Asaro, Catherine 1955–

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Asaro, Catherine 1955–

(Catherine Ann Asaro)

PERSONAL: Born November 6, 1955, in Oakland, CA; daughter of Frank and Lucille Marie Asaro; married John Kendall Cannizzo (an astrophysicist), August 9, 1986; children: Catherine Kendall. Education: University of California—Los Angeles, B.S. (summa cum laude), 1978; Harvard University, M.A., 1983, Ph.D., 1985; postdoctoral study at University of Toronto, 1985–87. Hobbies and other interests: Classical piano, ballet dancing, choir.

ADDRESSES: Office—c/o Molecudyne Research, P.O. Box 1302, Laurel, MD 20725. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Physicist and novelist. Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, assistant professor of physics, 1987–90, affiliated scholar, 1990–91; Molecudyne Research, Laurel, MD, president, 1990–. Consultant to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, 1978–83, Biodesign, 1987, and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 1991. Visiting scientist at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 1991–92. Principal dancer and artistic director, Mainly Jazz Dancers and Harvard University Ballet, c. 1980s. Teacher at Caryl Maxwell Classical Ballet Maryland; also teaches math for home-schooled children. Editor and publisher, Mindsparks: The Magazine of Science and Science Fiction, 1993–96.

MEMBER: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, American Association of Physics Teachers, American Physicists Society, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi.

AWARDS, HONORS: Nebula Award in novel category, 2001, for The Quantum Rose; Hugo Award nomination for best novella, 2004, for "Walk in Silence"; three Romantic Times Book Club awards for best science fiction novel, including for The Quantum Rose.

WRITINGS:

"SAGA OF THE SKOLIAN EMPIRE" SERIES

Primary Inversion, Tor (New York, NY), 1995.

Catch the Lightning, Tor (New York, NY), 1996.

The Last Hawk, Tor (New York, NY), 1997.

The Radiant Seas, Tor (New York, NY), 1998.

Ascendant Sun, Tor (New York, NY), 2000.

The Quantum Rose, Tor (New York, NY), 2000.

Spherical Harmonic, Tor (New York, NY), 2001.

The Moon's Shadow, Tor (New York, NY), 2003.

Skyfall, Tor (New York, NY), 2003.

Schism (first book in the "Triad" subseries), Tor (New York, NY), 2004.

The Final Key (second book in the "Triad" subseries), Tor (New York, NY), 2005.

OTHER

The Veiled Web, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Phoenix Code, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Mercedes Lackey and Rachel Lee) Charmed Destinies, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2003.

The Charmed Sphere (fantasy novel), Luna (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor) Irresistible Forces, New American Library (New York, NY), 2004.

Sunrise Alley, Baen (Riverdale, NY), 2004.

The Misted Cliffs (fantasy novel; sequel to The Charmed Sphere), Luna (New York, NY), 2005.

Alpha, Baen (Riverdale, NY), 2006.

The Dawn Star (fantasy novel; sequel to The Misted Cliffs), Luna (New York, NY), 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including Christmas Forever, edited by David G. Hartwell, Tor, 1993. Contributor to periodicals and scholarly journals, including Analog, Journal of Chemical Physics, New York Review of Science Fiction, American Journal of Physics, International Journal of Quantitative Chemistry, Science Fiction Writers of American Bulletin, Science Fiction Age, Pirate Writings, and Physical Review Letters. Columnist, Tangent.

SIDELIGHTS: Catherine Asaro is both a distinguished astrophysicist and a science-fiction writer. She earned her doctorate from Harvard University and taught at Kenyon College, subsequently serving as an affiliated scholar there while assuming the presidency of Molecudyne Research, which she founded in Maryland in 1990. Asaro is the author of the "Saga of the Skolian Empire." The saga includes such installments as Primary Inversion, Catch the Lightning, and The Quantum Rose, the last of which garnered Asaro the prestigious Nebula Award in 2001.

Primary Inversion, the first book in Asaro's science-fiction saga, is a futuristic tale in which three galactic empires vie for domination of the galaxy. Inhabitants of Earth have ties to both the other empires, the Skolians and their enemies, the Traders. Skolian princess Sauscony Valdoria becomes drawn to Jaibriol Qox, son of the Trader emperor. Valdoria's sensory capabilities enable her to discover that Jaibriol, despite his ancestry, is her soul mate. However, she also learns that Jaibriol has been genetically manipulated to overpower her fellow Skolians. Primary Inversion met with praise from critics, including one Booklist reviewer who called it "an unusually masterful first novel."

