Herself a biologist, Julie E. Czerneda has earned a reputation in
science fiction circles for her ability to create beautifully crafted,
imaginative, yet believably realized alien races. In Survival, the
first novel in her new series, Species Imperative, she draws upon this
talent to build races, characters, and a universe which will draw
listeners into a magnificent tale of interstellar intrigue, as an Earth
scientist is caught up in a terrifying interspecies conflict. Senior
co-administrator of the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility, Dr. Mackenzie
Connor, Mac to her friends and colleagues, was a trained biologist,
whose work had definitely become her life. And working at Norcoast Base,
set in an ideal location just where the Tannu River sped down the west
side of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast was the perfect
situation for Mac. She and fellow scientist Dr. Emily Mamani were just
settling in to monitor this year's salmon runs when their research was
interrupted by the unprecedented arrival of Brymn, the first member of
the alien race known as the Ohryn to ever set foot on Earth.
Brymn was an archaeologist, and much of his research had focused on a
region of space known as the Chasm, a part of the universe that was
literally dead, all of its worlds empty of any life-forms, though traces
existed of the civilizations that must once have flourished in the
region. Brymn had sought out Mac because she was a biologist - a
discipline strictly forbidden among his own people - and he felt that
through her expertise she might be able to help him discover what had
created the Chasm. But Mac had little interest in alien races and in
studies that ranged beyond Earth, and as politely as she was capable of,
she tried to make it clear that she was unwilling to abandon her own
work.
However, the decision was soon taken out of her hands when a mysterious
and devastating attack on the Base resulted in the abduction of Emily,
and forced Mac to flee for her life with Brymn and the Earth special
agents who were escorting him. Suddenly, it appeared that Earth itself
might be under attack by the legendary race the Ohryn called the Ro, the
beings they thought might be the destructive force behind the Chasm. Cut
off from everything and everyone she knew, Mac found herself in grave
danger and charged with the responsibility of learning everything she
could that might possibly aid Earth in protecting the human race from
extinction....
