The Last Hawk

Saga of the Skolian Empire, Book 3

By: Catherine Asaro

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Catherine Asaro, a physicist who combines believable hard science with first-rate storytelling, exploded onto the science fiction scene with her stellar debut novel, Primary Inversion. Now she brings us the third tale of the Skolian Empire, which AudioFile calls "a classic tale of power and conflict, with a twist."

When Kelric, a scion of the imperial family of Skolia, crash-lands his fighter on the off-limits planet of Coba, he figures it will be only a short time before he makes his way home. But he fails to account for the powerful matriarchy of Coba, the mistresses of the great estates who do not want the Empire to know about their recent cultural advances. First they take him prisoner. Then, one by one, the most powerful women on the planet fall in love with him!

The best way to listen to this series: Primary Inversion (Unabridged) The Radiant Seas (Unabridged) The Last Hawk (Unabridged) Ascendant Sun (Unabridged) The Quantum Rose (Unabridged) Catch the Lightning (Unabridged)

©1997 Catherine Asaro (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great books, but....

Though written out of chronological order. Each book can be listened to independently. The world building is exquisite. The characters are each well defined. The story incredible and believable. I recommend the complete series. There is only one glaring issue. The various narrators cannot pronounce the same identical words the same way. Good gods, this is English!!! What, they cannot listen to the other books and give it continuity????? If I was Catherine Asaro, I would fire all the producers and get one talented narrator and redo all of the books. She has made a great deal of money on the books. But I still really like the books!

Reader in a bit of a hurry

I would have enjoyed this book if I had read it in print form, but I just couldn't get past the reader. Her enunciation was clear and her natural voice was great, but at many points her lack of phrasing served to drain the dramatic tension from the scenes. There was no concept of a pause when it was needed, and as mentioned previously, the male voices were just hard to listen to. The listening experience would have been fine or even good had she just spoken the male parts in her natural voice, and slowed down the reading pace where appropriate. I will continue to enjoy this author but likely will choose those books read by others. I'd be willing to try this reader again if she's revised her technique or reads a book who's narritive style is better suited for her.

easily one of the most entertaining scifi books!

loved the details about the dice game, the tech, and the society, before and after the "eagle" crashed there!

Military not.

Catherine Asaro writes fantastic science. She obviously puts much thought into her story plots and expends exactly the right amount of effort developing the character population in each book. The only problem that keeps her from being a great story teller is that Asaro writes about military behavior with the experience level of a lifetime civilian; which doesn't work very well.

An example of this can be seen In "The Last Hawk," where she has a high ranking military officer disregarding even the most basic sworn oaths of office that every service member (officer and enlisted) must take. She even has him committing treason by swearing loyalty to the enemy in exchange for privileges and favored treatment. That blatant disregard for military behavior seriously flaws what would otherwise be an excellent book in an outstanding series.

Now, having said that, I must add this. If your only exposure to proper military behavior is what you see on TV or in the Movies, then you will more than likely have no problems with anything Asaro writes in that department. I'm critical of her treatment in that area because I spent the majority of my adult life in a military uniform and I expect authors to be, at least, slightly familiar with the subject when they use it in their stories. Unfortunately, very few of them are.

I enjoyed reading this book, and the series, because the science was so well thought out. I expect that most of you will as well.

I also recommend that you listen to the books in the order in which they were written, not in the order recommended by Audible.

A gender swap

It was interesting that on that world that the women were the leaders and holders of office, that was a nice change. And the dice reminded me a DnD dice.

Total gender reversal world

Catherine Asaro's The Last Hawk is her third installment (publication order) in her Skolian Universe franchise. Kelric, one of the Skolian Rhon is shipwrecked on an obscure planet, Coba, likely formerly part of the Ruby Empire, but lost over time. The planet is aware of the Skolian empire, but prefers to remain separate. Kelric is essentially imprisoned to maintain the anonymity. The planet has a matriarchal societal structure with war having been replaced by a complex game, 'quis' which Kelric becomes adept at. He moves from city-state to city state as a function is his skill at quis and his sexual attractiveness. Kelric eventually manages to escape but not before pushing the planet back into open warfare as well as leaving behind a couple of offpsring.

Asaro attempts to craft a matriarchal society with circa mid 20th century technology (on the cusp of nuclear capability). There is a mirror image of mid 20th century gender roles that is difficult to envision ever developing. if the planet was originally settled by a technologically advanced race, more equal gender would have been anticipated. While some series of catastrophic events, both manmade as well as environmental may have set the race, there is no explanation for why a mirror image gender role bifurcation would have resulted, especially in the setting of no birth control, breastfeeding, and child rearing efforts. Certainly, the result of 'protecting' men's honor with burqas and sexually aggressive females makes no sense. Without some plausible developmental history, the whole structure comes off more as fantasy or magical thinking. In addition, the game of quis is never truly fleshed out in detail but appears to have been a method for the formerly more technologically advanced, to embed their math and science before falling back into a more primitive state.

The narration was well done with solid character distinction and smooth pacing.

Not sure what the otheres are thinking

I very much enjoyed this book, I can't understaqnd why most of the other reviews are so critical. This book like most of Catherine Asaro books are complex. She develops the Characters and no not every book has to be full of blood and guts to be interesting. I think this book like almost all of her books may not be as easy of a read as some but it is worth the investment. Excellent Job Catherine.

Kelric sleeps his way across a planet!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

On 1.5 speed, yes. Sometimes while doing other things, but occasionally engrossing.

Would you be willing to try another book from Catherine Asaro? Why or why not?

I'm reading her entire Skolian Empire series if it is all on audio.

Which scene was your favorite?

None in particular.

Was The Last Hawk worth the listening time?

Sure, Catherine Asaro's plots are pretty entertaining. And Anna Fields, as always, makes the book worth listening too as she is good at different voices (most of the time).

Any additional comments?

As I mention in my review of Ascendant Sun, the sequel to this book, Kelric is a sex addict. He needs therapy. Yes, he's an empath, but his siblings are too and they don't jump into bed with everything that moves. Okay, admittedly, in this book, he's kinda forced too, but that just says something about the author. And in the sequel, Ascendant Sun, he does't have to sleep with everyone but somehow just ends up doing it anyway!
The culture on the planet where Kelric is stranded is strongly matriarchal, female chauvinistic, and revolves around the playing a complex dice game that is used for political purposes. By the end of the book, it is even being used to somehow discern the atomic structure of the elements and develop weapons and split atoms - all this in the space of a few years on a planet that had practically no advanced technology at the beginning! I could not suspend my disbelief about the power associated with this dice game, emphasized so heavily in the book.
But overall, the book is entertaining and a necessary read to understand Ascendant Sun and the books that follow, where Kelric becomes a more important part of the restructuring of the Skolian Empire.

This book defines sexism. A Must Read

I honestly believe that Catherine Asaro is changing the world one novel at a time. Brava

So much rape

There isn't a woman in this book that isn't a rapist. Not just kelric gets raped, but young teenage boy slaves. I read this when it first came out, but all I remembered was the dice game. I wish I hadn't listened to it, it was awful