Beyond Varallan by S.L. Viehl

Title: Beyond Varallan

Author: S.L. Viehl

Series: Stardoc #2

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Overview: Dr. Cherijo is living the perfect life–if you think that finding out you’re a clone, then being declared “non-sentient” by your father/creator is your idea of perfect.Things could be worse. But when the Human League comes after her, with bounty hunters of every race trying to bring her in, Cherijo figures it can’t get any worse… Until someone begins stalking her dreams. -Goodreads

The Review:

This series took a weird direction.

And considering the basic premise is a genetically manipulated xenobiological medical doctor proficient in operating on aliens, that’s really saying something. This second installment had a lot of issues. I didn’t hate it, but it stole some of my confidence that the author would be able to sustain me for an entire series.

The first issue was extremely erratic decision making by the main character. She was almost idiotically irrational at times throughout the book and I could argue that most of the senseless conflicts derived solely from her weird behavior. It just didn’t make sense. And that’s one thing that always drives me crazy in books. Now, as it turns out, there was an explanation for some of her actions, which alleviates my annoyance a little, but it was probably too little too late. It seemed a tad early in the series to be messing with the character profile so much because to a degree you’re still trying to establish character and endear them to your audience. The person I read about in this book was vastly different than the one in the first book and I most decidedly did NOT enjoy her new POV. The author took a risk and unfortunately I don’t think it paid off.

The plot was equally all over the place. I quite enjoyed the mystery – it’s the consistent through-line that kept me reading when I was unsure about a lot of other things. But all of the other storyline components were just friggin weird. A lot of the traditions and laws of the alien species hosting the MC seemed like mere constructs contrived solely to prolong the conflicts of the story (because they didn’t make any sense). There continued to be a theme of personal violations and “almost” rape scenes. And the back and forth between the main character and one of the aliens was so unnecessary and ridiculous that I kept wondering why she was being so stupid by not removing herself from the situation. It was hard to read.

So why didn’t I DNF with all of those objections? Setting aside the fact that I already own the entire series and DNFing means I’ve been hauling them around for 20 years for nothing, I truly love reading about all of the medical procedures performed on aliens. It was so cool! And quite realistic and thorough. The author has a surgical background and it definitely shows. It’s the main selling point of the story for me and one of the main reasons I might actually still continue with the series (for at least one more book – the first book was great, so I’m hoping this one was a fluke). The author managed to pull me back in just enough at the end to give the benefit of the doubt going forward.

Recommendations: this book was a flop compared to the first one, but had just enough good moments to keep me reading til the end. I recommend at least the first one for readers who love scifi with excellent alien creations and world building. The jury is still out on the series as a whole. Stay tuned…

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