Primary Inversion is set in a future where three star-faring civilizations vie for control of human-settled space. Fighter pilot Sauscony (Soz) Valdoria commands a squadron of four Jagernaut pilots, neurologically enhanced empaths who have been bio-engineered as weapons. Jagernauts have extensive biomech throughout their bodies, allowing for enhanced speed and reaction, and an embedded artificial intelligence (AI) in their spinal cords. They are pitted against the legions of the Trader empire, in particular the Aristo ruling class, a race that derives pleasure from the amplified pain and anguish of empaths—especially Jagernauts, as Soz knows from personal experience. Soz is also an imperial heir and may someday become the military commander of the Skolian Empire, the bitter enemies of the Traders.
The book is divided into three sections. In the first, Soz and her squadron are taking shore leave on a planet that has remained neutral in the hostilities between the warring empires. It is there that Soz meets the Highton heir, Jaibriol Qox the Second, the Aristo who will someday rule the Trader empire. She discovers he secretly possesses the same empathic abilities that she wields. The two link mentally and fall in love against their own wishes. From Jaibriol, Soz learns that his father is going to commit genocide against the inhabitants of a planet who have joined together to rebel against their Aristo rulers. She goes in with her squadron to warn and evacuate the planet. After a desperate space battle, they barely escape with their own lives, but are able to save some of the planet's inhabitants.
In the second section, Soz is sent by her brother, Kurj, the imperator of the Skolian Imperialate, for rest and recuperation on the planet Foreshires Hold. Emotionally drained and suffering from post traumatic syndrome, she refuses to acknowledge she needs help. She wants to fight the Traders, to avenge Rex, her second in command and long time friend, who was crippled in the battle. Her condition continues to deteriorate, until she almost shoots herself with her own gun. Finally acknowledging she needs help, she seeks the counsel of a heartbender, a psychologist specifically trained to treat Jagernauts.
In part three, Soz's brother calls her back to HQ. He has captured Jaibriol Qox and wants Soz to interrogate him. Knowing that if her brother discovers her secret meeting with Jaibriol, he will probably have her executed for treason, Soz undertakes a daring rescue and frees Jaibriol. With the help of her stunned father Eldrinson, she and Jaibriol escape in a star ship accident that appears to kill them both. They hide on an isolated planet, with only Soz's father and the president of the Allied Worlds of Earth aware of their true situation. The book ends with their knowledge that they will someday have to return to deal with their respective empires, but for the time being they are safe.
Place in the series
Primary Inversion is the first book of the Skolian Empire series that appeared in print, and is considered a stand-alone novel. However, the events that take place in the book are placed in the middle of the series chronology. In 2008, Asaro rewrote the entire book and gave the revised version to the Baen Free Library to post.[2][3] The sequel to Primary Inversion is The Radiant Seas, which continues the story of Soz, Jaibriol, and Kurj and is written as an epic space saga covering nearly twenty years.
Sauscony (Soz) Valdoria
Soz Valdoria has been among Asaro's most popular characters. A portion of Primary Inversion is devoted to Soz's attempts to deal with the emotional repercussions of being both a highly sensitive empath and an advanced military weapon. In that guise, the story deals with themes of post traumatic stress syndrome. James Schellenberg at Challenging Destiny Reviews has noted that Asaro "understands one of Roger Ebert's dictums about what makes for interesting drama, namely that it's not what we do, but how we feel when we're doing it", and that Soz is "a strong, dynamic character, one that people of either gender can easily identify with. However, Sauscony is not a one-note monolith of fortitude and brawn—she is articulate, funny, and empathic to boot." Asaro uses the character to highlight questions of humanity in asking what happens to soldiers who are turned into weapons. And in dealing with role reversal in Primary Inversion, she explores traditional gender roles in the process of breaking them.[4][5][6]
Elements of science fiction
Primary Inversion has been described as an exemplary novel in the hard science fiction genre from sources such as Stanley Schmidt, the long time editor of Analog magazine, who wrote that the book is "an impressive first novel; not just a good story, but the kind of speculation we too seldom see—really new science that just might be possible". Asaro is also noted as one of the few female science fiction writers who also has a doctorate in hard science, specifically a Ph.D. from Harvard in theoretical Chemical Physics.[7]
In 1996, Asaro published a paper in the American Journal of Physics called "Complex Speeds and Special Relativity" that gives the mathematical formulation she developed for the fictional star drive used in Primary Inversion. Describing the idea as a "mathematical game", she shows how making the speed a complex number can remove the problems associated with the singularity at the speed of light.[8][9][10]
"Inversion" is the means of faster-than-light space travel. Instead of breaking the barrier of the speed of light, spaceships in Primary Inversion go around it. By adding an imaginary component to their velocity, or "inverting", they enter a superluminal universe, allowing for near-instantaneous travel. However, because the ship must come close to the speed of light to invert, travel still takes time. In addition, various space-time calculation errors add complications. The Skolians' military advantage is based on the fact that the pilots can communicate with technology-induced "telepathy" while in inversion and arrive in tight formation from inversion.
