Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro

[watervole]

Another book lent to me by katlinel  who thought I might like it.  She was right.  I'm gong to get more books by this writer.

After reading this book, the first thing I did was to go and look up the author to see if Asaro knew what she was talking about.

She does.

She has an MA in physics from Harvard and her publications include - "Complex speeds and

Comments

[nwhyte]

I'd read a few things by her (notably her Nebula-winning The Quantum Rose, and a couple of other stories nominated for Hugos and Nebulas) and heartily disliked them all; and said so in various places around the Internet. She rather sweetly got in touch with me directly, and offered to send me some of her other work, including Primary Inversion. I read it and to my surprise liked it almost as much as you did.

Then I'm afraid I completely bounced off her next novel, The Radiant Seas, and Sunrise Alley is still on the shelf unread. So I will be interested to see what you think of her other work.

[watervole]

I'm trying to figure out what order to read them in, whether to go for chronological order or publication order.

[nwhyte]

My tip, for what it's worth - go by descending order of popularity among Librarything users!

(NB that Primary Inversion is at the top of the list, and the second-placed book, Irresistible Forces, is an anthology.)

[altariel]

I suspect Irresistible Forces places well because of the Bujold story it contains.

I didn't like Asaro's story in that collection much, but I recently got such a strong recommendation for Primary Inversions that I've picked it up from BookMooch. The positive reviews here are making me look forward to it even more.

[kerravonsen]

I suspect Irresistible Forces places well because of the Bujold story it contains.
Indeed. The Bujold story was the sole reason I bought that anthology, and I still haven't read most of the other stories in it.

[watervole]

Well, strictly speaking, it's not a popularity list, but how many people have copies. I find it a little frustrating that Library Thing doesn't use the ratings that I and other people put on books.

It's recommendations tend to be partly based on books you have that are unusual, but they still do this even if you actually rated them very low.

[kerravonsen]

I'm glad I'm not alone!
I guess "Primary Inversion" will be worth reading, even if none of her other stuff is.