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Jaydium
Hungry for "a wild and woolly journey through time and space," some really cool aliens, and a touch of romance?
Far in the future, an interplanetary civil conflict has ground to an uneasy halt, leaving its human victims bitter and desperate: Kithri, the daughter of a scientist, abandoned on a desolate mining planet with no hope to use her talents, and Eril, a shell-shocked pilot who finds adapting to peace more difficult than he dreamed. A freak accident sends them back to a time when their desert world was lush and green, when an alien civilization stands on the brink of a war of total destruction. Unexpectedly linked with Lennart, a spaceman from an earlier era in galactic history, and Brianna, an anthropologist from an alternate universe, they must choose to remain outside the conflict or to stand up for what they believe—even at the cost of never getting home again.
Far in the future, an interplanetary civil conflict has ground to an uneasy halt, leaving its human victims bitter and desperate: Kithri, the daughter of a scientist, abandoned on a desolate mining planet with no hope to use her talents, and Eril, a shell-shocked pilot who finds adapting to peace more difficult than he dreamed. A freak accident sends them back to a time when their desert world was lush and green, when an alien civilization stands on the brink of a war of total destruction. Unexpectedly linked with Lennart, a spaceman from an earlier era in galactic history, and Brianna, an anthropologist from an alternate universe, they must choose to remain outside the conflict or to stand up for what they believe—even at the cost of never getting home again.
- GenresScience Fiction
MP3 CD
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 18, 2020
Jaydium starts off on a deadbeat planet with miners slouched around causing havoc in a bar. It sounded terribly familiar. The girl is different, but the arrival of her ex-partner, and his new partner, and his friend, seems to send it off on a trite space romance. This gets worse when the friend insists on helping the girl out by flying duo with her to help her cut some jaydium. Jaydium is much like orichalcum is in my universe, but it enable faster-than-light travel, rather than instantaneous communications. It’s still highly prized and only found in a few places.
At that point I was thinking… meh.
Then it all changed. And then it changed again! I wondered how many changes we were in for, but the development of the later change and the attention to possibilities both sociological and temporal had me completely hooked.
Ms Wheeler writes a mean story, with great action sequences, and she keeps the action going. The relationships develop at a sensible and realistic pace, especially when dealing with four beings out of time with each other. The need for a double helping of translation tech was a nice touch. I would quibble over a few things that needed editing, and I sometimes felt the switched of point of view were confusing. like the author couldn’t quite decide who she’d rather have tell this part of the tale.
There is potential for further adventures of the pair we are left with departing together on a spaceship at the end, but really, I think it would be hard to develop their characters from there. But more convoluted space adventures from Ms Wheeler, please!
At that point I was thinking… meh.
Then it all changed. And then it changed again! I wondered how many changes we were in for, but the development of the later change and the attention to possibilities both sociological and temporal had me completely hooked.
Ms Wheeler writes a mean story, with great action sequences, and she keeps the action going. The relationships develop at a sensible and realistic pace, especially when dealing with four beings out of time with each other. The need for a double helping of translation tech was a nice touch. I would quibble over a few things that needed editing, and I sometimes felt the switched of point of view were confusing. like the author couldn’t quite decide who she’d rather have tell this part of the tale.
There is potential for further adventures of the pair we are left with departing together on a spaceship at the end, but really, I think it would be hard to develop their characters from there. But more convoluted space adventures from Ms Wheeler, please!
April 3, 2012
Recommended. There is a special place in science fiction and fantasy for the “door in the wall” story. Sometimes it takes place on a completely different world; occasionally it takes place with alien minds front and center. In JAYDIUM, we have the repeating mirror of multiple times, the branching universe of “What if?” magnified and showing us different ways the universe has played out – and how one small world may be the home of a sentient alien species, the ruins of a once-great civilization, and a rock with a bonanza of energy wealth buried within it.
As always, Ross poses important questions through the thoughts and actions of her players. Our major protagonists include jaydium miner and pilot Kithri, left on a dying, outback world after her scientist father’s death, unable to raise the money to leave and find an education and a future. When ace pilot and war hero Eril arrives in port, and volunteers to help her make a valuable duo pilot run, Kithri agrees to take him out to the mines.
The mind link of duo piloting can cause strange intimacies and physical attraction, but the bizarre portion of their trip begins when an unstable jaydium deposit and a sparking force whip combine to cast the pair and Kithri’s ship adrift in time. Along this tunnel of possibility they pick up a spaceman from an earlier galactic civilization (one so old his entire culture has been forgotten in Kithri’s time) and an anthropologist from an alternate universe.
It takes them all time to trust each other, because no one knows which timeline is “right” and which history should be believed – and then the final snap of the wormhole drops them in what appears to be the past of Kithri’s planet. A past that was still a lush, watery world. The planet has an alien civilization so foreign to humans that it will take all their combined efforts to prove to this race that they are sentient, much less from the future, and bearing a warning.
