Review – Ring of Swords (Hwarhath, Book 1) by Eleanor Arnason (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Orb Books
Release Date: November 15, 1994
ISBN-13: 978-0312890168
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in Hwarhath series
Source: Borrowed from Mom
Rating: 4/5 stars
“For half a century, Earth has been on the brink of total war with an implacable alien race. Biologist Anna Perez is the first to discover the truth-the hwarhath have segregated their society strictly along gender lines, to prevent the warlike males from harming women and children. In their eyes, humans are a dishonorable and barbaric race who may require extermination…”
I got this book from my mom to read. This is the supposedly the first book in the Hwarhath series, but I didn’t find any other books in this series aside from a collection of short stories set in the same world. This book moved very slowly but was intriguing and engaging all the same. I was surprised at how engaged I was in this story despite the fact that it was a very slow read for me.
The book goes back and forth between Anna (a human researcher) and Nicholas (a human who has lived with the Hwarhath for many years).
Anna is on another planet studying alien life that she is determined to prove intelligent when she ends up involved in the negotiations between the Hwarhath and the humans. Things don’t go well and Anna ends up back on Earth…only to have the Hwarhath request her presence at a new series of negotiations many years later.
This book moves very slowly and deliberately. However the looming question of whether or not the humans will be able to obtain peace with the Hwarhath really propels the story forward.
This book is very intriguing because it spends a lot of time looking at the question of how a culture’s social norms can affect interacting with other races and cultures. In Hwarath society any intimate relations between a man and woman are seen as disgusting and unclean. The Hwarhath really struggle with the fact that humanity allows “violent” males to live with and interact with both the children and women in human society. Additionally, the question is raised again and again about the definition of an “intelligent lifeform” versus an “animal”.
Adding to the above intrigue is the fact that a human named Nicholas has been living with the Hwarhath for a number of years. Figuring out how Nicholas has done this is interesting and trying to learn his background and what drives him is intriguing as well.
My biggest complaint about this book is that it was slow. I struggled a bit to read this and had to read it very slowly; still I found myself intrigued enough that I never gave up and stopped reading it.
Overall this was a decent science fiction book about humans trying to make peace with another alien race. I would recommend if sci-fi themed novels about what it means to be an intelligent lifeform are intriguing to you. This is a very thought-provoking book if a bit slow.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge