Skyfall

Saga of the Skolian Empire #9

by Catherine Asaro

Catherine Asaro exploded onto the science fiction scene in 1995 with the publication of her widely acclaimed debut novel, Primary Inversion , which introduced readers to the vast and intricate far-future Saga of the Skolian Empire. She won widespread acclaim for her innovative blend of cutting-edge physics, interstellar intrigue, and passionate romance. Over the next few years she garnered nominations and awards in both SF and romance. Then in 2002, Catherine Asaro won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Quantum Rose, the sixth installment in her Saga of the Skolian Empire.

If you haven't caught on to the myriad pleasures to be found in this multiple award-winning epic SF series, here's the perfect chance. Skyfall goes back to the beginning, to the re-birth of Skolia, showing how a chance meeting on a backwater planet forged a vast interstellar empire.

Kurj, a provincial ruler on a primitive planet, is plagued by inner demons. But when he meets Roca, a beautiful and mysterious woman from the stars, he whisks her away to his mountain retreat, inadvertently starting a great interstellar war, and birthing the next generation of rulers for the Sklolian Empire.

Revel in the newest grand adventure of this Nebula Award-winning series.

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

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

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

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind if an old fashioned book, the lead characters were a bit too "Mary Sue" for my tastes personality-wise, but the reason I read it was that i heard the rest of this series by the author was a really great sic-fi epic, and from how she set up the world in this book so I'm definitely gonna give her series a try. It was also nice to see a romance in a sci-fi setting not make me cringe, so that was enjoyable.

[Lois · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has many dated and oppressive tropes which are not as common in more recent fiction that make this book particularly cringeworthy.
It's hard to believe this is the same author that wrote Primary Inversion much less that this is written considerably later and the former was a first published novel.
That said once I acknowledged the uncomfortable sexism, tyranny packaged as moralistic war, that the natives to the planet of Lyshriol ( more or less native anyway) are an uncomfortable reflection of white supremacist colonial bullshit, I was not as put off by the uncomfortable love story?????
I wish the author would rewrite this.


Review from 2018:
This is as silly as I remember. I plan to re-read this series, since hoopla has it available as an audiobook, and the 2 Major Bhaajan books which are written in this universe. I truly love this series but not this book or the immediately following Triad duology.
Roca and Eldri are the parents of Soz and her dynastically important Valdoria Skolia siblings who make up the bulk of the main characters of the novels in this series. Their love story is told in mere paragraphs in various of the series installments. It's told more effectively in those paragraphs than in this novel. The setting on Lyshriol is nice as few of the books are actually set on the world of the Valdoria Skolia siblings. Still, the relationships feel hollow and forced. Eldri behaves in a way that makes it hard to understand what Roca saw in him. Roca's parents don't feel like parents, without context from the series the relationship with Kurj makes no sense. The novel just doesn't work for me.

[Gracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never read Catherine Asaro before, but I am at a loss for why - she is everything I like: enough sword & planet balanced against fantasy, some psychic bits, strong female lead and well crafted male characters to boot. Having read this, which comes late in a series but is a 'flashback' book recalling origins, I may have found a new favorite author.
Asaro writes beautifully - a mix between science fiction in its most devourable form with just enough "" romance "" that brightens up a fantasy novel without being, well, gross. Even the unlikeable character grows on you (there's still a bad guy, don't worry), and the world is well enough composed that I could definitely jump into this series from here.
In fact, I probably will.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREAD

I loved this book all over again. These books are totally my thing and I'm not even sure why, but I love them, even the creepy and awful villains (even if they don't really appear in this one). I shall definitely carry on rereading.

[nathaniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure this puts an end to my time with the Skolian Empire books. Primary Inversion was good with some interesting exploration of PTSD that we don't often get in sff. Radiant Seas had some nice bits about parenthood, even though it delved into the masochism too much. Quantum Rose and Skyfall are bad with rough gender dynamics.