Here Ross shows a touch of genius as she weaves together a new, sentient race struggling to determine if what they have found is intelligent with three very different human cultural attitudes to dealing with an alien civilization on the brink of their first interstellar war. Kithri’s universe has just been ripped apart by warfare. The spaceman Lennart remembers a galaxy at peace, at a price, while anthropologist Brianna comes from a vast interstellar alliance that is a strange mix of both peace and much higher levels of violence.
Do they interfere in the plans and discussions of these aliens? Should they? Was Kithri’s world born from the success of these creatures, or of their failure? And is there any chance of getting back to their homes, to their lives...and again, should they? Eril was looking for a partner pilot for the Courier Corps, and came to that port to meet Kithri. Can they find a future together – and where?
As she did in Northlight, Ross examines betrayal, survival, healing, second chances, even redemption. There is a lot of adventure, a touch of romance, and new worlds and aliens to examine. The question of what is sentience, and could we recognize intelligence so different from ourselves, adds to the story. Fans of the Miller & Lee Liaden books, the Cherryh Atevi books, the Smith Idomeni books or my Nuala books will probably like this one, too.
As always, Ross poses important questions through the thoughts and actions of her players. Our major protagonists include jaydium miner and pilot Kithri, left on a dying, outback world after her scientist father’s death, unable to raise the money to leave and find an education and a future. When ace pilot and war hero Eril arrives in port, and volunteers to help her make a valuable duo pilot run, Kithri agrees to take him out to the mines.
The mind link of duo piloting can cause strange intimacies and physical attraction, but the bizarre portion of their trip begins when an unstable jaydium deposit and a sparking force whip combine to cast the pair and Kithri’s ship adrift in time. Along this tunnel of possibility they pick up a spaceman from an earlier galactic civilization (one so old his entire culture has been forgotten in Kithri’s time) and an anthropologist from an alternate universe.
It takes them all time to trust each other, because no one knows which timeline is “right” and which history should be believed – and then the final snap of the wormhole drops them in what appears to be the past of Kithri’s planet. A past that was still a lush, watery world. The planet has an alien civilization so foreign to humans that it will take all their combined efforts to prove to this race that they are sentient, much less from the future, and bearing a warning.
Here Ross shows a touch of genius as she weaves together a new, sentient race struggling to determine if what they have found is intelligent with three very different human cultural attitudes to dealing with an alien civilization on the brink of their first interstellar war. Kithri’s universe has just been ripped apart by warfare. The spaceman Lennart remembers a galaxy at peace, at a price, while anthropologist Brianna comes from a vast interstellar alliance that is a strange mix of both peace and much higher levels of violence.
Do they interfere in the plans and discussions of these aliens? Should they? Was Kithri’s world born from the success of these creatures, or of their failure? And is there any chance of getting back to their homes, to their lives...and again, should they? Eril was looking for a partner pilot for the Courier Corps, and came to that port to meet Kithri. Can they find a future together – and where?
As she did in Northlight, Ross examines betrayal, survival, healing, second chances, even redemption. There is a lot of adventure, a touch of romance, and new worlds and aliens to examine. The question of what is sentience, and could we recognize intelligence so different from ourselves, adds to the story. Fans of the Miller & Lee Liaden books, the Cherryh Atevi books, the Smith Idomeni books or my Nuala books will probably like this one, too.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2013
The plot is only somewhat unique. I'm not too fond of the way the author expresses the emotions and actions of the characters. It is as if the actions are mostly the result of some event in the past, while present circumstances play second fiddle.
August 13, 2019
It looks like the editors/proofreaders took a break for the last few chapters of this one. Good editing until then though.
Good story, though I fail to see how the ending came about, (insufficient explanation in my opinion), but nonetheless, the story wasn't bad, and if you like exploration, you'll probably enjoy this one. Some of it tries to pass itself off as time travel, but honestly, (except for the very last two chapters), there's zero evidence of this, so if you're reading it for the time travel experience, you're doomed to be disappointed. However, if you're reading it for the aliens, space travel, exploration, or the rest of the things that go into the making of a good story, then you're all set, settle in, and have a good read.
Good story, though I fail to see how the ending came about, (insufficient explanation in my opinion), but nonetheless, the story wasn't bad, and if you like exploration, you'll probably enjoy this one. Some of it tries to pass itself off as time travel, but honestly, (except for the very last two chapters), there's zero evidence of this, so if you're reading it for the time travel experience, you're doomed to be disappointed. However, if you're reading it for the aliens, space travel, exploration, or the rest of the things that go into the making of a good story, then you're all set, settle in, and have a good read.
October 28, 2019
Enjoyed this “time travel” story. Good characters and good writing. Am left with a delightful ambiguity...did these characters cross time or dimensions?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews