Acquire Today Battleground Fashioned By Terry A. Adams Disseminated As Paperbound

Im shocked that Im actually giving this bookstars, . . I quite disliked the majority of the first book, and the second book was quite a bit better, and here we are now, and I feel like a different person.
I cant tell if the drama of it all is because I just finished the book and its the middle of the night and Im kinda tired and shaky anyway, but I dont think thats all of it.
Maybe Ill think differently of this in the morning, but again, I dont think my opinion will be much different tomorrow.
sequel to Sentience and The Master of Chaos The D'Neeran Factor

telepath contacts previously unknown aliens A pretty solid first contact novel, following the two that are currently in print as sitelinkThe D'neeran Factor.
This time, telepath Hanna Bassanio is sent to Battleground, so named by us because it exists in a state of perpetual war.


That probably should have been my first clue that this was going to be a grim story,

Humans are interested in studying the people of Battleground, particularly for their longevity they can live for several hundred years if they don't die in battle in turn, Battleground wants new weapons and once they've discovered it the secret of telepathy.
But neither side is ever able to really understand the other,

One aspect of this novel I didn't care much for: there's romance, but it's not the fun kind.
And there's a baby. It's just all so domestic, Tieddown characters are boring. Hannah herself isn't even particularly likeable any more she's more of an object to which things happen than an active participant this time around, and when she does act, she makes stupid mistakes, and things just keep getting worse.


Mixed feelings in the end, It has an interesting start and middle, but the last act is filled with such hopelessness, I haven't been this depressed by a SF sequel since sitelinkAncient Light, I still love Adams' prose, but I am not sure the bleakness of the endings of The Master of Chaos and Battleground are earned.
And the xenosociology/xenoanthropology here is hugely weakened by heterosexist worldbuilding, Adams' definitions of family are really ethnocentric which doesn't make sense for all the characters, and which seems to be supported by the narrative.
I should add that it's not homophobic, exactly this is, if I recall correctly, the first of the novels to offer unambiguously consensual samesex relationships but all the worldbuilding seems predicated on the nuclear family as the model for society.
Hanna Bassanio, formerly known as Lady Hana rilKoroth of Dneera, was, like all the people of the planet Dneera a telepath.
Mutated from truehuman stock, the Dneerans had claimed a world of their own to escape persecution, and started a flourishing civilization there.
Now, accepted by truehumans, some like Hanna had ventured out into the wider universe, using their talents to the benefit of all.
Hanna herself had become humanitys expert in first contact with other sentient races, And though her very first mission had nearly ended in her death and could have resulted in a devastating interstellar war, both Hanna and humanity had survived.


Several additional contacts had seen her firmly established as the person to spearhead this new firstcontact mission, She and her handpicked team were now aboard alien contact ship Endeavor Three, following a centuries cold trail to a distant world that had sent its own expedition to the human colony world New Earth two hundred years ago.


Long before Endeavor reached the planet they came to know as Battleground, Hanna began to explore the starways with her mind, seeking contact with this legendary race.
But when at last she managed to touch the minds she sought, Hanna could scarcely believe what she had founda race that seemed to exist only to fight, to breed, and to die.


How could they survive for all these years How had they come to be like this And how would they respond to a peaceful expedition of humans arriving on their world

This brandnew science fiction novel follows The D'neeran Factor,

an omnibus of Sentience and The Master of Chaos, and continues the adventures of Hanna Bassaino, human telepath and firstcontact specialist aboard the spaceship Endeavor.

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