Title: Primary Inversion
Author: Catherine Asaro
Publication date: May 15th 1996 
This might sound biased but when I pick out a new book it will often be by the look of the cover (or more usually the spine). Something will jump out at me and I will more often than love what I got. I found Primary Inversion at the Library and knew I was going to love it. The book is now proof of my system. :p
The main character in this story is Sauscony Valdoria (Soz) who is the leader of a team of Jagernauts which are empaths or people with high ability with the KAB and KEB, two areas in the brain that transmit and receive emotions and even thoughts. There are the Artiso’s who are a genetically engineered people who are resistant to pain and their KAB is defective so they can only detect the emotional signals of pain which their brains re-routes to the sexual pleasure centers. The perfect prey for Aristos are the empaths, since the empaths sends out stronger pain emotions, which translates into greatest pleasure. One night Soz has a unique meeting with and Artiso named Jailbriol II and discovers some information about him that could change the fate of the war between the Skolians and the Eubians.
Primary Inversion was an enthralling read with interesting points on topics like sadism and interstellar travel. Something interesting I found out about this book is that the science behind this travel was based on the published paper written by Asaro herself. It was published in the American Journal of Physics under the title, “Complex Speeds and Special Relativity.” This book and the books after in the series have a variety of Science Fiction elements like space opera, (the war between the Skolians and the Eubians) planetary adventure, physics, math, romance, and political intrigue.
I quite like how the political and space operatic aspects combined with the aspect of the Soldiers with the enhanced empathy, it made for an intriguing view on humanity which I for one loved. Both the space opera part and the political intrigue alone were very good. Another feature of Primary Inversion that I enjoyed is the in-depth space battle and description of interstellar travel. After analysis I give Primary Inversion 4.6 and I highly suggest that you pick up a copy especially if you’re a fan of space operas and science fiction. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com
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