dislike is based on personal preference.
I decided to read this series because I am interested in SciFi written by women and with women as the protagonist. Asaro more than delivers in that regard. Asaro is an intelligent woman. I totally admire that. Totally.
This book has all of the elements I like, space travel , political intrigue, colonisation, tech. Asaro's descriptions, while often long winded and overdone, show great depth and intelligence. You can't beat that.
While I am no fan of romance, I can tolerate some, when it is tasteful and subtle and realistic.
But I despise INSTA-LOVE, the waist length hair princess and the great big hunk who would just die to protect her. This is like a Harlequin romance only in space. I can tolerate a lot, but not that. We have mind melding love that requires no work. All parties involved are perfect looking. Its just too sweet... too unreal. And she, like the main character in the first book in this series, is very Mary Sue.
Kudos for including a person of color, as our heroine is Hispanic. That's awesome to see, but this love at first sight, gazing into each others eyes, sharing minds, cute tiny princess-y heroine with the big tough muscle bound hunk of good looking from another planet, May/December, hearts and roses, peaches and cream is more than I can bear.
If I liked this kind of sentimental frippery I'd give this book a three or four but as it stands I am disgusted. Two stars. That's all I've got.

[Alex Neville · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I will honestly say that it is one of my favorites now, even above Primary Inversion.

The characterization was amazing. And it was so cool to be transported from the ghettos of Los Angeles to high-tech civilizations in the stars. The romance between Althor and Tina was sweet, if a bit rushed. Also, the ancient civilizations on the desert planet mixed with high technology and intellectual knowledge = amazing!

I loved the science and the math behind everything, too. I won’t pretend to understand it all or even the majority of it, because I’m a programmer, not an engineer or theoretical mathematician. But even so, I found the brief explanations fascinating! If you don’t like science and math in your stories, then you won’t like this book. That’s why it’s hard science fiction. In other words, don’t expect The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (as much as I love that book!)

And the visuals! Far from the stereotypical science fiction writer, Asaro does an amazing job of painting a picture of faraway worlds. There is logic and beauty; aesthetic and rigor. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes beautiful world building, realistic characters, and hard logic.

That being said, I am still a little bit fuzzy on the parallel universe thing. Sometimes she doesn’t do the best job of explaining which universe x or y occurred in, so you kinda have to extrapolate it for yourself. Threw me off a bit.

Ultimately: read it if you like hard SF. You will love it! If you don’t want to be bogged down with long scientific explanations of things, there’s always Solo. *shot* :D (I’m looking forward to it, haha.)

[Skip Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know a lot of people don't like SciFi because of all of the gadgets and what not. And Asaro loads her books with gadgetry and physics. But I love it!There's a reason why the tricorder looks like so many of the gadgets we use everyday. I especially felt vindicated (to my old man anyway) when one of the characters mentioned all moments happening at the same time. We've been arguing whether or not time travelers can actually change the future for years now. Or wait, was that from another book?
I'm not really sure what to say about this novel, the series, and Catherine Asaro in general. I like this book, but didn't love it. I like the series, but don't love it. I like the writing style of Asaro, but don't love it. My feelings toward Asaro is very similar to my feelings to Lois McMaster Bujold. I like them both--but, I've never been wowed by either. Oddly, however, I often find myself thinking about the characters months after I read the last book in their series. It's strange to have such ambivalence. I don't necessarily like the books, but I can't stay away from them either! What I think I like about them is that they manage to portray femininity into their writing (and not just as sex), even with all of the gadgets and machoism. I love having female writers in a very male dominated genre!

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catch the Lightning is probably the most mis-placed book in the Skolian series, since it happens so much later than book 1 and later than the next several books. The shift from Soz to 'Tina and Althor was jarring, and I kept looking around for a way to remember which timeline I was in and which characters were related to whom.

And that's just unfair to this book, which is sweet all on its own. I re-read it twice in a row (because I was still waiting for my roomies to finish reading and returning book #3)... which made it easier to enjoy it for its own merit.

