puzumaki's review against another edition
3.0
Set on an agrarian non-technological planet, the young mayor ends up in a strange marriage that takes her farther than she ever knew.
The first half of the book was good, but then it got all sci-fi-y. I rarely am a fan of spaceship sci-fi. The second half of the book felt completely different than the first half. I was also weirded out by the age difference... over 40 years!! Otherwise, I suppose it was okay, just wish it had more transition or a different second half of the book. :P
The first half of the book was good, but then it got all sci-fi-y. I rarely am a fan of spaceship sci-fi. The second half of the book felt completely different than the first half. I was also weirded out by the age difference... over 40 years!! Otherwise, I suppose it was okay, just wish it had more transition or a different second half of the book. :P
cmbohn's review against another edition
1.0
I read this on recommendation from a library reading list, and I just hated it. I'm not sure why I finished it. The idea was not so bad. It started as a sort of [b:Beauty and the Beast|41424|Beauty A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169613617s/41424.jpg|2321285] romance story, but got all political and there was too much violence against women in there. Not recommended at all, and I will never read another by this author.
scribal's review against another edition
2.0
it seems like a side story in the series and very heavy on the romance
nwhyte's review against another edition
2.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1984726.html[return][return]Many years ago, when this book originally won the Nebula, I read it and was distinctly underwhelmed. But that was in the days before my bookblogging became serious; now that I am almost finished working through the Nebula winners, I felt I owed it to the book (and to its author, who engaged with me very gracefully and decently over my criticism) to give it another try.[return][return]Well. In fairness the novel itself is not all that bad, just very ordinary; our viewpoint character is a beautiful aristocrat bred for a submissive personality (which she is able to overcome just sufficiently for the needs of the plot); she is loved by another aristocrat who is from a different planet and conceals a heart of gold under his rugged exterior and alcoholism; and a third aristocrat envies them and tries to break them up ( cut for possible triggering ). Our heroine then goes to her lover's home world where they discover a lost city which his people had carelessly forgotten about. Also the nice aristocrats are locked in conflict with the evil Earth people. Then we find out in an afterword that the entire novel is a metaphor for quantum scattering theory and the three characters should really be considered as elementary particles (I am not making this up). [return][return]I guess the kindest thing that I can say is that this sort of thing is simply not my cup of tea; and I think on reflection that among Nebula winners The Quantum Rose is not quite as bad a novel as Robert Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment, and roughly as bad as The Gods Themselves.
thisisalexw's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
hatgirl's review against another edition
First read in 2001 Reread 3/10/2014 ; 8/26/18
erinys's review against another edition
2.0
This novel won the Nebula in 2001, and I really wanted to enjoy it more than I ended up being able to. It's a science fiction romance about a young political leader from a small, primitive, backwater world who falls in love with the princely heir apparent of an ancient and powerful interstellar empire.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.
kuzminichna's review against another edition
5.0
This book is an allegory of quantum processes! Written by a physicist based on her very own dissertation. How cool is that?! Science fiction styled after science - that is so deliciously meta. Even without, it is a delightful story about a very courageous young girl finding love, escaping an abusive relationship, learning the ways of some obscure edge-of-the-Galaxy human-integrated tech, saving a planet or two - with some seriously entertaining Disneyesque scenery (blue unicorns!!! With translucent, rainbow-filled horns and hoofs! Bwoooahahahaha) and mildly erotic scenes to boot. And all that - an allegory of the "mathematical and physical processes of coupled-channel quantum scattering theory"!!! This is so very hard core. So very hard, rainbow sprinkled on top core. My inner girl nerd cried tears of pure unadulterated joy. Filled with rainbows and pretty sparkles.
templetongate's review against another edition
I'm sure I've never read Asaro before. This won a Nebula, so I need to review it. After this, only 10 more to complete that project, other than newer winners as the years go by. It's #6 in a series, but hopefully enough of a stand-alone to be comprehensible. Let's see how it goes.
Well, it's not going well so far. I'm going to set this aside and move on to another Nebula winner. This may end up being the last title I review to finish off that project, however many years into the future I continue blogging.
Well, it's not going well so far. I'm going to set this aside and move on to another Nebula winner. This may end up being the last title I review to finish off that project, however many years into the future I continue blogging.
bookadventurer's review against another edition
4.0
One of the things I like best about [a:Catherine Asaro|34854|Catherine Asaro|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1246654947p2/34854.jpg]'s books is the mix of incomprehensible quantum physics, great plots and story lines, and the romantic-science fiction genre.
I love the cerebral themes underlying the fast-moving plot and well-drawn, complex characters:
- immersion into different cultures
- humans seeking freedom
- gender roles
- the nature of human relationships
- emotional distress and healing (caveat: there are some distressing abuse scenes)
She explains the themes: "So this arc of stories deals with two themes: how humans seek freedom and how coming to appreciate cultural differences may help make the world more peaceful. The idea of understanding the "other" is, I think, a major aspect of science fiction. We look at what is different - the alien - and in doing so, perhaps better understand ourselves." - Catherine Asaro.
At the end of this book, Asaro explains her quantum physics allegory for these themes (or is it vice versa?). Reading the explanation at the end of the novel, I found out that each protagonist represented a particle involved in quantum scattering.
This story is about a love triangle, in essence. A young governor of a province on a simple agricultural world is about to become betrothed to the governor of the neighboring province, who she has known since she was a child, when strangers arrive from outer space. One of the strangers, a man with a metal face named Lionstar, jumps in before the betrothal with a dowry offer of his own, throwing confusion and complications into what would have been a simple province merger/marriage alliance. The plot follows the three characters involved in the love triangle, but the scope pans out to cover the entire universe, since Lionstar happens to be the son of a universe-spanning imperial dynastic family.
As usual, the author mixes Mayan alternate history (as contextual information), space opera, agricultural societies, interstellar politics, and interpersonal relations in a complex and vivid tapestry.
I love the cerebral themes underlying the fast-moving plot and well-drawn, complex characters:
- immersion into different cultures
- humans seeking freedom
- gender roles
- the nature of human relationships
- emotional distress and healing (caveat: there are some distressing abuse scenes)
She explains the themes: "So this arc of stories deals with two themes: how humans seek freedom and how coming to appreciate cultural differences may help make the world more peaceful. The idea of understanding the "other" is, I think, a major aspect of science fiction. We look at what is different - the alien - and in doing so, perhaps better understand ourselves." - Catherine Asaro.
At the end of this book, Asaro explains her quantum physics allegory for these themes (or is it vice versa?). Reading the explanation at the end of the novel, I found out that each protagonist represented a particle involved in quantum scattering.
This story is about a love triangle, in essence. A young governor of a province on a simple agricultural world is about to become betrothed to the governor of the neighboring province, who she has known since she was a child, when strangers arrive from outer space. One of the strangers, a man with a metal face named Lionstar, jumps in before the betrothal with a dowry offer of his own, throwing confusion and complications into what would have been a simple province merger/marriage alliance. The plot follows the three characters involved in the love triangle, but the scope pans out to cover the entire universe, since Lionstar happens to be the son of a universe-spanning imperial dynastic family.
As usual, the author mixes Mayan alternate history (as contextual information), space opera, agricultural societies, interstellar politics, and interpersonal relations in a complex and vivid tapestry.