Brought to you by OBS reviewer Sammy
Synopsis:
While on tour to the mysterious planet Abulon, the pleasure-loving hermaphrodites of the Merculian National Dance Company are intrigued by the virile patriarchal society they discover there. The natives seem friendly enough, but when the star’s young lover is kidnapped, the Merculians find themselves plunged into an alien civil war that they are ill-equipped to survive. (Goodreads)
Review:
The Abulon Dance was quite interesting and had many facets the synopsis doesn’t come close to letting the reader know. There are many things going on in this story, and the summary only touches the surface. The first thing to catch my eye, and appeared to be different than other books out there, was of course “the pleasure-loving hermaphrodites”. I’m also a huge fan of Sci-fi, and this book does deliver a great story.
This is the second book in this series. It took some time for me to get accustomed to the names; they went from formal with titles to private names or just shortened to informal names. Added to that were the designations for several of the characters. I think because the names were so unique that it took longer to figure out who was who and how they fit together. At least it was for me.
The story starts with Triani the head dancer who is obnoxious throughout most of the book. He is with his very young lover. On a side note, had this part of the story been in a different genre it would have been considered taboo. The author does have a lovely way of writing about dancing and how the bodies flow and connect. I especially enjoyed the touch dancing at the ending of the story. It was extremely well written and you could feel the connections of the characters and dance felt like it was leaping off the pages.
“The pleasure-loving hermaphrodites” were written about in a prominently male way, only a few times do you get the idea of a mentally feminine side of the characters. I also want to find out more about the Serpian’s and their culture as there were a few things unclear in regards to the vow Thar-Von made. I’m hoping there will be more information in the next book.
I loved the world building, the author did a wonderful job of describing how Beny was adjusting to the new world and why. Culturally, the differences appear so large that it was difficult to see a positive outcome. There was a lot of spirituality within the rough culture of Abulon. I really enjoyed the Quetzelan, Dream weaver thread in the story. It had the flavor of a Native American Dreamwalker.
On goodreads this story is shelved as Sci-Fi, I would also, add mystery and horror. Clearly the mystery was the kidnapping of Cham and the political intrigue, with several different factions. But, the horror of enslaving a people to make them into Androids was quite startling. I didn’t see that one coming. What a great story line!!!
There is so much going on in this story, that it will fulfill a wide variety of readers and different tastes, I’d recommend for a mature 16 year old and over, for male, female and intersex genders. This story has some very unique parts that I think will make this a great series, that I look forward to reading more of.