Asaro followed Primary Inversion with Catch the Lightning, which relates continued conflicts between the Skolians and the Traders. In Catch the Lightning Skolian Jagernaut Althor, who is destined to rule Skolia, lands his sabotaged space vehicle on an alternative Earth and befriends Tina Pulivok, a psychic teenager from 1980s Los Angeles. Inquisitive scientists, meanwhile, are conducting investigations into the capabilities of Althor's craft. Althor, with the help of Tina and her friends, determines to recover his ship and return to his own world to undermine the Trader antagonists. Several reviewers of Catch the Lightning maintained that Asaro's second novel does not live up to the expectations set by her debut. A Kirkus Reviews critic, for example, called it "an unexciting but solidly crafted, and at times absorbing narrative," adding that too many technical details and a slow plot weaken the book. A Publishers Weekly contributor similarly noted that the novel "fails to cohere and to deliver the vibrant reading experience that [Asaro's] first novel offered," but the reviewer did state that the book contains good characterization and "many fine passages."

Asaro recounts another adventure featuring a Skolian hero in 1997's The Last Hawk, and returns to the lives of her beloved Sauscony and Jaibriol in the following year's The Radiant Seas. In the latter, the couple have faked their own deaths and stolen away to a secluded planet to raise children. They are drawn back into the conflict between their respective empires, however, and Sauscony must attempt her husband's rescue. Jackie Cassada, reviewing The Radiant Seas for the Library Journal, praised the author's "mix of romantic intrigue" and "large-scale dynastic" science fiction.

Both The Quantum Rose and Spherical Harmonic take place in the same universe Asaro created in Primary Inversion, but each novel features a new cast of characters. The heroine of The Quantum Rose is Kamoj, the young governor of a province on a backwater planet. Kamoj is set to marry a fellow governor of a much more important province when she is swept off her feet by the wandering Skolian Vyrl. Together she and Vyrl eventually travel back to his home planet to fight for its independence. In Spherical Harmonic beautiful telepath Dyhianna Selei recovers from a case of amnesia only to discover her husband and son have disappeared and the empire thrust into chaos as a result of a political coup. The Quantum Rose provides what Roland Green termed in Booklist "the requisite happy ending," while fellow Booklist contributor Diane Tixier Herald added that "fans of Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire will not want to miss" Spherical Harmonic. A Publishers Weekly critic praised The Quantum Rose as well, noting that Kamoj is "as brainy as she is beautiful," and called the novel "a freestanding page-turner as a romance."

Asaro continues to build her interstellar empire story in The Moon's Shadow, which "successfully combine[s] space opera, hard science, and romance," according to Roland Green in Booklist. The psiberweb that fostered communication between worlds has been destroyed by war, but Jaibriol, the son of Sauscony and Jaibriol from The Radiant Seas, has a secret. He is a Ruby Key, which means that he has the ability to reconstruct the psiberweb. When Jaibriol's uncle Xir learns his secret, intrigue and scheming soon ensue. The complicated plotlines and numerous characters in the book prompted a Kirkus Reviews critic to warn that "newcomers will be lost" if they are introduced to the series with this book.

The Moon's Shadow was followed by a stand-alone installment in the Skolian saga titled Skyfall, which is set at a time that precedes the action in the other books to this point. Here, Roca Skolia, the mother to the heir of the Skolian empire, Kurj, falls in love with Eldrinson, a telepath from the technologically backward world of Skyfall. She becomes pregnant, and when Kurj rescues her from a castle that is being attacked by Eldrinson's enemies, he discovers this fact and feels that she has betrayed her family. Romance is emphasized in this book over technology, an element that a Publishers Weekly critic predicted would disappoint some fans, though the critic called the book "an enthralling standalone that fills in the early history of the empire."

