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Catherine Asaro
VEILED WEB, THE
book cover

Book 2 of A.I. series
1999, November, Bantam
Buy from Amazon.com (mass market paperback)


Who recommends: Preeti, JW, Shelly, Linda, Robin, Lori
Who discommends:

This book was heavy on exposition but still very readable. And it featured a nice cross-cultural romance. I guess I wasn't bowled over.--Preeti (22 Nov 99)

I liked it a lot better than you did. I liked the cross-cultural exploration, although I confess the hero's ex-wife sounds more like my kind of woman than the heroine! :-) The "thriller" plot does kind of go on hold in the middle while the heroine gets to know the hero and his family/culture, but that didn't bother me all that much.--JW(23 Nov 99)

I stayed up late last night to finish this one. I think it's the best book Asaro's written yet. The romance was sexy, but it also had a lot of discussion about male/female roles. The view of a Moroccan family was interesting, although frustrating because I could no more understand their language than the heroine; but that made her situation more real to me.

My favorite part of the book was time that Lucia spent with the Artificial Intelligence discussing his nature. That was really interesting. Zake, the AI, kind of reminded me of Mike from Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress, who is one of my favorite SF characters of all time. They discussed the nature of spirituality, morality, and the soul.

On top of all that, the book kept me on my toes; I was never sure how it would end, but I liked the ending <hint hint>. By the way this is a standalone book (Yay!). A recommend for me.--Shelly (07 Dec 99)

Well, I read THE VEILED WEB-Asaro and hardly know what to say about it. I enjoyed it, it was very different and I liked the characters. Its one of those books that once finished, I think about it and like it even more. A little more realism in the romance than I usually like<g> but still a keeper for me.

My only complaint is I would have liked a little less of a lull in the middle. I found the interplay with Zaki very interesting but I would have liked to see the hero and heroine having more time to know each other. Though she had a good reason for it. Actually when you think about it both the previous books I read and loved of Asaro's (Primary Inversion and The Radiant Seas) had the h/h apart quite a bit so I seem to be able to accept it more from her than I would someone else. Still seemed unfair that Lucia got to know Zaki better than her husband.<g> I can't even imagine being left alone so long with a family so different from me in beliefs and with not even having a mutual language in common.--Linda (13 Dec 99)

I recommend it, too. I found myself not quite in the mood for such a sheltered heroine, but it still worked. And I loved the parts with the AI (whose name I'm blanking on, wait, I think it's Zaki).--Lori (10 Mar 00)


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