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 11th at 8pm EST
on BookGirl’s BookNook Facebook Page for a Live discussion of Beholder’s
Eye*****
Publisher: DAW
Books
If you like this book you may want to read:
Changing Vision (Web Shifters #2) by Julie E. Czerneda
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha
Wells
Powers That Be (Petaybee #1) by Anne McCaffrey &
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Stardoc (Stardoc #1) by S. L. Viehl
