This is a great entry level SciFi novel with interesting worlds, social structures, and political machinations. I enjoyed how Bentley spun the tale to show how the Harmonite culture changed over time and would recommend this book. ( )

I liked this, a colonisation effort has discovered a planet where they can interact with the harmonic vibrations of that planet's soul. Isolated from mainstream humanity they control the export of a very rare alloy, which both humanity's space force and the local aliens badly need for their war. Works surprisingly well.

The focus jumps between an uneducated Worker caste girl who finds herself the next true High Priestess of Harmony able to intercede with the planet - ish; and a milita pilot who's recruited to attempt a spy mission on the planet and retrieve the formula for the metal before the aliens invade. You can probably guess the rest, it does more or less unfold as you'd expect. But it's well written with empathetic characters. Sissy the new High Priestess is completely charming, but her naivity struggles against the corruption in the temple. Sadly this is perhaps the least believable aspect as she learns to manipulate hardened priests far to quickly. The "science" is sadly lacking even Jake's attempted explanations to himself don't hold water. Hopefully this is all resolved somewhere along the line.

Enjoyable. The book ends decisively, but a trilogy has been written, which I'm likely to explore. ( )

I actually really enjoyed reading this book so much that I am now in the process of reading it to my wife at night-time.
The character development is interesting, the characters themselves each have their own personalities and while this is a very long book it has managed to keep my interest the entire time. ( )

This book has some decent reviews, although it doesn’t have the highest overall rating I’ve seen online. Still, a number of people like it. That said, a number of, oh… sci fi “vets” tend to view it as sci fi lite, shall we say? Here’s a quote from a review: “Adolescent wish fulfillment. There will be some young people who will love this book. I won't read the sequel….” That’s pretty much what I got out of it. Juvenile effort, juvenile story, juvenile writing, juvenile pseudo-mystical/spiritual plot, etc. Not your top of the line sci fi, in other words. I’m not even going to waste my time going into details here. I often do when I trash books I’ve wasted time on. Fortunately, I didn’t waste too much time on this one, so I’m not going to trash it. I’m just going to give it one star and state that I do not recommend it, except for some adolescent sci fi readers. ( )

I just couldn't get into this one. I found it a bit boring and the naming of the substance Badger Metal more than a little funny. ( )