Book Review: Blade Dancer

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Blade Dancer     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
S. L. Viehl
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Roc, August 2003, $22.95, 336 pp.

In the far future, Earth belongs to the Allied League, which consists of many different species, but the inhabitants on Terra are very xenophobic. Aliens are not allowed to live there and mating with another race is a crime. The children of that mating are denied citizenship and if discovered are deported, their money and property confiscated. Jory Rask is a world famous shockball player but when it is discovered she is part Jorenian, she is kicked off-planet.

She travels to her mother’s home planet but on board she meets an assassin from Reytalon who says she could go there for training as she has the moves to become a lethal BLADE DANCER. She thinks it is a fine idea once she accomplishes her mission on Joren but when she leaves she takes six other half-breeds with her, all Children of Honor whose mothers were sold into slavery but were recovered. The half-breeds were treated as pariahs but on Reytalon they are all treated as equals. Their common heritage forges a bond so strong that they become their own clan house, a fighting force that is almost unbeatable.

After reading S.L. Viehl’s "Stardoc" novels, reader’s curious about the Jorenian home planet and culture will find it is very different than that of Earth’s. BLADE DANCER satisfies the audience’s curiosity through a story line that details the philosophy that Jorenian is based on. There are many twists and turns in this stand- alone novel and there are some unexpected surprises in store for a group of half-breeds who have become a family.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner