Jaran (The Novels of the Jaran Book 1)

This is the first book in a tetralogy Elliott wrote back in the 1990s (and in fact in an introduction to this edition says she actually started writing in 1981, though it went through six rewrites before she finally submitted it). I think all of her books I’ve previously read were fantasy, but this one is SF, and quite good SF at that. What seems to be 2–3 centuries into our future, Earth had discovered FTL travel and begun colonizing our local stellar area when their colonies were discovered by a much more advanced alien (though humanoid) race, the Chapalii. The Chapalii were relatively benign, but did pretty much take over all the human worlds; while they shared some of their technology with humans (e.g. their life-lengthening discoveries, so that humans routinely lived healthy lives well past their hundredth year), they kept a lot of it to themselves and also kept an eye on anything humans did. Charles Soerensen had led an ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against the Chapalii, but rather than executing him they made him a duke in their empire, and granted him dominion over a couple of solar systems. Charles had no children, so his legal heir is his sister, Terese (usually “Tess”). The Chapalii recognize her as heir, though they continue to encour-age Charles to get himself a male heir. Tess, though, is the central character of the book (and I suspect of the series). She’s an expert linguist and polyglot, and after completing her education on Earth she sets out for the planets Charles rules. She finds herself spying on a group of Chapalii who land on a planet that Charles had decreed off-limits to advanced technology (and to Chapalii visitors); Rhui had been colonized by humans who had apparently been taken there from Earth is prehistoric times and had gradually developed several different cultures that by the time Charles came along had reached about the level of maybe 15th-century Earth. She lands in the middle of a vast steppe, something like Central Asia, and is adopted into a culture that’s somewhat similar to the Cossacks, although males and females are much more equal. Inheritance, for instance, is matrilineal, and when members of different clans marry, they live with the wife’s clan. These tribes are called the Jaran, and thus give their name to the book. Tess falls in love with their war leader, Ilya (the Jaran names all resemble Russian ones, though Elliott says in her introduction that their actual names in their language don’t resemble Russian that much; she modified them to be more pronounceable, and as long as she was doing that she also made them resemble Cossack names), who is trying to unite all the Jaran tribes to go out and conquer the sedentary realms that surround them. Lots of good adventure, and also a quite interesting culture. And of course, Charles is trying to find her, without much cooperation from the Chapalii.

We're locked down here, so I'm reading books I always meant to get around to reading. Jaran is one of them, as I loved Elliott's earlier sci fi books. This isn't really sci fi - it's mostly a long story of a 'modern' woman meeting a charismatic leader of a nomadic Slavic-type people, on a planet that has been purposefully left in the dark ages. Naturally she falls in love with him, while he's busy uniting the various tribes on his planet. But the romance seems dated, with its he-man overtones; and the inexplicable (e.g. aliens, holograms etc) get explained as miracles or god-sent visions, while of course, she knows better. She's torn between her lover (stuck on an interdicted planet) vs her brother (who alien conquerors have ennobled) and both men are ruthless leaders who want to be in charge of, well, everything. The women have to fight for an equal footing or to have a voice. The author doesn't try to explain the sci fi bits - you have to accept that e.g. interstellar travel just exists, courtesy of the aliens. I persevered with this and the second novel, but have run out of interest. I may get the other two when our library finally is allowed to re-open.

I read most of the reviews before I bought this book, and I had high hopes. I wanted to like it. I really did.To begin with, it is labeled as a science fiction book, but that is not really the case. It feels like one of those cheap romance books- the kind with a terribly lame plot, no character development, and weird dialogue. Nothing interesting happens- and to be honest, I got really bored.The book feels forced and unrealistic. Tess is dropped into the middle of an alien planet, in the middle of the wilderness, and none of the natives seem to think it is strange that she is there. They instantly adopt her and she becomes their relative just-like-that. The chief woman gives her a tent and makes her her daughter. She talks the whole time about how she loves Yuri as a brother, and they make all these references about his brotherly love towards her... all this even though they just met, and she is an alien. It just doesn't feel like something that would really happen.I didn't really care enough about any of the characters to care about what happened to them- and there is some weird gender thing going on. The women are in charge- kind of. The author spends a lot of time talking about the men blushing, and looking away, and biting their lips, and crying. It was kind of like she was trying to go for an Amazon type feel- but not. Like I said before... weird.Also the character names are horrendous- it took a lot of going back and rereading for me to sort them all out. It feels like the author tried to go with a Chinese-type style (Hon Echido Keinaba, Hao Yakii) and then added in a little Russian (Doroskayev, Mikhailov) and it seemed like she went a little crazy with the i's. I hated it! Plus, they randomly call characters by their last names, or their first names, and it is all very confusing.The author spends a ton of time (like 8 pages in a row) talking about the men blushing and whimpering, and then 1/2 a paragraph talking about them being ambushed. There is never really an explanation as to why they are being attacked, and the author just kind of briefly mentions it, even though it happens time after time.Basically... if you want to be really bored, this book is for you.

First read this as a loan from a friend some years ago. Then bought my own copy and the rest of the series. Just re-reading for the third time. I think most of the other reviews have covered the excellent points of this - complex world and society building, action, vivid descriptions, a wide range of characters. Very well thought out - she must have spend years plotting and building these books.

This was the second time I've read Jaran - but the first time in 13 years - and I loved it even more this time 'round. Fabulous, fun, smart and romantic space opera, all of it centered around a really wonderful heroine.

I thiought this the best one of the series, nicely inventive and excellent characters as always, but got rather laboured, especially in the last book.

Enjoyable read and will now go on to resad the next book in the series

Taking a little bit longer to get into than some of her novels but still good fun. M