With Schism and The Final Key Asaro started a subseries within her Skolian universe that goes back to Sauscony's childhood. Against her father's wishes, she trains to be an Imperial Jagernaut, an elite part of the Skolian military that uses psychic powers. She is disowned by her father, and when her brother is kidnapped by the Aristo Trader Vitarex, war seems on the horizon. Meanwhile, the young Sauscony works to survive and excel in her training. In The Final Key, Sauskony finds herself the only one left in her family able to fight the Traders after her father is incapacitated trying to rescue his son and her mother is kidnapped as well. Critics of the series noticed several times the resemblance of the Skolian series to the Dune books of Frank Herbert, with a dash of Georgette Heyer-esque romance mixed in. Reviewing Schism, a Publishers Weekly critic also remarked that "YA readers will identify with the mostly teenage protagonists." In another Publishers Weekly assessment, this time about The Final Key, a reviewer considered the series "a monumental work" that nevertheless falls somewhat short of masterful. Roland Green, however, concluded in Booklist that The Final Key is an "intelligent crowd-pleaser."

In addition to the novels she has written about the Skolian and Trader empires, Asaro has written some books that take place outside her fictional world. Notable among these is 1999's The Veiled Web, featuring a Latina American heroine who is drawn to the Moroccan inventor of a new Internet technology. The Veiled Web was praised by some critics for its cultural sensitivity; for instance, a Publishers Weekly reviewer cited Asaro's "sensuous and respectful evocation of Islamic culture" as one of the novel's best features.

Sunrise Alley is also a science-fiction stand alone book. The premise behind the story is that artificial intelligence technology has progressed to a stage where machines are becoming self-aware. Unfortunately, these "EI's" are also prone to emotional instability. When brilliant biotechnology engineer Samantha Bryton retires to a remote home to get away from her career, she one day discovers a man who has died only to be reborn with an artificial brain. He is an EI trying to escape the evil Charon, who wishes to kidnap him for the technology inside his head. Christine C. Menefee, writing in the School Library Journal, appreciated the author's blend of science fiction, thriller action, and romance in what she called "an epic chase across a near-future landscape." Booklist contributor Regina Schroeder asserted that with Sunrise Alley, "Asaro reinforces her reputation for combining high-tech adventure and romance."

Venturing also into fantasy, Asaro has penned the books The Charmed Sphere and The Misted Cliffs, which feature a medieval-like realm in which magic works on rules based upon geometric principles. Critics of the books also appreciated the author's convincingly flawed yet sympathetic characters. Library Journal contributor Jackie Cassada described The Misted Cliffs as "an appealing combination of fantasy and romance."

Frequently praised for her ability to blend romance and hard science in her novels and short stories, Asaro stated in an interview with Terry Hickman for the Market List Web site that she "made a conscious decision not to downplay the romantic elements. I like them," she explained further. "A great deal of good romantic literature exists. So I decided to talk about that as well as the other aspects of the books. That is the only way to counteract negative stereotypes."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1995, review of Primary Inversion, p. 1064; December 1, 2000, Roland Green, review of The Quantum Rose, p. 698; November 1, 2001, Diane Tixier Herald, review of Spherical Harmonic; February 15, 2003, Roland Green, review of The Moon's Shadow, p. 1058; September 1, 2003, Roland Green, review of Skyfall, p. 73; August, 2004, Regina Schroeder, review of Sunrise Alley, p. 1912; January 1, 2005, Roland Green, review of Schism, p. 833; July, 2005, Diana Tixier Herald, review of The Misted Cliffs, p. 1907; December 15, 2005, Roland Green, review of The Final Key, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 1996, review of Catch the Lightning, p. 1500; March 1, 2003, review of The Moon's Shadow, p. 352.

Library Journal, February 15, 1995, review of Primary Inversion, p. 186; November 15, 1996, review of Catch the Lightning, p. 92; December, 1998, Jackie Cassada, review of The Radiant Seas, p. 162; November 15, 2001, Jackie Cassada, review of Spherical Harmonic; July 1, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of The Misted Cliffs, p. 72.

Publishers Weekly, November 18, 1996, review of Catch the Lightning, p. 66; November 8, 1999, review of The Veiled Web, p. 65; November 27, 2000, review of The Quantum Rose, p. 60; November 27, 2002, review of Spherical Harmonic, p. 41; August 18, 2003, review of Skyfall, p. 62; December 6, 2004, review of Schism, p. 48; October 17, 2005, review of The Final Key, p. 44.

School Library Journal, January, 2005, Christine C. Menefee, review of Sunrise Alley, p. 158.