BookGirl's BookNook: Beholder's Eye

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Beholder's Eye - Review

Title: Beholder’s Eye

Author: Julie E. Czerneda

Series: Web Shifters #1

Synopsis: “Esen is the baby of the family. Only 500 years old, she’s impulsive and inexperienced, but determined to prove herself. And her first assignment, to study the Human inhabitants of Kraos without being detected, seems so easy it’s almost insulting.

“Esen herself isn’t Human – she’s a shapechanger, whose species has more in common with an exceptionally large amoeba than with anything we’d think of as sapient. And of course she mucks the job up royally, going from observer to passionate defender of an endangered offworld Human who suddenly, without her quite realizing how, becomes her colleague.

“Her family is furious, and their ruling Elder decides it’s time for Esen to grow up – to learn just why the family keeps itself hidden. For the galaxy is a far more dangerous place than she’s ever imagined – and the danger is about to find them.”

Review: Beholder’s Eye is the first book in one of my favorite series from one of my favorite authors. I always tell readers, especially readers that don’t care for science fiction, that this is not a science fiction story. Sure, there are science fiction elements. It takes place in space, on spaceships, and on different planets. There are spaceships, space stations, humans, and aliens. The author has put a lot of effort into world building, character building and developing different cultures. But at its heart, Beholder’s Eye is a story about people and family.

*****CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD*****

Beholder’s Eye speaks to me about family, both birth/blood relatives and the family we choose. Esen’s “birth” family is Ersh, Ansky, Mixs,Skalet and Lesy. Even before she loses them all we see that while their relationships with each other are important, most of them have chosen to surround themselves with other families. Mixs spends most of her time on the Panacian Hiveworld; Lesy with her artist’s colony; Ansky with the Articans; and Skalet with the Kraal. Ersh, by the very nature of being oldest, has lived a very long time. We don’t know a whole lot about her life before she gave birth to the other members of her web. However none of them have become so attached to their chosen web that they revealed themselves to them. That is something which is for blood relations only. Until Esen. Throughout the story we see Esen starting to build her own web. She becomes quickly attached to Ragem and even reveals herself to save his life, something which none of her siblings would have ever done. By the end of the book her family is gone and all that is left is Esen and Ragem, and the start of her new web.

Even though Esen and her family are not human, this speaks to me of human nature. Most of us have a family; even if it’s not blood. They are the people who raised us. The people who taught us the embarrassing things like how to use a fork, how to use a toilet, and how to behave in social situations. When we are older the relationships with those people are still important, but they begin to change. We begin to surround ourselves with people we choose as our family. As we become adults we create our own web of spouses, offspring and friends. I call mine my tribe. My tribe consists of my husband, my cats and our friends.

At the very end of Beholder’s Eye we discover that in human years Esen is not even ten years old. She has just started creating her own web and we look forward to joining her in future installments in this series.

*****Join us Tuesday September 11^th at 8pm EST on BookGirl’s BookNook Facebook Page for a Live discussion of Beholder’s Eye*****

Publisher: DAW Books

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