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Lady Hanna #1-2
The D'neeran Factor
For true-humans, it is common knowledge that the D'neerans, human telepaths who come from the planet D'neera, are considered not quite human, though trustworthy. After all, true-humans are the lords of the universe, which is why the exploratory star ship Endeavor has launched its star search, broadcasting a message of greeting and hope to possible sentient lifeforms throughout the galaxy.
Everyone is shocked when their broadcast is answered -- and even more so when the message is meant for the single D'neeran aboard Endeavor, Lady Hanna. Hanna, merely a navigator, is just as suprised, but she must soon shoulder a responsiblity much bigger than she could have forseen. Soon the fate of all humankind and the likelihood of an intersellar war rests on her shoulders, as she becomes the reluctant ambassador for the human race.
This omnibus of Sentience and The Master of Chaos preludes the release of a brand-new Terry A. Adams novel, Battleground, set in the same universe. Upon original publication, Sentience was a Best First Novel in Locus and nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel
Everyone is shocked when their broadcast is answered -- and even more so when the message is meant for the single D'neeran aboard Endeavor, Lady Hanna. Hanna, merely a navigator, is just as suprised, but she must soon shoulder a responsiblity much bigger than she could have forseen. Soon the fate of all humankind and the likelihood of an intersellar war rests on her shoulders, as she becomes the reluctant ambassador for the human race.
This omnibus of Sentience and The Master of Chaos preludes the release of a brand-new Terry A. Adams novel, Battleground, set in the same universe. Upon original publication, Sentience was a Best First Novel in Locus and nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel
- GenresScience Fiction
840 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 2, 2013
7 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 9, 2013
The omnibus title is The D'neeran Factor, a truly terrible title that is all the more puzzling because the component books, Sentience and The Master of Chaos, had pretty good ones.
I started re-reading Sentience and discovered I still like the prose and some of the world-building, I have concerns about other things in the world-building, and the pages of my copy are very, very yellow. An ebook copy seemed a worthwhile investment.
The telepathic population of D'neera is regarded with distrust by the rest of humanity. Hanna Bassanio nevertheless wants to be on the crew of a human expedition because she is fascinated by alien minds (she has controversial theories about some of the species humanity has already contacted) and wants to be involved in first contact encounters. In both Sentience and The Master of Chaos, she gets her wish in the worst way possible.
I still like these a lot -- I like Hanna, the protagonist, and I like the flavor of the prose. When I first read them, I thought the second book was a retelling of the first, with an ending as dark as Adams wanted the first time; now I'm not so sure about either part of that, but I do feel like the trauma and assault piled on Hanna get to be too much, and I get very impatient with the completely unnecessary tragic ending being caused basically by one person not using any common sense. The book hangs a lampshade on this, provides a psychological explanation, but it still doesn't work for me.
I started re-reading Sentience and discovered I still like the prose and some of the world-building, I have concerns about other things in the world-building, and the pages of my copy are very, very yellow. An ebook copy seemed a worthwhile investment.
The telepathic population of D'neera is regarded with distrust by the rest of humanity. Hanna Bassanio nevertheless wants to be on the crew of a human expedition because she is fascinated by alien minds (she has controversial theories about some of the species humanity has already contacted) and wants to be involved in first contact encounters. In both Sentience and The Master of Chaos, she gets her wish in the worst way possible.
I still like these a lot -- I like Hanna, the protagonist, and I like the flavor of the prose. When I first read them, I thought the second book was a retelling of the first, with an ending as dark as Adams wanted the first time; now I'm not so sure about either part of that, but I do feel like the trauma and assault piled on Hanna get to be too much, and I get very impatient with the completely unnecessary tragic ending being caused basically by one person not using any common sense. The book hangs a lampshade on this, provides a psychological explanation, but it still doesn't work for me.
January 26, 2020
The D’neera factor is two books in one, the second equal length to the first. In every other respect, however, they are different.
Book One alone would rate 3 1/2 to 4 stars. It posits a 23rd Century “polity” of human space; one, the D’neerans—evolved to be telepaths. The telepaths are feared and shunned by the vast majority of humanity. When hints of an alien species appear, one human on the High Council recognizes the potential benefits of having a telepath aboard the ship that will seek them.
Fortunately, although most D’neera are uninterested in human (or temporal) affairs, the D’aneeran Hanna has studied exophysiology (and navigation) all her life. Hanna is thrilled to be picked for the mission, after sleeping with that High Council member. I hasten to add that my favorite two characters were Hanna and the Council Member.
