From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Jun 22 15:12:05 1992 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic2!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!apple!apple!netcomsv!mork!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Tara Harper: Lightwing Message-ID: Date: 22 Jun 92 00:30:07 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Lines: 21 Tara K. Harper's new book, "Lightwing", is cut from the same cloth -- light, well-written, wish-fulfillment fantasy -- as her two earlier books, "Wolfwalker" and "Shadow Leader", though they are closer to being fantasies and "Lightwing" is science fiction. In this book, the young lady with whatever powerful talents the plot calls for is Kiondili Wae, a telepath whose talent for manipulating electromagnetic fields proves uniquely useful when she becomes an assistant on a research team attempting to perfect an ftl drive against a tight (and fairly arbitrary) deadline. The book has no surprises, nor is it intended to have any. For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. And if you enjoyed Harper's previous books, this one will meet expectations. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com "The death of God left the angels in a strange position." --Internal documentation, programmer unknown From /tmp/sf.1110 Fri Jul 23 13:59:10 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!spool.mu.edu!wupost!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Tara Harper: Storm Runner Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1993 03:48:12 GMT Lines: 18 Tara K. Harper's "Storm Runner", like the first two books in its series, is powerful, imaginative, skillfully written...and sordidly depressing. The main impression I walk away with is three hundred pages of people being murdered, tortured, or othewise finding unpleasant ways to die or be maimed. Granted, the heroine keeps emerging triumphant, but it's still an ugly sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy. I enjoyed "Wolf Walker", and thought "Shadow Leader" a bit excessive. Now that I've read book three, I don't know that I'm interested in seeing a fourth. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:50:42 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!panix!ddsw1!news.kei.com!hookup!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Prograde Reviews--Tara K. Harper:Lightwing Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <94Mar18.120552-0700.138958@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca> Date: 19 Mar 94 20:20:39 GMT Lines: 60 Tara K. Harper: Lightwing A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey [some spoilers] Tara K. Harper, says her bio at the back, has a Bachelor of Science degree, has worked in "the electronics and computer test-and-measurement field", and tries to keep up with the fields of genetics, biophysics, physics and space exploration. That kind of scientific background certainly shows up in _Lightwing_. That said, I'm not sure that this is hard SF, though I'm a bit fuzzy at what qualifies a book for that subgenre, not having read as much Analog as I might have. Most of the main characters in the book are scientists and engineers, trying to crack the secret of the FTL drive, and I often found myself bewildered by the technical jargon flying around--mainly because the author made it up herself, ESP and FTL not being fields I'm up on. In the latter, particularly, despite my passing familiarity with relativity physics, I often had little clue what she was referring to. But this _is_ future tech, right? Oh, yes, the ESP bit. Well, there's more than one alien race floating around, and a fair number of strains of mutated human stock(usually called H'Mus), including the protagonist, Kiondili Wae. Several of the aliens and many of the H'Mus have ESP abilities to a greater or lesser degree; these abilities also have their technical uses, being somehow able to interact with and control "fields". Kiondili Wae, a H'Mu ESPer with a bit of a chip on her shoulder and tragedy in her past, gets transferred to Corson Station, where she immediately gets into trouble and makes enemies. There's more than a bit of professional rivalry, lots of technical problems, and Wae's emotional problems cause their fair share of trouble too. The aliens are well-drawn. We really only get one sample of each type, except for the H'Mus, but they're all interesting--the Ixia, a carnivorous race who instinctively pounce on weakness(sometimes literally); the Moal, whose musical communications remind me somewhat of Cherryh's tc'a(who spoke in matrices); the Ruvians, who are H'Mus so far removed as to no longer have a constant physical form, or sexuality; the Dhirrnu, practical jokers with racial memory; and others only sketched out. I can't help wondering if Harper has written/ will write more books in this universe... For those who like to quantify these things, I'll give it a 7/10. The last half of the book really pulled me along, and the characterization is good. %A Harper, Tara K. %T Lightwing %I Ballantine del Rey %C New York %D July 1992 %G 0-345-37161-5 %P 261 pp. %O Paperback, US $4.99, Can $5.99 -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--The Beautiful South:Welcome To The Beautiful South Current Read--Nicole Luiken:Running On Instinct "curious george swung down the gorge/the ants took him apart" --billbill From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 15 13:47:47 1997 From: Howard Tayler Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: _Cataract_ by Tara K. Harper Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 12 Sep 1997 19:20:50 GMT Organization: The Mining Company Lines: 74 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: scifibooks.guide@miningco.com NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!europa.clark.net!206.251.127.49!newsfeed.gte.net!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1530 _Cataract_ by Tara K. Harper Review Copyright 1997 Howard Tayler [Despite being a review of the second book in a ?series? avoids spoilers for the first volume. --AW] This was the book that I was hoping for. When I read the prequel, _Cat Scratch Fever_ I was a little disappointed at how little the cats actually figured into the story (I am a felinophile). _Cataract_, however, did not let me down. But first a little background: the protagonist, Tsia, is a former member of the Guides guild, which means she was infected with a "gate" virus that would establish a telepathic/empathic link between her and a randomly selected family of animals. It might be bacteria, it might be this planet's equivalent of killer whales. Felines, however, are supposed to be off-limits. The Guides used them heavily during the exploration of the planet, and afterwards drew up the "Landing Pact" which released that family of animals from any future human interference. Unfortunately for Tsia, her gate links her to the cats, and there is nothing she can do to change that. Tsia is now 10 years past the events in the prequel, and has been working with the mercenaries guild for that time, hiding from her past with great success. She is currently working a contract with several other mercs, and things are starting to go wrong. The first thing that goes wrong is that Tsia decides to rescue a drowning cougar cub. This "cub" turns out to be over a year old and already way too big to be a pet. After its rescue it bonds with Tsia, and she can't get it to go away. It interferes with her concentration, and if she links with it and starts trying to make use of the nuisance in her head she is breaking the law in a Big Way. Well, things continue to go wrong for this band of mercenaries, and the book never lets up. The events in the story take place in close to the same time frame as the average reader will read them, assuming breaks for meals and sleep (the entire story spans little more than a day and a half). Depending on how easily wrapped up in stories you are, you may need neither. The plot elements include some very basic, human concerns like love, trust, and the lack of either, as well as some finer points of Ms. Harper's technology that will require the reader to think about what is being presented and try to figure out the implications from there. I really like the setting the author has created -- the technology is believably workable, and predictably fault-intolerant. Machines have better safegaurds on them than ours do, but employed incorrectly or jury-rigged carelessly they can still kill you. Just like real-life. If you've ever blown a tire on the freeway, or had a chainsaw jump at a knot in the log, you'll understand. Reasons to Read: -Solid characters on a solid stage: this book will stand up to re-reading, -While not quite non-stop, the action will keep fans of adventure happy. Reasons to Not Read: -Reading _Cat Scratch Fever_ is probably a prerequisite, and I did not enjoy that book as much. Visit http://scifibooks.miningco.com this week for an exclusive online interview with Tara K. Harper. %P Del Rey Books. %O Cover art by Rowena. %G ISBN 0-345-38052-5 Howard Tayler -- scifibooks.guide@miningco.NOSPAM.com http://scifibooks.miningco.com "Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with Science Fiction." (Robots can't figure out the NOSPAM domain, but I bet you can . . .)