Roca and Eldrinson getting together is painful. Eldrinson kidnapping Roca when she repeatedly fights against it. His constantly taking 'no' as 'yes' and pressuring her over and over, essentially trying to date rape her. And Roca swoons for it. I get there is a sci-fi element of them connecting, but that is just an excuse to have this dynamic. Also, Kurj has always been a tough character to be around.

The second half does improve. Once we have gotten past the relationship building and accept that Roca and Eldrinson are together then there are some plot mechanics are OK. But not enough to redeem the book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roca & Eldrinson's story! A prequel to all the to-date Skolian novels

re-read 6/14/2014

[Chasy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good! I didn't think it was as much a romance as some people say it is. To me, it seemed more about political intrigue and strategy. There WAS romance but it didn't seem the focal point.

[Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roca falls for Eldri. Kurj learns a family secret that changes history

[DemetraP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but felt terrible about what her adult son suffered.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roca meets Eldricson. Plenty of romance, but not much BDSM.

[Gr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filling in the gaps in the series.

[Night Runner · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 Stars for me!

My rating range of this story... 1.5 - 3.5
If significant, why? The h kinda drove me nuts

Main Character Ratings...
H = 6/10
h = 4/10

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

If Comedy... Type? n/a
Genuinely Funny
Cringe Inducing
Just No!

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

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

Scenes with heat... Yes
What point does it start? 60%
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

Was there so much sex or unrealistic sex that you rolled your eyes and/or skipped forward? No

The back story... The blurb says it all

The Romance... I sort of saw it but it takes two and the h was worried about appearances.

The drama explosion... There were a couple
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? Ok
Was it OTT? Yes
Separation involved? Yes
Was it resolved properly or rushed? Differently

Final Notes... The h is anti-war which is fine with me, however, she let it color every situation. Her son is pro-war and a hot head which puts them at odds. It just didn't mesh well with me. I will read the next book in the series as some first books get mired in the world building.

HEA or HFN? HEA

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally am not a fan of books written out of sequence where the author goes back and fills in some back story. If you have read the books written first you have a good idea what is going to happen. Skyfall is one of those books, it is the 9th book in the series, but goes back before the first book, consequently the main points of the plot were know to me. This though did not stop me enjoying it. It was a good romp with sufficient new ideas that filled in well what I had already known. Yes, it might have been better to have read this first, but it didn't matter too much. Worth the read.

[Isca Silurum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Badly written and edited drivel.

Audio book free with audible plus, so could be worse.

Narrator Suzanne Weintraub did her best.

Mother self righteous BS artist, billions could die, but hey a day trip and he is hunky!

That would be hunky, the kidnapper and seducer!

Mother's son a lying psychopath who uses his high position to impose himself on women!

All adorable characters that you will empathise with and love??

Trite nonsense that fills up time for someone in his dotage! 👴

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roca part of the ruling family of the Skolian Empire must get home to prevent her son from starting a war. While in route she comes to the planet designated as Skyfall. There she falls in love with a local lord named Eldrinson. Can she stop the war? Will her family accept Eldrinson? This takes to an earlier part of the Skolian saga. Again Asaro combines romance and SF and makes it work. You want to know what happens next. Always a fun universe to visit.

[Marianne Boutet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hah! Even politics can't destroy true love (and rocking esper power). I am reading these in chronological order (I found a great flowchart on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catheri...). The first, I hope, of many good reads in this series.

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intricate yet disturbing underling theme.

[Amy Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm re-reading the series in story order this time. I missed a few of the books when I read them as they were published. Marvelous universe- and character-building.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dark and slow.

[Loki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, didn't enjoy it as much as the Bhaajan books, but it's not like my time was wasted.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows the story of Soz's parents. I liked it, but nothing amazing.

[Circuit · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know that segment on SNL: Really?! Well, reading this book was kind of like that. I read the primary inversion and like it, even if I had some issues about it. So, I thought it might be good to read by chronological order. I know this book was published later than Primary Inversion, but time wise it’s first in the series. I wonder if it was written before, because it seemed undeveloped and very childlike and not in a good way. I don’t mean it was written with a childlike wonder which would have been great, but I mean it was written as if someone was telling a very simplistic story to a child (style, vocabulary, development). It was hard to believe it was the same author. I did not like the main characters. They were overkill. Like when often very young and emotionally immature writers do; make their characters beautiful, everything in gold and violet, rich, talented, flawless. In other words, the author tried to mound on as much perfection as possible just to force the reader to like her characters. For me personally it makes the characters robotic and unreachable. The conversations in the book were very flat; sometimes downright banal. I knew what the author was trying to convey (Rich girl that is really a good person that you just must love, misunderstood and portrayed as spoiled when actually she is driven by duty…blabla bullshit), buts it’s done like this: pretty, (gold waist long hair with perfect figure): check, talented and creative (ballerina dancer): check, smart (member of an assembly and foreign affairs councilor): check, rich (royalty): check, emotionally developed (empathy with a history of abuse): check, misunderstood (she tries to connect with people, but her tone is ice): check. At the end of a basically enumerated list that was all crammed in within like 25 pages, I was like: OH COME ON! REALY!? It’s not that the characteristics are bad (they are), but it’s also how they are conveyed to the reader. Here it’s crammed in and listed. It comes off as needy and in poor skill. Primary Inversion was just so much better. We got glimpses of the protagonist’s past and her behavior in the present required the reader to develop an opinion. It was not told to the reader, but inferred through events (well at least some of it was). The author gave me as a reader a choice to like or dislike the protagonist. She allowed me to connect with her imperfections and struggles. She did not list it, charred it and made me eat it. I also often heard that Asaro is similar to Lois Bujold McMaster. But, if the series is written like this book, she doesn’t hold a candle to Bujold because Bujold would have never did anything as simplistic as this. The only thing they have in common is the genre. Another problem is Asaro's idea at describing a primitive culture. She tries so hard to do it; she makes them look retarded not primitive. I mean, her idea of primitive is insulting to any primordial culture. There is also a plot that seams…how I put this…Really!? I just did not get why the protagonist ended up on Skyfall. I mean, I understand the causality of events, but the meaningfulness of those events is senseless. It felt like Asaro could come up with anything remotely plausible so she comes up with is cock a doodle story.
Here are a few positives; so I am not a total evil witch. The only positive was Kurj; the disturbing, emotionally crippled giant with an Oedipus complex (I call it like I see it). He is actually the only character that has depth. He makes good and bad decisions. He’s unsettling and complex. You don’t know if he will choose good or evil. He is not a foreign affairs, gold statue ballerina, soon to become foreign affairs, gold statue ballerina and soccer mom (Yawn).
The family complexities are not bad; the father who's the grandfather and brother. It would have been a Greek Tragedy if not for the fact that half the book took place in Magic Kingdom Resort and Casino and written like the script for a blend of My Little Pony, Jungle to Jungle and Princes Diaries.
I also read the short story “My Glass Stained Heart’. If you havn’t read it, don’t bother. This is a delightfully boring story placed in (the very same) candy land featuring one of Roca’s children, written with pure idealism and packed with bullshit. What a waste of time. Honestly this story had nothing interesting to offer. It’s superficial and bland. At least in Romeo and Juliet someone dies at the end. How uninspiring is this.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roca is one of five people in the Skolia family, the Ruby scions whose talents support the communications system, without which the Skolian Empire cannot stand. These powerful empaths carry so many dangerous recessive genes that breeding new Ruby scions is the primary concern of the ruling Assembly.

A third marriage has been carefully arranged for Roca -- all business, no love, and everyone hopes for healthy children. But Roca becomes trapped on a primitive planet. Amazingly, the local leader Eldri is a Ruby scion with whom Roca forms an unbreakable bond. The son of their marriage is a healthy Ruby scion.

But Roca's son by her first husband, Imperator Kurj, is obsessed with his mother. Can any husband be good enough for her? No. Can she be allowed to follow her heart? Never. Can he recognize Roca's desire for peace and happiness as valid? No, to him she is too precious and too stupid.