Unfortunately, none of the starship’s crew, whatever their mental abilities, appear to read any 20th Century SF about First Contacts. Such as Murray Leinster’s brilliant “First Contact” (short story), or Larry Niven’s “The Mote in God’s Eye” (novel). Or any number of Star Trek-TOS episodes. Hanna, in fact wins a sort of Galactic Literary Prize for writing a thesis that:
“Interstellar travel implies a level of technological achievement that makes it cheaper to manufacture wealth than to seek it through aggression. Likewise, it implies a structure of rationality transcending aggression for ideological motives.”
Right. Remember, John Lennon put “Imagine” on the same album as the vicious anti-Paul screed “How Do You Sleep?” Nothing to live or die for, huh?
Long story short, the aliens play peek-a boo with the ship, interested only in a Telepath. By that point, the ship has three, but aliens apparently don’t care about redundant spares, so grab Hanna, torture her until she tells them the coordinates of D’nerra (see M. Leinster, supra). And the aliens are even more clever; they strand what’s left of Hanna and her ship where humans could find them.
Any more would be a spoiler, but the spoiler seemed so obvious from here that even one who hasn’t read the book might guess. It nearly creates havoc, showing again it’s hard to believe in a spacefaring race that (in this book) already had met two non-human species of low intellect without tracing the entire First Contact game theory tree.
Book Two was a One star. There’s a germ of an idea here—lost colonies of Earth. Yet the entire execution was a “don’t open the door to the root cellar” affair, where every character makes decisions that make no sense. The love interest (there’s a long interstellar trip, where, at the least, they gaze into each other’s eyes) is preposterous, and is too deep to toss off as casual sex. And yet Hanna takes so few precautions to protect her man that it’s hard to credit anything more than: “if you love a butterfly, set it free.” In Book Two, it was next to impossible to identify with anyone, Hanna or the Councilman included.
If you must, stop at the end of Book One. Any more is a waste of neurons.
Book One alone would rate 3 1/2 to 4 stars. It posits a 23rd Century “polity” of human space; one, the D’neerans—evolved to be telepaths. The telepaths are feared and shunned by the vast majority of humanity. When hints of an alien species appear, one human on the High Council recognizes the potential benefits of having a telepath aboard the ship that will seek them.
Fortunately, although most D’neera are uninterested in human (or temporal) affairs, the D’aneeran Hanna has studied exophysiology (and navigation) all her life. Hanna is thrilled to be picked for the mission, after sleeping with that High Council member. I hasten to add that my favorite two characters were Hanna and the Council Member.
Unfortunately, none of the starship’s crew, whatever their mental abilities, appear to read any 20th Century SF about First Contacts. Such as Murray Leinster’s brilliant “First Contact” (short story), or Larry Niven’s “The Mote in God’s Eye” (novel). Or any number of Star Trek-TOS episodes. Hanna, in fact wins a sort of Galactic Literary Prize for writing a thesis that:
“Interstellar travel implies a level of technological achievement that makes it cheaper to manufacture wealth than to seek it through aggression. Likewise, it implies a structure of rationality transcending aggression for ideological motives.”
Right. Remember, John Lennon put “Imagine” on the same album as the vicious anti-Paul screed “How Do You Sleep?” Nothing to live or die for, huh?
Long story short, the aliens play peek-a boo with the ship, interested only in a Telepath. By that point, the ship has three, but aliens apparently don’t care about redundant spares, so grab Hanna, torture her until she tells them the coordinates of D’nerra (see M. Leinster, supra). And the aliens are even more clever; they strand what’s left of Hanna and her ship where humans could find them.
Any more would be a spoiler, but the spoiler seemed so obvious from here that even one who hasn’t read the book might guess. It nearly creates havoc, showing again it’s hard to believe in a spacefaring race that (in this book) already had met two non-human species of low intellect without tracing the entire First Contact game theory tree.
Book Two was a One star. There’s a germ of an idea here—lost colonies of Earth. Yet the entire execution was a “don’t open the door to the root cellar” affair, where every character makes decisions that make no sense. The love interest (there’s a long interstellar trip, where, at the least, they gaze into each other’s eyes) is preposterous, and is too deep to toss off as casual sex. And yet Hanna takes so few precautions to protect her man that it’s hard to credit anything more than: “if you love a butterfly, set it free.” In Book Two, it was next to impossible to identify with anyone, Hanna or the Councilman included.
If you must, stop at the end of Book One. Any more is a waste of neurons.
November 26, 2017
Two stories, hard to put down. But difficult reading and probably the sad science fiction stories I have ever read. Telepath first contact ambassador to two alien races. The first race sadists, the second murdered by pirates.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews