Beholder's Eye

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Amazon.com Review Julie E. Czerneda is going to make it into the awards nominations very soon, if her first two books are any indication. Her first novel, __, was called "thoroughly entertaining" in Locus . Czerneda's second book, Beholder's Eye , is even better. Esen-Alit-Quar is the youngest of her Web, a "family" of extremely long-lived shapeshifters. Web-beings live in the diverse cultures and forms of intelligent life to learn and preserve their accomplishments. On her first assignment Es rescues a human, Paul Ragem, from the culture she's studying. But he and some on his first contact ship learn about her shapechanging. This could be fatal for Esen's Web, as an Enemy has appeared, seeking to destroy them and consuming all intelligence in its path. Es must elude pursuit by humans, who believe she is the Enemy, warn her Web members, and defeat this danger. Paul Ragem offers help, but asks Es to trust him with knowledge of her kind. He could lose his friends, his career, and his life, or he could betray Es to his human colleagues out of fear. The characters, races and cultures are marvelously distinctive and well drawn, the action swift, and the conclusion satisfying. If you've enjoyed Beholder's Eye a once-over. --Nona Vero Review From SF Site.com: Beholder's Eye is Julie Czerneda's second novel. She entered the science fiction scene last year with her delightful debut book, A Thousand Words for Stranger. In Beholder's Eye, she continues with one of the key themes from Stranger, in which a member of a secretive, powerful race winds up getting much too closely involved with a human, leading to profound consequences. The book's protagonist is Esen-alit-Quar, the youngest of a race of shapeshifters. Being only a few hundred years old, Esen is now just ready for her first assignment -- to spend a decade on a planet studying the culture of the local inhabitants. Despite her confidence, things rapidly go astray when she finds humans on the planet as well. Soon, she's managed to violate her race's most important rule by revealing her nature to a human. Throughout it all, Esen becomes closer and closer friends with a human. Since she has hardly had any meaningful interactions with someone of another species, she is ill-prepared for the consequences that friendship can bring.- This friendship is further complicated by the danger that her friend will be drawn into the hunt against her. The unusual premise and excellent writing combine to make Beholder's Eye a wonderfully entertaining book. I'm looking forward to the sequel Czerneda has planned for the future. Copyright - 1998 James Seidman