What a delightful find! Truth be told, I found it in the library clearance bin for next to nothing and grabbed it on a whim. Now I'm tempted to go tell them to put it back on the shelf!

I hadn't heard of this authour previously, but this first book of a trilogy has hooked me for at least two more.

Wonderful world building, alien races who are aliens not the girl next door, and an action filled plot that kept me up late reading just a bit more.

It really doesn't end, of course - it seems I'm a dinosaur preferring books that are self contained - but that's almost the only nit I have. Recommend! ( )

The first in the Stratification series by [Julie Czernada]. Reap the wild wind is the story of Aryl Sarc (Om'ray of the Yena Clan), the struggles of her isolated clan, and the precarious balance between the Om'ray, Oud, and TikTik that is tipping toward change on the planet Cersi.

This author is a biologist by training, and I enjoy the species she creates. ( )

This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday.

Audio Narration
The narrator is Allyson Johnson. I liked her narration pretty well. There were several characters and she distinguished them well, and there wasn’t anything about her narration that bugged me. She didn’t do anything that particularly stood out to me, but that’s usually a good thing in my book!

Story
The story is set on an alien planet inhabited by three very different races. These races don’t understand each other very well and maintain an uneasy peace by avoiding change. The story focuses on the race that is similar to humans, but with telepathic abilities. Some members of this race have started developing new abilities, and this threatens to upset the balance by bringing change. Meanwhile, the unexpected appearance of an alien flying ship causes a more immediate change.

I thought this was an interesting setting, but more challenging to grasp in audio than it would have been in print. There are a lot of different races and clans and character names and unfamiliar terms. It’s far, far easier for me to understand and retain that type of thing in print. I was several hours into the audio before I really felt like I understood the setting and had solid mental images to go with the different terms.

Despite my audio difficulties, I was interested in the setting and the story and I was never bored while listening. The story focuses on two main characters, and I liked both of them. This is the first book in a prequel trilogy. It told a complete story, but with a definite “what will happen next?” question mark at the end. I’m rating this at 3.5 stars, but rounding down to 3 on Goodreads. If I’d read it in print, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed it enough to round up to 4, or possibly I would have given it all 4 stars to begin with.

I hope to revisit this in print someday. When I do, I’ll go in publication order which is my preferred tactic in a situation like this. I listened to this book because it was selected as the January science fiction pick in Goodreads’ SFFBC group, and I wanted to join in. I chose audio instead of print because I didn’t want to “waste” a print read on a book that in my opinion I was not reading in its proper order! This gave me a chance to see if I would like the series well enough to justify taking the time to do it properly in print. And I think I did. ( )

just started reading this book this week. received this book from amazon used not pleased with the state of how used this was vs what i bought, this in no way however affects the readability of the book. I'm enjoying this book so far about 100 pages into. I wasn't sure i'd enjoy such a hard core sci-fi and fantasy book. I'm finding that I'm really enjoying the main character. update I really enjoyed this book so much I continued on with the second and now the third in one wee. ( )

This series would make a good read for teenagers and pre-teens. Czerneda's species are varied; their society and culture are multi-layered and interlinked. ( )