Jaran

The Novels of the Jaran, Book 1

De: Kate Elliott

Narrado por: Cindy Kay

In the past, humans were the dominant star-traveling species in the universe—until the Chapalil came, conquered, and absorbed the Earth into their intergalactic empire.

One of the only humans ever granted nobility by the Chapalil, Charles Soerenson once led a failed rebellion against the alien overlords. Now his sister, Terese, has abandoned her homeworld, impelled by a broken heart to seek a new life among the worlds her brother rules.

On Rhui, a planet off-limits to interstellar voyagers, Tess stumbles upon a dangerous Chapalil conspiracy—and only the timely arrival of the Jaran saves her from near-certain death. A tribe of nomadic humans roaming the plains of Rhui, the Jaran have long forgotten their ancient Earth history and heritage. Intrigued by their world and their ways, Tess shares an immediate emotional connection with Ilya, the Jaran's brilliant, charismatic leader.

But despite her growing loyalties to this proud chieftain and his people, Tess must take care. For Ilya's ambitions threaten to trigger violent planetary upheaval. And the Jaran have been chosen to play an unwitting role in a plot that could have powerful repercussions far beyond the nomads' volatile world.

©1992 Katrina Elliott (P)2023 Tantor

Interesting blend of sci-fi with pseudo-historical fiction.

I was a teenager when I read this book for the first time. It's part adventure, part romance, part sci-fi, and very well written with regard to the character development. Narration was ok, though at times I felt like the narrator was stage whispering half the female voices, and all of the male. Worth the listen, easy to get into and well paced.

Fantastic story

I have loved this book and series for close to 20 years. I've reread this probably more times than any other book and I was so excited to have an audiobook of it. The story is engaging and the world feels very lived in. It perfectly mixes scifi and adventure with a romantic storyline that's central but also doesn't overtake the rest of the story. The narration leaves a bit to be desired. I particularly found the dialogue reading off. The emotions didn't convey right, and it's like they're always whispering. It took me out of the story. But maybe that was partly because I'm so familiar with the book already.

This is the first in an outstanding series.

I read this series a couple of times in the past and am very happy audible made it available at last. I became a fan of Kate Elliot because of the quality of her writing and how she managed to describe and discuss several very diverse civilization: (1) that of an Alien empire that had conquered both Earth and other human planets, and (2) that of several very different human societies. The human societies are on a future Earth with its own stellar capacities and colonies as well as on another lesser developed (i.e. medieval) planet that had not been colonized by Earth. All this occurs with the circumstance that even though the Alien empire conquered all human planets, it has also made one man a highly placed prince of this empire. Not only that, he has actually been put into charge over all of the human planets by the Aliens, as a very high level aristocrat in the very caste oriented Alien empire. The main character is his heir and sister who accordingly is also a senior aristocrat that almost all aliens must obey since she is of such a high caste level. She is a true heroine and somehow gets stranded in the underdeveloped planet among a nomad people, the Jaran. She becomes part of this nomadic civilization. How that happens and her love affairs among warring nomads is what the first book is about. The book is well worth listening to.

Revisiting my favorite

This has been a favorite book for many years, impeccable world building with engaging characters. Happy to revisit the book in audio form.

Romantic fantasy masquerading as sci-fi

Kate Elliott’s Jaran is the first installment in a four-volume series. While ostensibly sci-fi due to an alien controlled galactic empire that Earth is in, the main story is more along the lines of a romantic fantasy with most of the action taking place in pre-industrial settings. The main character is a reluctant heir, although this status (or at least how her brother rose to his level) is never fully fleshed out. She travels to this primitive planet and hooks up with a group of nomads and there the romance begins. As the story progresses, there is a hidden secret about the planet and the origin of its inhabitants that she stumbles upon.

Elliott throws in enough sci-fi elements to qualify the tale as sci-fi, but the plot is mostly romantic fantasy. The aliens running the galaxy have some rigid rules they follow which seem at odds with an all-powerful intelligence. The relationship between the siblings seems forced.

The narration is reasonable with decent character distinction. Pacing is smooth.