Kurj is as dangerous and unopposable as a falling boulder. The dynamics of Kurj with each of the other Ruby scions would make him the villain of the novel, except that his relationships are so complex when laid bare. No matter Roca's demonstrated ability to bear Ruby scions with Eldri, Kurj cannot tolerate this new marriage. Author Asaro portrays Kurj so effectively that the reader knows all Kurj has to do is to sit on something he doesn't like, to kill it. Roca and Eldri are loveable, Kurj is frightening. How can they coexist to save the Skolian Empire?

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skyfall (2003) 307 pages by Catherine Asaro.

Kurj is the commander of the J-Forces with ambitions to be the imperator of Skolia. Right now Skolia is debating whether to launch and invasion to reclaim the platinum sector from Eube or to try negotiations. Kurj is for this invasion and Roca, his mother, is strongly against it. Kurj has been "protecting" his mother and this is making it hard for her to attend assembly meetings. We pick up the story with Roca having escaped her bodyguards before the big vote at the Assembly meeting but is stuck on a backwater planet. She departs from Capsize to Skyfall which is expecting a shuttle in two days. Unfortunately Skyfall is even more backwater and she misses the shuttle.So begins the story of how Roca met Eldrinson Valdoria. Most of the story focuses on Roca and Eldri with a few snippets back with Kurj and the Assembly.

This is a prequel to Primary Inversion, The Radiant Seas, etc. Go ahead and read this book before all of those and you'll avoid several spoilers. The book was still great.

Skyfall develops the characters of Roca, Eldri and Kurj and immerses us in the culture of Lyshriol (Skyfall is the Allied Worlds name for the planet). Fantastic book whether you read it in the order of publication or chronologically.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It hadn't dawned on me, where else Asaro could jump/skip/leap in her universe to another non-linear storyline. Of course, go back in time just a tiny bit, rewind, and give a further backstory on some characters we'd met already.

I think of all the hop/skip/jump changes in the Skolian universe, this one pleased me the most. Lyshriol has some idyllic, legendary qualities, and it was nice to get lost on that world for a while. Also, it's finally getting easier to keep track of who's who, especially since we know where some of these folks ends up in a generation or two.

The romanticized nature of Lyshriol reminded me quite a bit of the earlier Pern books by Anne McCaffery.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall Review: Meh

Comments
While midly entertaining, it suffers severely from "Oops, I can see the author manipulating the strings". Prime examples include Roca's decision to visit the castle and the deus ex machina appearance of the Skolians at exactly the right moment (facing defeat, Roca ready to go into labor).

A fundamental aspect of any story is to get the reader to suspend disbelief - to purposely ignore the puppeteer. In Skyfall Catherine Asaro clearly fails in this regard.

[Cindywho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Catherine Asaro, theoretical physicist and former ballerina writes space opera like nobody's business. In this one, Roca, psion queen and ballerina(!) with the body of a porn star is swept away by hunky barbarian on horseback. Her family politics dictate interstellar politics and everybody's motives are spelled out in neon. Beyond over the top, the absurdity is delectable because the story is well paced and fun. (March 14, 2005)

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book at a conference. Normally I'm a little leery of coming into a series at book 9, but this book is retrofitted onto the front of the series, so it was all to the good.

Asaro kept the science light enough that I didn't get bogged down in techno speak, and the romance thread appealed to me a great deal. I thought Eldri and Roca were well-matched and the story was good enough that I read it all in one sitting.

I will definitely look up others in this series from Asaro.

[Rainbowjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up one this series as a freebie from the Tor free library. That is a bad concept for a book addict. They get you hooked on series. There are no stand alone books in the free library. But back to Skyfall. Good solid love story set in a far off land. Still hauntingly familiar, this story rewrites a tale as old as time itself, Romeo and Juliet. With fresh innovations such as telepathy and tribal wars, this is a great all around scifi book. Five stars out of five!

[Amanda Meggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, we'll although this is book 9, it's actually about Roca who is mother to quite a few characters whose stories are already told. This one was really providing back story to the other tales already told. It was good but not as fulfilling a read as some of the others. It's a couple of years since I read any but this one didn't have quite the same feel to me - more 'romancy' although all of them have a romance in them. Anyway, an enjoyable read, fast paced and entertaining.