Beholder's Eye

by Julie E. Czerneda

Book Overview

United in their natural form they are one, sharing all their memories, experiences, and lives. Apart they are six, the only existing members of their ancient race, a species with the ability to assume... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0886778182
• ISBN13: 9780886778187
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Best Sci-Fi ever

One of my favorite scifi books of all time!!! I always come back to it. Reread 100 times.

Excellent start to new series

"Beholder's Eye" is one fantastic novel.Esen is an alien shapeshifter with a twist; her race shares memories quite literally, by eating of themselves. It's rather disgusting to contemplate, but that's what they do -- and they're used to it.Thing is, Esen wasn't expected. The rest of her race happened by fission; she happened through sexual experimentation with a different race, which might be why she's different than the others. Although all are female, she's younger, more nervous, more innocent, and much more childlike overall.During her first "assignment" elsewhere to pick up new information for her people (all six of them), Esen finds a human man in trouble. She liberates him, and gets him away; this causes immediate problems for him, but also opens up a world of possibilities.While they're getting to know each other in a sort of father-daughter way (she's much too young for him), a big, bad version of something similar to her own race happens by. They're doing bad things, for bad reasons; her own people aren't pleased.The rest of the novel basically shows what Esen and Paul try to do to keep the situation from escalating any further, while continuing to deepen their relationship.Very strong start to a new series. Highly recommended.

A Rite of Passage

Beholder's Eye is the first novel in the Web Shifters series. Esen-alit-Quar is the most recent member of the Web of Ersh and the only member who isn't a product of fissioning by Ersh; Esen is an offspring of Ansky and her Lanivarian lover and the only one of their cubs who can shift. For over five centuries, Ersh and the others have trained her to function as an observer of sentient life, but Esen has also persisted in pranks and escapades that always get her into trouble. But now Esen is finally ready for her first independent assignment.In this novel, Esen is taken to Kraos to observe the life and ecology on that planet. However, she spends weeks trying to work up the nerve to move among the population, first taking on the form of the sentient species and then cycling back to her Web form. After using most of the nearby living mass to energize the cycles, hunger forces her to shift into Lanivarian form and retain it. Pretending to be a native canine, she moves among the natives, eavesdropping, snooping and otherwise gathering the required information.After 600 days into the assignment, she discovers that a Commonwealth First Contact team has arrived on the planet and contacted the natives. Two commercial missions have already disappeared on Kraos and she has learned that the natives also intend to capture this new ship and kill its crew. Two members of the First Contact team are killed and the third, Paul Ragem, is captured along with Esen in her canine form, but Paul and Esen managed to escape from a dungeon and warn the ship of the hostility of the natives.Unfortunately, the First Contact team has a vid of Esen changing from her canine form to a Ycl to save Paul from a deadly fungus powder which was sprinkled on his body by the natives. Moreover, the stress of the interview with Senior Specialist and Acting Captain Lionel Kearn and Sas, the Modoren Security Officer, has caused her to explosively shift back to her Lanvarian form, causing minor damage to the personnel and fittings in Kearn's office.Esen is in big trouble with the Web for violating security. After reviewing the events of this chain of fiascoes, and literally chewing her out, Ersh sends her back to learn the extent of the damage caused by these exposures. This time she takes on the form of a Ket, a very humanoid species with great massage skills.This novel is mostly about the evolving relationship between Esen and Paul. In some respects, this novel is much like Heinlein's Star Beast from the point of view of the alien. Although centuries old and very knowledgeable, Esen is very young relative to her potential lifetime. All her forms are also young relative to the species (her human form is about ten years old). Thus, Esen sometimes seems very wise and other times incredibly foolish.This novel, however, has plenty of action and plots within plots. One of the minor themes in this novel, and the whole series, is the very irritating behavior of bureaucrats. Anoth

I didn't think there was anything new in the galaxy.

Czerneda seems to have done it again. Many have written books about "shapeshifters", but none like this! The story is compelling, and at times, leaves you breathless. There's a new surprise around every corner, as Es transforms from one alien form to another to accomplish her mission. Once again, Czerneda has produced strong characters that leave you feeling you would like to find out more about what makes them tick. Unique alien lifeforms, captivating settings, and a sprinkle of humor in just the right places. I'd love to see what the latest "morphing" technology could do with Es and her ever-changing body!

Do eye behold an excellent book here?

I really enjoyed this book a lot. We see a lot of different worlds and races in it with a variety of characteristics, and Czerneda does a very good and convincing job of portraying them. She could write many more stories in this universe if she wanted to. Many books are predictable. Sometimes they surprise you. But much of the time, "Beholder's Eye" had so many possibilities that I had no idea what to expect next, and was often pleased with where it took me.Esen, the main character, is a web being, a shape-changer, who takes on at least a dozen different forms over the course of the story, though she uses two of them for most of the story. In each form she takes on the instincts and emotions of whatever form she assumes, with some amusing results. Ragem, the primary human character, is quite intelligent but at a level we can easily relate to. The key characters. both good and bad, are smart enough to make the story all the more interesting. All around, an excellent read.

Superb science fiction from a born storyteller.

If you missed Julie Czerneda's debut novel A THOUSAND WORDS FOR STRANGER, you missed a grand tale and should remedy the situation immediately! But don't let it delay you from reading BEHOLDER'S EYE, which offers new perspective and point of view in a universe far in humankind's future.This is a story of first contact, and extended unobserved contact, but told from the "alien's" point of view. It is a grand adventure, in the classic science fiction sense, filled with page turning excitement and written with a thoroughly modern sensibility. From the first few pages, the reader is captured by both the plot and the characters, and the developing friendship between the protagonists is both poignant and fascinating to watch develop. There is obsession and passion here as well. Esen-alit-Quar is not your classical hero, but Captain Kearn is a "Captain Ahab" of classic proportion. And most of all it is a wonderfully told tale that will keep you entertained from beginning to end. Highly Recommended!