The plot was very complicated, and I had no idea where the book would end up. Although this is the second book in a series, I read this book without having read the first book. I could not detect any missing information; the book can be read independently (as far as I could tell).My only question/criticism/confusion came from one of the early chapters, that seemed to be written in the first person. The rest of the book was in third person. We never returned to the first person or found out what

I read the first book, In Conquest Born, about thirty years ago and really liked it. I have enjoyed reading many of the other works by C.S. Friedman over the years, but had never gotten back to reading this one. Picked it up in the same Half Priced Book warehouse sale as a bunch of others.It's not quite as good as the first one, but still very well done, and an enjoyable read.

I read In Conquest Born four years ago; there's not much I remember about it, but I distinctly remember it being excellent. Even the blurb makes me want to read it again! Perhaps my tastes have changed over the course of four years, but as I was reading The Wilding, instinctively, I knew that this would not break through to the coveted 5* rating. Friedman's prose is sublime (the words flow seamlessly from page to mind), and her world-building is meticulous. As usual, the main plot of the novel r...

Most people seem to be saying that this sequel is worse than its predecessor, In Conquest Born. I'd like to humbly disagree.That book was her debut novel, and it showed. The pacing, the writing, the style was all very raw and unpracticed. But The Wilding was written over a decade later, and the experience Friedman gained in her craft is palpable.I felt that this second entry flew by much faster than the first. And it continues to explore some very interesting aspects of what having psychics loos...

I don't know if it was just the edition I got, but there was no mention on this book that it is the sequel to another. I went through about the first 150 pages pretty lost -- then the rest just a little lost. Lesson learned once again: do your research before trolling the library shelves and picking out things that look pretty.

To have an enemy worthy of one's respect... that is a prize beyond measure. What is a lover's touch compared to such a thing? Love is but weakness shared, trials halved for being met in tandem. While a skilled enemy provides stimulation, challenge, and ultimately growth for all those who test their strength against his.I didn’t think that C.S. Friedman’s wonderful space epic In Conquest Born needed a sequel, but here it is, nonetheless. The Wilding can stand alone, but In Conquest Born is a bett...

Some cool follow-ups to the first book, and some interesting expansions of the lore, but she left certain threads untouched and doubled down a bit more than I liked on the problematic characters, so this is the only book I've read of hers I didn't actually enjoy that much.

This book is the sequel to In Conquest Born done 20 years later. It is tough to write a follow up to a great stand alone novel but she comes pretty close. She set's in 200 years or so intothe future and there is all new characters to learn about with in the same basic universe from the first story. The author, C.S. Friedman, is a fine writer and the story moves along briskly and holds your attention. She tells this story with more central characters than the first and she tells the story with ou...

I first discovered her with The Black Sun Rising years ago, back in 1989/90 I think. Since then I have read just about everything she has written and enjoyed it all. The Wilding reads like a struggle between Star Trek’s Klingons and B5’s Centari with a good helping of B5’s PSI Corps: good stuff.

3.5 Originally posted at FanLit."To have an enemy worthy of one’s respect… that is a prize beyond measure. What is a lover’s touch compared to such a thing? Love is but weakness shared, trials halved for being met in tandem. While a skilled enemy provides stimulation, challenge, and ultimately growth for all those who test their strength against his".I didn’t think that C.S. Friedman’s wonderful space epic In Conquest Born needed a sequel, but here it is, nonetheless. The Wilding can stand alone...

3.5 of 5Trigger-warning: rape is a common motif in The WildingThis was a difficult book to love - all the lead characters were highly unlikeable. But it was superbly written and the story was layered and complex. Although the ending felt abrupt and some storylines were left hanging.ETA: This was a rereading of The Wilding for me. I am a big fan of C.S. Friedman. What was notable for me was that this book holds up and I feel, earns 3.5 stars even though it is now 20 years old. Not all science fic...

Another awesome story by C.S. Friedman - I absolutely love her books. This remains no exception - she has done another outstanding job of continuing a story in the same world as her previous story but without a lot of hand holding exposition or even recaps of what happened so long ago. The overall story threads weave together so well, it actually surprised me in a few places. The only criticism I have is that the climax is pretty abrupt and resolved in the last 50 pages so quickly, compared to h...

In Conquest Born rocked me, so I think I have to see if this is any good.

C. S. Freidman never disappoints. Her worlds are deep and her characters are believable, both good points and bad.

I really like this sequel. It continues to be rapey, way rapier than the first one even, so that's a very big caveat right up front for those of you for whom it's a deal breaker. It's mostly a deal breaker for me usually, but I like everything else so well that I'm able to ignore it. There's also a fair amount of gender essentialism going on here, too (for example, psychics can be either male or female but in both books we only get extended portraits of female psychics; Braxin culture is extreme...

Well, that was pointless. 512 pages of build up and at the end...nothing terribly important has been accomplished. I mean there will be a stir and some people will probably die but when it all shakes out the relationships between the major players will be exactly the same and the protagonists are still on the run as they were at the start. It's like the middle of a trilogy that seems unlikely to ever get its third book but even then ultimately it all seems so trivial.

Okay, better than In Conquest Born, but still a bit too confused. Over long perhaps - I just didn't care what happened in the end. Sorry, I really like some of your other work.

Not as good as the first in the series, but worth a read if you enjoyed "In Conquest Born".

When an author writes a main character with a morally problematic point of view or deeply held belief, it's usually for one of three reasons:1) It's a critique of the position;2) It's an endorsement of the position; or3) It's merely a portrayal of the position, without judgment. Most decent authors, while doing #1 or #2, will do it subtly enough that an unobservant reader could see it as #3, but if it's a critique, the character representing the position will usually get some sort of comeuppance...

C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born was a formative science fiction novel for me. I read it in my early teens, and fell in love with it for its sweeping canvas of galactic civilizations locked in war, its meticulously realized cultures, and its strange, driven characters, who were all sympathetic no matter what side they were on. Twenty years later, its sequel, The Wilding came out. According to the back cover copy, fans had been clamoring for a sequel for years. That was news to me - much as I lov...