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sophia_sol) wrote2017-03-22 09:41 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2017-03-22 09:41 pm
An Ancient Peace, by Tanya Huff
Sixth in the Confederation series. Not bad! Less Craig content than the last book, which automatically gives it a step up in my opinion. Craig is a lot more palatable when he's just one of the team and sort of background emotional support for Torin, instead of being an integral part of the plot.
This book still had a fair quantity of sections I found boring and had to skim through though. Including the extended opening sequence. This book took way too long to get around to the plot, and when it finally got there it was mostly Torin et al following another team through a series of traps/puzzles in a dungeon crawl instead of really doing the work themselves. Not a lot of space in this book for Torin to show off how competent she is. But there was more space for showing how much of a team the team is becoming, which was nice.
I appreciated learning more about species we've already been hanging with for a while - like the stuff about Taykans and their need for touch, that was really explicated in a way it hadn't been before, that although they certainly thoroughly enjoy having sex with basically everyone, physical touch of any variety is what they actually physiologically need. It was too bad though that we finally got an example of a di'Taykan who DOESN'T want to have sex with anyone, but instead of that just being a choice she's making, it's part of her supremely unhealthy choice to not touch anyone at all even platonically, because of her issues. I still want to know if there are any di'Taykan who just don't want to have sex!
I really liked the element in this book about interspecies relationships between the Elder and Younger Races though. That's something that hasn't really been dealt with in earlier books, because it was mostly about the Younger Races and their war. So I really liked seeing Torin & team show up on a Core planet and a) see what that was like and b) see how Core residents responded to Younger Races in their midst.
Though I was a bit thrown by some of the team getting involved in a street fight on that planet with locals who were presumably part of the nonviolent Elder Races? I guess the nonviolence only goes as far as war, and interpersonal violence is still okay or something? Idek, this rather baffled me and threw off my understanding of the dynamics of the races.
This book still had a fair quantity of sections I found boring and had to skim through though. Including the extended opening sequence. This book took way too long to get around to the plot, and when it finally got there it was mostly Torin et al following another team through a series of traps/puzzles in a dungeon crawl instead of really doing the work themselves. Not a lot of space in this book for Torin to show off how competent she is. But there was more space for showing how much of a team the team is becoming, which was nice.
I appreciated learning more about species we've already been hanging with for a while - like the stuff about Taykans and their need for touch, that was really explicated in a way it hadn't been before, that although they certainly thoroughly enjoy having sex with basically everyone, physical touch of any variety is what they actually physiologically need. It was too bad though that we finally got an example of a di'Taykan who DOESN'T want to have sex with anyone, but instead of that just being a choice she's making, it's part of her supremely unhealthy choice to not touch anyone at all even platonically, because of her issues. I still want to know if there are any di'Taykan who just don't want to have sex!
I really liked the element in this book about interspecies relationships between the Elder and Younger Races though. That's something that hasn't really been dealt with in earlier books, because it was mostly about the Younger Races and their war. So I really liked seeing Torin & team show up on a Core planet and a) see what that was like and b) see how Core residents responded to Younger Races in their midst.
Though I was a bit thrown by some of the team getting involved in a street fight on that planet with locals who were presumably part of the nonviolent Elder Races? I guess the nonviolence only goes as far as war, and interpersonal violence is still okay or something? Idek, this rather baffled me and threw off my understanding of the dynamics of the races.