And it had one of those signs of a very good book for me: It made me want to read up on some history I don't know very well. In this case, I would love to look into real Mayan history: textiles, artifacts, language, and religion. I had to take her universe for granted, and possibly with a grain of salt (it =IS= fiction, folks). But it left me with that happy sense of "gosh, now I want to learn more stuff!" that comes when fiction takes a cultural influence and expands it into the story.

Next time I re-read the Skolian books, I may try them in time-line chronology, and read up on Althor *AFTER* he's already been born. :)

[Jullene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm hard pressed to even finish this audiobook. The first complaint I have is that's it's written in past tense, so there is plenty of "I learned later," or "Now I know." I've seen and read other books with narrators' retellings that were handled with much more finesse.
My next issue is with the narrator's approach to a few things. Most female voice actors struggle representing deep male voices, which is understandable. But Althor, this brilliant enhanced man from space sounds like a big doofus. And then there's the Jag! I mean, all it takes is a monotone and maybe some subtle emotion when it's displaying some human-like behavior. The stereotypical broken robot speech drove me crazy.

Between the author and the narrator this was a very disappointing follow up to Primary Inversion, which had a decent story and better narration.

[Michael Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, as I think I've liked everything I've ever read by Asaro. As with most of her books, it is a mix of space opera and romance, but doesn't go overboard with the romance.

What I particularly enjoyed in this book was the dedication. It was dedicated to two teachers from my high school, one of whom (David Dansky) also had a big influence on my life. It was nice to see him recognized.

[Jedishampoo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, my this was not good. Man from futuristic space-going civilization lands on modern-day Earth, seduces the 17-year-old virgin from the 'hood, the one with a heart of gold and friends at the university who can help him get home. Oh, good heavens, please, no. Skeev meets cliche.

[Jillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

That got a bit... 50 Shades of Spaceship for me.

[Night Runner · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars for me!

My rating range of this story... 2 - 3 Stars
If significant, why?

Main Character Ratings...
H = 5/10
h = 7/10

Narrator Rating(s)
M = n/a
F = 7/10
If below 5/10,why?

Was cheating involved? No
Any major triggers to be aware of? No

Angst Level? Moderate
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop
3 Stars for me!

Internal Monolog? Moderate
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop

Scenes with heat... Not really
What point does it start? 25%
How much of the story? 2%
Anything beyond M/F? No
If yes, explained

Heat Rating... 3/10
Clean or Fade to Black - 1 or 2
Normal to Descriptive 3-5
Detailed Descriptive Sex - 6-7
Um, Wow, Beyond Descriptive Sex - 8 or above

The back story... The H is on Earth (circa the 1980s in a parallel universe) to attend a party when he meets the h. Minutes after meeting her, he saves her from being raped by the neighborhood drug dealer. They become friends and he tells her bits about himself and she, a person who sees others feelings in colors, starts to believe him.

The Romance... It does develop a bit after the initial instalust but is weighed down with drama after drama.

The drama explosion... The last one involves his family
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? Contrived
Was it OTT? Very
Separation involved? Throughout the story
Was it resolved properly or rushed? Weirdly

Final Notes... This story starts completely out of the realm of the first book in the series which completely threw me for a loop. They end up dealing with a drug dealer, the government who captures his ship, baddies from his time and general location in the Universe and a bitchy mom. She is captured by the baddies which drags on for days. I may have missed some important information as I skipped forward quite a bit in the story. I may try the third story but am on the fence.

HEA or HFN? I guess HEA

[JJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main problems with this are the romance between the 60-something(?) guy and the 17 year old girl. It's okay though, they justify it by saying she's mature for her age and that Mexicans have babies young anyway. >:( Also the story puts a young woman in unsettling and often traumatic situations, then repeatedly decides that isn't enough and makes sure she's raped or almost raped.

But its also pretty bad that the author is soooo in love with her own world-building that she spends a good 60% of the page space describing the world and especially the fake science created for it, regardless of it's at all relevant to the story. Like there is a decent plot underneath it all, and some okay characters. But important plot revelations will be given in a sentence or two, rather clinically, followed by literally two pages of DETAILED explanation of the history exact genetics of the royal family. The plot relevance of which could easily be condensed into two sentences, giving those pages back to the much sidelined plot.

