Helpful Score: 3
I actually find this series very frustrating. I love the story lines and get sucked up into wanting to know what happens to the characters, but I think Viehls writing can be cryptic, and I often feel the characters are doing things without understanding what their motivation is. They also have an annoying tendency to not talk to each other to resolve issues and drag imaginary conflicts on and on. They also tend to do things completely out of character often. I think the story is deep enough that she doesn't need to do this to promote the story line, so it frustrates me.
Helpful Score: 2
Great follow-up to the first two books. A bit predictable, but a good read.
Helpful Score: 1
A bit darker than the others in the series.
Helpful Score: 1
Great Scifi! 3rd book in the StarDoc series. Dr. Cherijo is taken captive by the Hsktskt's. She is branded and made slave to OverMaster HalaVar, who turns out to really be her husband. Interesting reading as she searches for a cure to a strange disease and fights to get free.
Helpful Score: 1
Book three of a series. Somewhat formula, but still kept my interest.
I love S.L. Viehl. I've read this whole series several times. Love them all.
I read the first two books in this series and wanted to know what happened to the main character of Cherijo. I kept thinking the writing and the character would get better, but alas, they didn't. The character is supposed to be extremely smart and yet keeps making stupid choices which get her beat up and nearly killed! And this man who also berates her and beats her she keeps loving! The choices she kept on making finally became too much for me to rationalize and I gave up. I most likely will never read this series again. So disappointing!
Further adventures of Cherijo among the aliens, healing as she goes.
This was a overall an OK read for me, but I preferred book 1 out of all these so far and book 3 the least. The second half of the book was better than the first, but I don't understand why her friend Alunthri was added to the story. His being there seemed very forced in order to make Cherijo even angrier about her betrayal. I think her attitude of bullheaded defiance throughout the book, not really trusting or looking at things from other people's points of view was beginning to wear thin on me. Basically because she's brilliant she is always right (ha) - often naturally taking the role of a leader and hard to sway once her mind is made. It is even harder for others to get her to do what they say just to keep her alive. They are forced to great lengths to save her. I'd like to see how much her attitude changes in book 4. I hope she learns some lessons about trust instead of dragging out a tense situation. Meanwhile, one of the best parts of the book was when Cherijo goes deep into her subconscious, I think this is part of a much larger, very interesting story arc which I'd like to read more about.
I've read all the Stardoc novels (10) and this is my least favorite one. It is just badly written, to be honest. The characters perform actions in this book that are completely out of character and the entire conflict in the book could have been solved with a 5 minute conversation between the characters. I wanted to reach into the book and slap them.
Having said that, book 4 improves drastically, and the last half of the series are excellent. Sometimes you get tired reading about the same characters in the same situations after multiple books in a series, BUT without giving away any spoilers, Viehl manages to freshen up the characters in the Stardoc series in an extremely interesting way, and I couldn't put the books down after book number 6 (Rebel Ice).
So, if you hated this one after reading the very interesting first book (Stardoc) and the OK second book (Beyond Varallan), don't give up on the series. Viehl improves tremendously as a writer, the book following this one is much, much better, and the ones that follow after that are very decent reads.
Having said that, book 4 improves drastically, and the last half of the series are excellent. Sometimes you get tired reading about the same characters in the same situations after multiple books in a series, BUT without giving away any spoilers, Viehl manages to freshen up the characters in the Stardoc series in an extremely interesting way, and I couldn't put the books down after book number 6 (Rebel Ice).
So, if you hated this one after reading the very interesting first book (Stardoc) and the OK second book (Beyond Varallan), don't give up on the series. Viehl improves tremendously as a writer, the book following this one is much, much better, and the ones that follow after that are very decent reads.
I really enjoyed this book. The 2nd book in the series leaves you hanging and this book explains all those things. Great character development
Another great installment in this series.
