Julie Czerneda

[clovis-man]

Just finished reading Survival by this author, the first of a trilogy. I think I got into it on the basis of her background in the biological sciences. However, if Czerneda is really a biologist, she should know that a King salmon and a Chinook salmon are one and the same. She doesn't. She should also have enough interdisciplinary good manners not to refer to anthropologists as "pot hunters". Aside from that, her characters are one dimensional and stereotyped unduly. Sorry, I've been out of graduate school 40 years and have no wish to revisit the perky milieu of dedicated post-grad work (which, as she describes it, is contrived and unreal anyway).

Although some elements of the story were interesting, overall, I found it to be ponderous. I figured out what would be the outcome a little more than halfway through. Which had me wondering to myself: how come the characters in the novel didn't come to the same conclusions. Now I am faced with the prospect of reading two more lengthy novels (the next one already in hand) with similarly glacial progess of the story line. I'll have to give careful thought to whether I will continue the series or not. Mind you, the first novel wasn't awful, just not as good as I might wish.

Would anyone like to disabuse me of my harsh opinion? I'm more open than I sound.