| Plot Summary of Jenna Starborn |
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Ace, April 2002, 14.95, 400 pp.
ISBN 044100900x
In the far distant future, Earth has advanced so far technologically that she has colonized many planets in quite a few galaxies. On the planet of Baldos, a woman who thought she was barren contracted to have a child that was gestated in a gene tank. When Jenna Starborn was born, the woman now pregnant with her son, treated Jenna cruelly, refusing to adopt her.
Eventually, the authorities took her out of the home and ensconced her on Lora where she went to school at Lora Tech and learned to be a nuclear technician. After she graduates, she applies and obtains a job as a generator tech on the planet Fieldstar. Her employer Everett Ravenback of the domed estate of Thornafone Park falls in love with Jenna and asks her to marry him, but on her wedding day she learns a truth about him that causes her to flee across the galaxies in fear.
Sharon Shinn, like Anne McCaffrey and Catherine Asaro redefines the boundaries of the science fiction romance genre and in doing so creates a memorable, beautiful work. The heroine, a woman looked down by the elite of the galaxy, is a strong-minded and moral person who will not break her own ethical code even if it means giving up the man she loves. Jenna Starborn, in the decades to come, will be a cult classic.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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"Think Jane Eyre, only in the future, on different planets and with higher tech, and that's what this book is. Jenna Starborn was harvested from the gen-tanks on the planet Baldus so that she could be someone's daughter. Although she is bought and raised in a home, she is not loved, nor is she adopted, and she cannot achieve first-class citizenship. When it is discovered that her aunt is not taking proper care of her, she is sent to a school on a far away planet, where she learns math and science. She becomes a nuclear technician and eventually gets a job at Thorrastone Park. She finds herself falling in love with the lord of the manor, Everett Ravenbeck, and feels as though the other women who work there, as well as Everett's ward, are her family. However, she is only a Half-Cit, while he has first-class citizenship, so she doesn't think anything could ever come of her feelings for him. Later, too, his secrets force the two of them even more apart."
Melissa Cookson, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Jenna Starborn |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 60%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10%
Tone of book
- very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Romance
Yes
Romance plotlets:
- love among disparate social classes
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Family relations
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- engineer
- blue collar worker
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
- society
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- wealthy
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Terrain
- Domed/Underground City
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body:
- humans in a futuristic society
- empty, or nearly empty world
- very controlled society
Planet outside solar system?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 1st
- rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- some scientific explanation
- a fair amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- significantly more dialog than descript
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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