[Steve Scanlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tina Pulivok is living in Los Angeles after moving from South America. She is descended from the ancient Mayans and now lives alone in a violent and run down part of town. She meets a strange man while walking home one night from the bus station.

He is Althor, a member of the Imperial Skolian Command on his way to an important meeting in Washington. Unfortunately his starship is not only lost in space but also time. He has travelled into the past to an Earth that belongs to an alternative universe. Althor's ship is damaged and when it is captured by the Federated States of America, he seeks Tina's help.

Their journey sees them escaping Earth and returning to Althor's universe. Unfortunately, they are not out of trouble as they discover a plot to hand them over to the Traders.

Another good story set in the same universe as PRIMARY INVERSION. Once again the tale centres on the love interest of the two central characters with lots of intrigue and drama thrown in. I felt that a little too much of this tale focussed on the romance aspect.

[Groucho42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I re-read 1 & 4 first, because of internal time order and what the library had, then this. The first was good, the fourth was terrible, and this is in the middle. The author posits the faster than light technology can also travel time and universes, all so she can build her backstory of the Raylican empire and have the idiotic coincidence of one Rohn just happening to meet another and instantly fall in love.

Still, at heart she's a hard SF author. The story stops a few times while she talks about the technology of her universe. I don't take points off, because that's what hard SF writers do, and it's often fun to watch that aspect of world building.

The two parts of the story, first on the alternate earth and then back in space, have very simple plots with yet another thinly covered assassination attempt on yet another member of the royal family. Still, it holds together enough to be average.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what to think about this one. While I do like the SFnal ideas, a bit of time travel, the genetic Mayan bloodlines carrying strong telepathy, the cyberspace and Inversion ideas of FTL, the core romance was weird.

We spent more than half the book in 80's gang territory with Starman and the other half back in the future dealing with institutional psychopaths, either of which was okay if it wasn't for romance being tied up in a core apology for inbreeding. It's just weird. They could all be closely related if there's this much time travel going on.

Anyway, it's an okay SF as long as I keep my expectations low-ish at the moment. The first one felt like it was much better. I'm not sold on these two characters.

[James Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

A blend of hard sci fi and a romance novel. I liked the former but not the latter. The plot felt pretty thin. The world is mostly interesting but I don’t like the strong emphasis on royal families and aristocracy. I’m also not keen on historical stuff, and a lot of this book was focused on ancient Mayan myths and language. This book also didn’t build the world up far beyond what the first book established. In fact, a lot of it was just a rehash. I’ll give the next book in the series a try because I’m really hoping to get into this big series but if that one disappoints me as much as this one, I’ll give up.

[Autumn · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF couldn’t get over the relationship between a teenager and much older starlord with hardly any time to actually know each other but the fate of the world hangs in the balance ugh. I had about an hour and a half to go in the audiobook and I just couldn’t make myself finish it. Did not like any of the characters, either. I guess two stars because the world is still interesting and use of language is good.

[Jillypenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A. I was not as excited about this book as I was the first. But it had me sucked back in by the end. A little to much romance in this sci-fi for me. I’m still going to keep reading this series. A woman is accidentally discovered on a past earth from another dimension that can save the Skolian Empire.

[nx74defiant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tina is drawn to the handsome Althor. She finds his story of traveling through time and space hard to believe. She gets help from her friends to help regain control of his ship. She travels to his time with him. There they must face the dangers. Althor's ship was sabotaged. The plot was to kill him. Now he has returned and his enemies still want to get rid of him

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Catch The Lightening is a book in two parts. The first part is set on Earth in an alternate 1980s. This I found rather boring and not my type of book. The second and, in my opinion, the better part (but not by a lot) was set off Earth.

Really not for me.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as exciting as the first book

[Gwynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the hard sci-fi, the sentient ship connection w/ pilot, and LOVED that the main character is a Latina; but was left a little confounded by the character relationships and gender roles.

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catch the Lightning was enjoyable. I liked the incorporation of Mayan culture. The world, dynamics, and relationships were interesting.

[Amy Sheldon · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a confusing, disjointed plot. I was so confused as to which Althor he was for the longest time. A not good ending to this most beloved series.

[Viviana · Rating 2 out of 5]

1-2 stars