Bountiful Adventure Book

Regeneration is the concluding book of the Species Imperative trilogy by Julie Czerneda, finishing up where Survival and Migration had left off. We finally get to learn the story behind the evident rampage of the Dhryn across the galaxy--and what the ultimate goals of the Ro are. The nitpicks I had with the first two books still apply here, and I have to admit that towards the ending of the story I started skimming rather than reading in depth... which suggests to me that the book could have used maybe one more edit pass.

By and large though I did quite enjoy reading it. I approve of carrying out a romance with a love interest who actually gets very little screen time--which makes the time he is on screen more effective. Though, the swoonability of Nik aside (or should I be saying yumminess? Har), I also have to admit that I found the final resolutions between the characters just a tad too romance-novel-tidy.

I was almost disappointed that Mudge didn't get to be the love interest after all. I mean, he got way more screen time getting his character developed and having his relationship with Mac progress, and I kinda feel like the poor man deserved to get the girl after all that. ;) Having him do the Hero Thing and clonk Nik out and then stay behind was a pretty good substitute, but then, I think that I'd have liked that plot path a little better if he had indeed heroically died. As it happens, having him get to be alive at the end (and presumably free to pursue amorous intentions towards the second-in-command of the Annapolis Joy) seemed a little too predictable and pat.

I really did like the lamnas rings, though. Those were a very cool little way of keeping Nik's activities on the reader's mind even if he wasn't actually on camera--and I also liked that what Mac got out of them was very jagged and erratic, which I felt very neatly reflected that Nik wasn't an expert at using the things and had no idea what they would actually do. And I was vaguely bummed that Mac didn't check what was in the last one!

Anyway, a decent book overall. Taken as a whole, the Species Imperative Trilogy isn't as solid as the Web Shifters one, nor A Thousand Words for Stranger. I'd say three stars for this book, maybe three and a half for the series as a whole.