The Madness Season by C. S. Friedman

In the 21st century, Earth was conquered by an alien collective consciousness known as the Tyr.  Now, five hundred years later, humankind has been scattered across the Tyr-occupied worlds as slaves.  It is a dark and uncertain existence, under the rule of masters who do not care whether their charges live or die.

For the last five hundred years, Daetrin has been a survivor.  An anomaly among humans–a man with the power to live indefinitely–Daetrin is used to keeping his true nature hidden.  But when the Tyr learn of his strange abilities and take him away for further study, he finds himself on the run, out in the open.

In order to survive, however, he must face his greatest fear–the fear that he isn’t entirely human.

This book was interesting.  C. S. Friedman’s prose is quite good, and her main character has a very unique and engaging voice.  For some reason, she wrote all of Daetrin’s stuff in first person, while the other characters in third person.  I think that the main reason for this was to preserve the sense of surprise and horror when he made certain discoveries while at the same time revealing certain critical aspects of her world that the reader absolutely needed to know in order for the story to make sense.  It didn’t bother me–in fact, I think she did it quite well–but it might not work for you.

In terms of story, this book was interesting but a little confusing.  It lagged at times, especially towards the beginning, and towards the end so many things came together at once that it was difficult for me to keep track of them.  I’m not entirely sure why that was, but I think it’s related to the fact that I never felt a very clear sense of progression.  Plotwise, things happened, but I didn’t see how one led necessarily to the next, or where things were going overall.

That said, the ending was satisfying, and I enjoyed reading this book.  You don’t realize it until the end, but the whole book is basically Friedman’s sf take on a certain type of well known, very popular mythical monster.  I won’t spoil the book by telling you which one, but when I saw it, it made me smile.

In terms of science fiction, there are a lot of old tropes with very few new ideas, except for the shapeshifting alien species known as the Marra.  Their culture was interesting, and I thought Friedman did a very good job conveying both the familiarity and the alien-ness of that species.  The Tyr weren’t quite as interesting, because they were basically just the Borg with scales and spikes, but the Hraas and the Tekk (who are a type of human) were also well done.

This is definitely the kind of book you’d want to sit down and read, rather than take everywhere with you and read whenever you get a spare moment.  Without sitting down and dedicating some time to it, it’s very difficult to really get into the story or feel immersed in the world.  I made that mistake, and it took me nearly a month to finish it.  That said, it was a good book; I’ll definitely be reading some Friedman again.