Primary Inversion and its sequel, The Radiant Seas, deal with interstellar combat from the perspective of relativistic space travel. The battles in Primary Inversion and other of Asaro's works include extrapolations of current-day ideas in bio-cybernetics, artificial intelligence, situational awareness, relativistic complications, and weapons development. Reviewers have commented on the extent and excitement of the battles, and also the attention to detail.[4][11]
The presence of empathy (in Rhon) and anti-empathy/sadism (in Aristo) is explained by two extraneous structures in the brain, KEB and Kyle Afferent Body (KAB). The first sends out signals of emotions, while the second interprets them. The Aristos were genetically engineered for resistance to pain, and the structure that is supposed to interpret telepathic signals is defective. They do not interpret emotions as such, instead they receive only emotional signals of pain, which their brains re-routes to the sexual pleasure centers. The perfect prey for Aristos are the empaths, since the empaths sends out stronger pain emotions, which translates into greatest pleasure.
The Skolian Kyle Web or psiberweb can be used by telepaths as a means for instantaneous communication and for information storage. It is based on ancient technology of the Ruby Empire and powered by the Triad of Rhon empaths, strongest empaths there are. Without the Rhon, the Web would collapse.
Matriarchy
The Skolian Empire is based on the remnants of the more powerful, ancient Ruby Empire, which was a true matriarchy. Physically, the women were taller and bigger than men. In many descriptions of women in her book, Asaro compares them to the "ancient warrior queens." Although the society is currently egalitarian, and the Imperator is male, remnants of matriarchy remain.
The main character, Sauscony Valdoria is a warrior, a Jagernaut (biomechanically enhanced fighter and pilot) with the rank of a Primary (military status equivalent to general) and very tough. She admits to being bad with words and emotions, she suppresses her feelings and hides her weaknesses. She is much more comfortable with physical rather than emotional confrontation. In her relationship with Jaibriol Qox, she also takes the dominant role. She is more than twice his age, more experienced and powerful. When he is captured, she rescues and more-or-less physically carries him out of his cell.
Place in genre and associated controversies
Described as "an unusually masterful first novel" by Booklist, Primary Inversion has been called hard science fiction, action-rich drama, space opera, military science fiction, science fiction romance, and spaceadventure. The book has received praise both for Asaro's development of the emotional lives of the characters and for its innovative use of scientific extrapolation.[4][5][12] In an interview at Intel's Moments of Genius web site, Asaro describes how her publisher introduced her books as hard science fiction and how she uses her doctorate in theoretical physics as background for her fiction.[13]
The label assigned to the book has become a source of controversy, in particular due to the blend of hard science with romance in the Romeo and Juliet tale of love between the scions of two empires. Some romance readers have said the book doesn't qualify as romance because it is, first and foremost, a story that emphasizes science fiction, one where the two lovers are separated for a third of the book; whereas some science fiction readers have criticized the extent of the development of the love relationship and emotional lives of the characters.[11][14][15][16][17]
Asaro has been accepting of the term romance despite the controversy and has expressed pleased surprise that her works attracted the interest of the romance community.[18]
Related Research Articles
Catherine Ann Asaro is an American science fiction and fantasy author, singer and teacher. She is best known for her books about the Ruby Dynasty, called the Saga of the Skolian Empire.
Planetary romance is a subgenre of science fiction in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place against the background of a future culture where travel between worlds by spaceship is commonplace; others, particularly the earliest examples of the genre, do not, and invoke flying carpets, astral projection, or other methods of getting between planets. In either case, it is the planetside adventures which are the focus of the story, not the mode of travel.
Catch the Lightning is a novel by Catherine Asaro in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, also known as Tales of the Ruby Dynasty. The novel won the 1998 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and the UTC Readers Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Spherical Harmonic is a science fiction novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. It tells the story of Dyhianna Selei (Dehya), the Ruby Pharaoh of the Skolian Imperialate, as she strives to reform her government and reunite her family in the aftermath of a devastating interstellar war.
Schism is a novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, a series of science fiction books by Catherine Asaro. It was first published in 2004.
Skyfall is a 2003 novel by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of how Roca met her husband Eldrinson, Bard of Dalvador, ruler of a province on Skyfall.
The Moon's Shadow is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of Jaibriol Qox III—how he became emperor of Eube after the interstellar Radiance War, and founded peace talks between his people, the Eubians, and those of the Skolian Imperialate.
Ascendant Sun is a novel which tells the story of how Kelric made it back to Earth, to become Imperator of the Skolian Empire and lead his people towards peace with the Eubians in the Saga of the Skolian Empire series by Catherine Asaro.
The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga or Tales of the Ruby Dynasty, is a series of science fiction novels, novellas and novelettes by Catherine Asaro, revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as the Skolian Empire and their power struggle with the rival Eubian Concord. The plot of the book unfolds over several generations of characters and revolves around political intrigues, but also contains subplots regarding physics, bio-enhancements, virtual computer networks, romance, mathematics, and military conflict as it is affected by superluminal space travel.
The Quantum Rose is a science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of Kamoj Argali and Skolian Prince Havyrl Valdoria. The book is set in her Saga of the Skolian Empire. It won the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2001 Affaire de Coeur Award for Best Science Fiction. The first third of the novel appeared as a three-part serialization in Analog magazine in the 1999 May, June and July/August issues. Tor Books published the full novel in 2000.
Rhon psions, also known as Ruby psions are a fictional group of extremely powerful psionics in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro.
Sunrise Alley is a romantic science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro about a retired EI engineer named Samantha Bryton, and her adventures with an escaped EI who claims to be a human named Turner Pascal.
The Last Hawk is a 1997 science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro. The novel is an installment in the Saga of the Skolian Empire series and details the life of Kelricson Garlin Valdoria Skolia during his eighteen years of imprisonment on the planet Coba
The Final Key is a science fiction novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, a series of books by American writer Catherine Asaro. As the direct sequel to Schism, it tells the story of a major Eubian assault against the Skolian government and Eldrinson's rise from a rustic farmer to a member of the powerful imperial Triad.
The Radiant Seas is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire series of books by Catherine Asaro. The book continues where Primary Inversion ended and centers on the story of the devastating interstellar Radiance War. It won the HOMer Award for Best Novel of 2000 from the SF and Fantasy forum on CompuServe.
"Aurora in Four Voices" is a short science fiction novella written by Catherine Asaro and published in December 1998. It is part of the Skolian Empire series and was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It was also available free online at Analog magazine's website.
The Ruby Dice is a 2009 science fiction novel. Written by Catherine Asaro, the book wraps up many of the events of Saga of the Skolian Empire.
Point Valid was a three-piece alternative rock band originating in Baltimore, Maryland. The group formed in October 2006, and went on hiatus in 2011. While active, the band collaborated with American science fiction and fantasy author Catherine Asaro.
This is the bibliography of American space opera and hard science fiction author Catherine Asaro.
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