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Imperium (Chronological order) #2
The Knowing Crystal
Exiled to a brutal land of criminals, Alia desperately needs Teran's strength and knowledge of Carcer to gain access to the "knowing crystal," but she is ill-prepared for the passion she finds within his arms
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
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62 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Morgan
37 books382 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Kathleen began her career writing contemporary romances and soon moved to historical and futuristic romances. She sold her first book, a futuristic romance, in April 1990 while stationed in Korea as an Army nurse. Additional romances soon followed, until she had sold a total of fifteen books in the general market, establishing a loyal readership along the way.
Since that time, she has received numerous awards for her work, including a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice award and Career Achievement award, and The Literary Times award for Literary Excellence in the Field of Romantic Fiction. She was also a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist.
Kathleen now focuses her writing talents in the area of inspirational fiction, offering readers characters who struggle to redefine their growing faith in everyday life.
Kathleen began her career writing contemporary romances and soon moved to historical and futuristic romances. She sold her first book, a futuristic romance, in April 1990 while stationed in Korea as an Army nurse. Additional romances soon followed, until she had sold a total of fifteen books in the general market, establishing a loyal readership along the way.
Since that time, she has received numerous awards for her work, including a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice award and Career Achievement award, and The Literary Times award for Literary Excellence in the Field of Romantic Fiction. She was also a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist.
Kathleen now focuses her writing talents in the area of inspirational fiction, offering readers characters who struggle to redefine their growing faith in everyday life.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 30, 2017
Alia, a novice in the Sisterhood of the Crystal, is charged with recovering the missing Knowing Crystal. It’s been located on a prison planet in the possession of a warlord. Alia accepts the mission and travels to this desolate place. Here she meets the exiled criminal Teran, who is also on a quest. They join forces to obtain the artifact, aware that success means enslavement for Teran and celibacy in the Order for Alia. Will love prevail over duty?
September 2, 2018
Well this is a bit out of the ordinary. Instead of a doormat heroine and an asshole hero, this little old school sci-fi romance gives us an assholish heroine and a doormat hero. Hmmm. Alia is a queen in the making, orphaned and raised by the Sisters of the Crystal, the High Priestess has raised her to be cold and emotionless, so that she could eventually use her powers logically in order to find the long lost Crystal of Knowledge and use it to rule . Teran is a Bellatorian who has been incarcerated on the planet of Carcer (I see what she did there…) and guided by his teacher, the Buddha incarnate, Vates. When Alia is sent to Carcer to retrieve the Crystal of Knowledge, she hooks up with Vates and Teran, who agree to help her in her quest. Teran brings out all kinds of emotions in Alia but she keeps trying to ruthlessly suppress them and push him away. There’s also an added slave/master dynamic going on here which brings plenty of resentful feelings, but Mr. Doormat doesn’t hold on to them for long. As the feelings become overwhelming, Alia wonders how she will ever be able to set them aside to complete her duty as a celibate member of the Sisters of the Crystal.
I’m not really a fan of doormats wherever I should find them, be they male or female, unless the doormat status comes with a lot of angst and an expiration date (usually accompanied by some badass refusal to be a doormat any longer). As such, despite how nice and honorable Teran was, I was frustrated by him because I wanted him to just toss Alia in a pond and leave her to her own arrogance. He really deserved someone who would treat his kind and forgiving heart more gently than Alia did. To him it seemed like Alia was using him for whatever purposes and then discarding him, but in reality she was just trying to stick to her “duty.” Nevertheless, her ability to overlook the hurt she caused him and to continue with it kinda makes it tough for me to forgive her. Her easily willingness to just treat him like a slave (when she claims not to want to) reinforces this feeling. I know she’s been raised this way and she’s trying not to be like that, but then she remembers her duty and that she HAS to be that way...Alia was not all that good a person really. This is driven home for me in the end when she actually agrees to . Nevermind that she can’t go through with it. The fact that she agrees to do it and only chickens out at the crucial moment is enough for me doubt how good of a person she really is. As I said, Teran was too good for her.
This fell into the solid 3 star range for me. Although I didn’t like Alia and I wanted Teran to stand up for himself a bit more firmly, I didn’t hate either character and still liked them together...when Alia had her head out of her ass anyway (never seen a heroine disregard such obvious clues about her own destiny). This was still entertaining and better than the first story in the series. It definitely caused fewer (none) volatile feelings that would put dents in my wall or require copious amounts of chocolate.
I have to wonder at the author’s technique of changing words of time to latin-based ones. Nowhere in this story will you find the word “day” or “night.” Instead, the words have been substituted with the words “sol” and “nocte.” This is true even in compound words resulting in some jarring new creations like “somesol” and “noctemare.” It’s an adjustment and doesn’t really achieve much of a purpose to my way of seeing. Maybe this was just a thing in 90’s sci-fi romance...to sort of try and make it seem more alien.
I’m not really a fan of doormats wherever I should find them, be they male or female, unless the doormat status comes with a lot of angst and an expiration date (usually accompanied by some badass refusal to be a doormat any longer). As such, despite how nice and honorable Teran was, I was frustrated by him because I wanted him to just toss Alia in a pond and leave her to her own arrogance. He really deserved someone who would treat his kind and forgiving heart more gently than Alia did. To him it seemed like Alia was using him for whatever purposes and then discarding him, but in reality she was just trying to stick to her “duty.” Nevertheless, her ability to overlook the hurt she caused him and to continue with it kinda makes it tough for me to forgive her. Her easily willingness to just treat him like a slave (when she claims not to want to) reinforces this feeling. I know she’s been raised this way and she’s trying not to be like that, but then she remembers her duty and that she HAS to be that way...Alia was not all that good a person really. This is driven home for me in the end when she actually agrees to . Nevermind that she can’t go through with it. The fact that she agrees to do it and only chickens out at the crucial moment is enough for me doubt how good of a person she really is. As I said, Teran was too good for her.
This fell into the solid 3 star range for me. Although I didn’t like Alia and I wanted Teran to stand up for himself a bit more firmly, I didn’t hate either character and still liked them together...when Alia had her head out of her ass anyway (never seen a heroine disregard such obvious clues about her own destiny). This was still entertaining and better than the first story in the series. It definitely caused fewer (none) volatile feelings that would put dents in my wall or require copious amounts of chocolate.
I have to wonder at the author’s technique of changing words of time to latin-based ones. Nowhere in this story will you find the word “day” or “night.” Instead, the words have been substituted with the words “sol” and “nocte.” This is true even in compound words resulting in some jarring new creations like “somesol” and “noctemare.” It’s an adjustment and doesn’t really achieve much of a purpose to my way of seeing. Maybe this was just a thing in 90’s sci-fi romance...to sort of try and make it seem more alien.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2022
The Imperium is a group of planets. Aranea, Alia's planet, is the Mother planet, where the Knowing Crystal first appeared, but after some centuries of peace it disappeared and chaos reigned. Everyone had forgotten how to rule themselves, become too dependent on the crystal, so now society and its laws corrupted. Aranean women drugged and murdered their men; Bellator warriors were unjust, etc. Teran and Alia get the crystal and with its return they will rule jointly on the mother planet and hope to bring peace to the Imperium.
I enjoyed the plot, but found it disjointed in terms of Alia's mutable emotions and intentions, and a little tedious in places, i.e. constant searching and testing and fighting and so on.
I enjoyed the plot, but found it disjointed in terms of Alia's mutable emotions and intentions, and a little tedious in places, i.e. constant searching and testing and fighting and so on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
its-a-no-for-me-dawg
January 20, 2026Not interested - plot
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews