Catch the Lightning

A Novel of the Skolian Empire

By: Catherine Asaro

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A young girl from Earth falls in love with a handsome stranger, and becomes a pawn in an interstellar war.

In the distant future, the Skolian Empire rules one third of the human galaxy, and is the most powerful of all. For the ruling family has the power of telepathy, and through it, the ability to communicate faster than light, across interstellar space. But their most determined enemy, the traders, who thrive on human pain, need to interbreed with a Skolian to gain their powers. And now they have her.

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)

©2002 Catherine Asaro (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Asaro, who's a physicist, offers an intelligent exploration of possible links between telepathy and quantum physics and informs many of the scenes between the lovers with power and tenderness." (Publishers Weekly)
"Solidly crafted." (Kirkus)
"In this sensual tale of telepathy and love between Mayan descendants of different worlds and times, Asaro continues to develop the Skolian culture. Recommended." (Library Journal)

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!

SF FUN

Wish she would write more of these. Great books. This is a stand alone and a good place to start.
#SF #Mindbending #Romance #PleasurePain # SF Series #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

good perspective

a great look into different technology future that differs from that standard sci-fi. the concept of the inversion space is very cool.

Mostly a YA sci-fi romance tale

Catherine Asaro's Catch the Lightning is the 2nd volume in her Skolian Empire series. Due to a malfunctioning ship, a Skolian Jag pilot ends up on an alternate Earth several centuries earlier where he stumbles into a teenager who happens to be an empath with Mayan ancestry. The Jag ship is captured by Earth military, but with the help of several Caltech students, the pair manage to retrieve the ship and return to the Jag's spacetime only to be immediately captured the group that originally sabotaged the ship and are sold to a high ranking Aristo. At the same time, they learn of Skolian treason. They manage to escape again and piece together a bit of Raylican history that connects them to their Earthly origins and accounts for the Mayan historical disappearance.

The plot is a bit crude with stereotypical bad guys. Chronologically, this installment is the last book in the series. There's a continual clash of cultures that include the Skolian pilot on a different Earth four centuries earlier from his time as well as the teenage girl struggling to adjust to life in the city on her own. Later in the Skolian spacetime, these differences are further amplified. Many of the youthful internal conflicts can become tiresome.

The narration is well done with reasonable character distinction and pacing aligned with the plot.

Note: As a Caltech and Blacker alum, the attention to details on campus were much appreciated.

I love this book well written scientific.

got a little bit of romance splash down there as well. I also enjoy the person who reads the book she's really brings it to life.

STOP unless you want to hit a brick wall!

The stories and the audible presentation of these books is very good.
However be warned that this series just stops. For whatever reason you get pulled in, only to be crashed into a brick wall of “sorry no more audible books”. The Audible series ends but the books continue. This is not very fair if you don’t have the time to visually read the books. Sorry audible fans this is a dead end.

Sci-fi romance

Enter the Skolian Empire with the best audio book story production to introduce the very science filled saga of Teena (Tina?) and Althor. Have listened to this story a great number of times. Don't get tired of it.

Lots of technology, lots of romance

Somehow, this book combines heavy theoretical physics and a love story in a way that actually works. For those with more restrained natures, the sexuality might be a bit much, but it was not gratuitous and did fit into the story.
If you like a universe that hangs together and abides by it's own laws, you will enjoy this one. If detours into technical explanations of how the 'magic' works annoy you, then you may find this tedious in places. Personally, I found the explanations added to the depth of the artificial universe created by Asaro, and the characters are interesting. Overall, it's not a bad listen (although it did take me some time to get used to the reader's "male voices" - they sounded a bit odd).

I liked it!

This was a really good Sci-Fi story, and I liked it quite a bit. There was plenty of action. It held me to the end. Recommended.

Truly amazing

I was spellbound, the early part reminded me of the movie Starman. A cyborg for all intents and purposes found a woman who he connected with and his past was like her legends, from another universe. I great listen.