| Date: 22 May 2011, 20:18
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This book is rather different in style from the first of the four Jaran novels, but I can't really agree with the reviewers who said it was weaker.
The basic setting for the series is that humans are a subject race in a domineering, but relatively benign, empire under the highly hierarchic alien Chapalii. Charles Soerenson, the only human to hold a high position in the Chapalii empire, is secretly using his position to prepare a revolt against the Chapalii. Meanwhile, his sister and heir, Tess, becomes stranded on the planet Rhui, populated by technologically backwards humans who Soerenson has ordered, with the consent of the Chapalii, are not to be aware of the existence of other populated worlds and advanced technology. While there, she falls in love with a Genghis Khan like figure, Bakhtiian, who has united the nomadic and matriarchal Jaran under his leadership and is preparing a campaign of conquest against the settled peoples of Rhui. The Jaran seem to be based roughly on the Russian/Mongolian cultures of the Russian steppes, and Jaran names are recognizably Russian.
In this novel, second in the series a few years ater the end of "Jaran", Charles Soerenson is visiting the Jaran along with some of his aides and a troupe of Earth actors, with the goals of exploring the Chapalii monument that Tess discovered in the prequel and persuading Tess to return with him. A final goal is gradually furthering the evolution of Jaran and Rhuian culture, with the expectation that they will eventually recontact galactic society. The visit takes place against the backdrop of Bakhtiaan's continuing campaign of conquest.
The actors, unmentioned by the other reviewers here, are central to the story, because their objective of using the language-based art of Shakespeare and classic theater to communicate across linguistic and cultural barriers reflects the novel's theme of how different cultures, and people from them, understand and misunderstand each other. This is also developed in a romance between an actress in the troupe and a Jaran warrior that progresses in spite of their lack of a common language, and a sometimes comic subplot of an arrogant young nobleman sent as a diplomat to the Jaran from a deeply patriarchal feudal kingdom, who is so shaped by his own culture that he is incapable of even understanding how little he understands the Jaran.
A related theme that is developed by suggestion in both this book and the prequel, perhaps for a more direct exploration before the series concludes, is the similarity between Charles's rule over Rhui and the Chapalii rule over Earth and mankind that Charles is in rebellion against.
The story generally involves far less action, and a bit less sex, than the first installation. It does feature a plot of repressed homosexual attraction that reaches an unpersuasive climax, so to speak, in a threesome. But in general, Elliott is elaborating the ideas and characters of the first volume and preparing for crises to come in future installations. The resultant novel some will find boring, but I thought that the characters were interesting enough to maintain an installment that is a bit thin on action.
One problem I did have is that there are really too many minor characters and substories going here, particularly among the Jaran. This book may have more Russian names in it than "War and Peace", which makes it hard to follow some elements of the story.
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