iri is the most telepathically powerful individual the Clan has seen in generations, maybe ever—so powerful she cannot find a mate within her own kind. Early on, she accidentally killed the mate that had been selected for her. During their joining ritual, her power had flared unexpectedly like a supernova and extinguished him in an unalterable second.
Because her unique race's vitality depends upon its most gifted individuals channeling back their power into the group, Siri is simultaneously the Clan's greatest potential and its greatest problem. She is supreme among her kind in raw talent and in her race's Byzantine hierarchy and customs, but she is also an exile.
As if the Clan doesn't have enough problems, it also seems to be undergoing a change that no one really understands. Other matings since Siri's have proven as disastrous as hers had been. New power is manifesting in individuals, but successful matings are on the decline, leading many to speculate about the demise of the entire species. Additionally, a renegade group of Clan has removed itself from traditional Clan society (unheard of in a culture of intricately entwined psyches and familial ties). It pursues its own secret ambitions in ways that set it in direct conflict with the rest of the Clan.
Against this backdrop, Siri and her human mate, Jason Morgan (an unorthodox choice for the tight-knit, xenophobic Clan), travel from their peregrine exile aboard their trade ship Silver Fox to Plexis to investigate disturbing events: a murder, a psychic attack and a restaurant caught
offering humans as a menu selection.
This last item is unpleasant but not beyond plausible possibility. Plexis is a multi-world, multi-species nexus of trade, commerce and pleasure. On Plexis, every taste has its caterer. Just to make things more complex, the restaurant owner, Hom Huido, is Jason Morgan's blood brother, not to mention a gargantuan, carapaced and clawed lobster-looking creature with a predilection for sometimes shady enterprise.
When Siri is kidnapped, Jason suspects a further complication—his old nemesis Ren Symon. But it's no simple kidnapping. Ren Symon has some telepathic powers (like Jason, and unusual for humans), and this makes him doubly dangerous.
Interesting universe, but confusing read
With To Trade the Stars, author Julie E. Czerneda has completed the third installment of her Trade Pact Universe series. In it, she offers the reader an interesting telepathic culture with a complex societal structure that takes plausible inspiration from the advantages and disadvantages of the powers of the Clan. The Clan has extraordinary powers, but plot, character and conflict are usually presented in a way that normalizes the extraordinary and makes it plausible rather than fantastic.
Czerneda doesn't neglect other alien species either—her universe is full of them, and they frequently eclipse the main characters in sheer interestingness. Hom Huido, the rapscallion raconteur lobster of the Jaws and Claws restaurant, hijacks every scene he's in, and despite having no Clannish abilities at all is the most interesting character in the entire book.
But there are problems with this volume, for all its interesting characters and inviting details. Construction is the main flaw. In the third in the series, one would not want to bore previous readers with overdone exposition, but some exposition is necessary nonetheless to give new readers the proper framework for the action and cultures and personalities.
Czerneda shies away from the sin of over-exposition and back-reference so much that she dabbles in the opposite sin—too little information. Although the novel moves well at a good pace, it is very difficult for new readers to grasp enough of the fundamentals of this universe not to make reading a bit of a confusing chore.
Midway through the book, there is a lot of backstory referencing that does much to explain biology, history and personalities, and this is managed in a creative series of memory flashbacks. But as handily as this is accomplished, it's really inserted too late. It's hard to empathize with characters that one feels one hasn't understood very well up to that point.
