The Ruby Dice, by Catherine Asaro

[keilexandra]

The Ruby Dice
by Catherine Asaro
392 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/SF/Romance

I started reading this on the way back from the library. When I got home, I really really needed to study for midterms. Guess what I did instead? Finished reading The Ruby Dice, of course.

Asaro's Skolian Empire series is huge by now, but she always thoughtfully includes a glossary reference and in-text catchups for new readers. The catchups read as basically infodumps, but I remember how much they helped me the first time and they weren't too hard to skip over. This novel deals with Kelric and Jaibriol III after they become Imperator and Emperor of Eube respectively, nine years after an initial peace attempt--the Paris Accord--fell through. I love F/SF politics, and Asaro is one of the best at mixing complex SF politics with equally complex characters and families (the Valdoria/Skolia/Ruby Dynasty family tree is quite intimidating). Jai and Tarquine have a lovely, laugh-out-loud relationship; I wish Asaro would do another book on just Eube, and I absolutely can't wait for her next one to continue the overall plot arc. This book ends on essentially the climax, which is rare these days; but it leaves you trying to catch your breath, coming down from immersion high, and that feeling is totally worth the lost studying time.

The two trademarks of Asaro's stories are strong characters and excellent worldbuilding--here, she doesn't disappoint on either account. I enjoyed the examples of realistic, slowly growing love (Jai/Tarquine, Kelric/Jeejon) rather than romance's usual love-at-first-sight trope. Most of the characters weren't new to me, other than a gap of several months, but I connected with all of them (oh, Hidaka, I love you so). And I absolutely adore the dynamic and convoluted web of relations (familial, political, etc.). I think The Ruby Dice is Asaro's most dramatic work to date--the plot rushes along, smooth as a a river's torrents (i.e. not very but in a good way). At the very end especially, I almost couldn't handle the suspense. I knew what I logically could expect to happen, but I also knew that the author was daring enough to flip that expectation.

Now for the negatives: Asaro isn't going to win any awards for poetic prose. At times the style is downright pedestrian, though always useful and concise--much like ISC, the Skolian military. I'm not sure how much a new reader will get out of this, simply because I'm coming with knowledge of so much backstory--I've read all of her Skolia novels except one (The Radiant Seas, unavailable at the library and I've never gotten around to purchasing it). As I said before, though, her early exposition passages help greatly with comprehension. Also, don't be put off by the cover, which is ugly as hell--the huge hand looks like radioactive putty and the Quis dice like plastic toys. I guess the publisher is trying to appeal to the romance side of her audience, though the background is also very techy.

This is a wholehearted rec to all SF and romance fans; Asaro writes hard SF romances, and she mixes the genres with quite a lot of experience. The character arc continued by this novel begins with The Last Hawk, then Ascendant Sun and The Moon's Shadow (the last of which is about Jai's ascension to the Carnelian Throne and his marriage to Tarquine). My reviews of most of Asaro's novels are also accessible through tags; be warned that her fantasy romance series for the Luna line is very, very different.

Comments

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that was coming out. Do you know if it's based on the novella in Baen's Universe? And, because this is Asaro, does the book take place through the same events as another book?
I suppose it's too much to hope for one of the relationships to dissolve into abuse. Sigh.

[keilexandra]

I've never read the novella, but quick Googling confirms that, yes, it's an extension of her previous novella. I'm pretty sure it doesn't retell any previous events, though.

Which relationship do you dislike?

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Um... most of them are the same relationship. Very large and dangerous man removes a small, sweet, incredibly beautiful woman from the environment she knows with little or no warning. Usually, there's danger in the environment she knows, and it often comes hand in hand with someone who lacks empathy in some way. Catch the Lightning, Quantum Rose, to some extent Kelric and Jeejon, Roca and Eldrinson, Kurj and his last girlfriend (the rest apparently didn't love him enough to withstand the abuse), I think all three of her Luna books, all have the same Beauty and the Beast pattern to them. I like B&B, but it's repeated so many times and without the character development necessary, in Asaro's books and a lot of other fantasy romances, that it's really gotten to me.
I don't think I would react so strongly to her books if I hadn't read them two by two until I ran out. Any bingereading ends like that-- you see the same patterns over and over. This pattern, coupled with a few others she uses, just makes me angry.

[keilexandra]

It's true that she uses patterns, though for me it's not as bothersome. When I get bored with the romance, I just focus on the worldbuilding and politics. How I love Skolian politics.

My favorite pairing, though, is definitely Jai/Tarquine. (And to a lesser extent Soz/Jaibriol because I'm a sucker for Romeo and Juliet stories.)

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Soz and Jaibriol don't have the same weird power dynamic, so they stay together. Jai and Tarquine are interesting. I don't think it's coincidence, though, that these are Trader phenotypes that have to be sympathetic.
It's not even that I get bored with the romance necessarily. I get angry with it. Emotional abuse is not romantic. Martyrdom is not romantic. Stockholm syndrome is not romantic. It's not a bad relationship in small doses, but over and over, represented as an ideal... nope.
Weirdly enough, it didn't make me as angry in The Fire Opal.

Skolian politics also annoy me somewhat. I feel like she hasn't thought everything through. I have a lot of questions about *why* things are the way they are. If people can live three centuries (or at least the ruling class can; we never really see non-rulers) why aren't there more grandparents? How did they lose all knowledge of basic biology in favor of nanomeds? Time dilation effects?

I sometimes have unrealistic standards. Sigh.

[keilexandra]

*shrug* I read broadly, but except for fantasy, I'm a casual reader in most genres. I don't think I've read enough SF to be bothered by the issues that stand out to you.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

This is entirely probable. Like I said, I bingeread the books, and any pattern becomes much stronger then. That was about the time I found Luna books in general, and a lot of them have the same near-abuse type of relationship in them. As far as politics go, it's a me thing too. I don't have a lot of ground between 'okay book' and 'mock this book', and Asaro's books are a spread from the top of okay to the edge of mock. That means I look for things wrong. It's taken far less for me to get angry at other books.

The good part of getting annoyed at books is that sometimes, I get a reasonable idea. I don't know what I'm going to do with my 'people live a long time' story, but I have a setting now.