Species Imperative

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A door-stopping Sci-fi trilogy by Julie E. Czerneda, consisting of Survival, Migration, and Regeneration.

Sometime in the future, Earth has become part of the Interspecies Union, a thriving interstellar community connected by no-space transects and overseen by the Sinzi race. No war is permitted between species, making the series of mysterious disappearances of life along the Naralax Transect-- which includes Earth-- all the more alarming. No few researchers have compared these sudden barren zones to the lifeless Chasm worlds: an entire transect full of dead planets that once held life.

Enter Mackenzie "Mac" Connor, reluctant salmon biologist, who gets drawn into the whole mess.

Survival introduces us to Mac and fellow researcher Emily Mamani, pioneer of the new Tracer technology, at the start of a usual research season, only to be interrupted by the Dhryn, Brymn, and his handler, Nikolai Trojanowski. Nik, an apparent bureaucrat has come to ask Mac to help investigate the disappearances; Brymn has sought her out for answers of his own. Without warning, Emily is abducted by the Ro, the Dhryn species' oldest enemy, and Mac is rushed to their homeworld to prevent the same from happening to her. Here, answers finally start to fall into place.

Migration picks up the following year: Mac is returned to Earth only to be brought to the planet's IU Consulate to work in earnest, trying to find the reason behind what are now entire planets being stripped bare. Unfortunately, the real difficulty comes from convincing the people on her own side who the enemy is. Disaster is averted, yet not without losses, and a few vital gains.

Regeneration synopsis to come.

Tropes used in Species Imperative include:

• Alien Blood
• Always Lawful Good: The Sinzi: Mind Hives who are "fundamentally prone to cooperation."
• Apocalypse How: Type 5 or 6
• Apocalyptic Log: The Portent and Encounter chapters read like this
• Artificial Limbs: Mac's arm from the end of Survival onward
• Ascetic Aesthetic: Most things designed by the Sinzi, including the Consulate walls, seem to be blank white. Or at least they do to humans, since through UV-sensitive eyes they're intricately painted
• Bee People: The Dhryn, a non-insectoid example
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Czerneda is herself a biologist, and apparently had a lot of fun with this trope
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Several cases, but the Dhryn deserve special mention: Most of the population is apparently male, and they cut off their own hands and give them to the whale-sized, female Progenitors to somehow make little Dhryn oomlings
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Fourteen
• Chekhov's Gun: Emily's Tracer
  • The salmon carving from the end of Migration
• Cool Starship: The deceptively-named warship Annapolis Joy. Also, Sinzi darts, which are accused of bending the laws of physics
• Ditzy Genius: Brymn, accomplished archaeologist and irrepressible tourist
• Doorstopper: Each book runs 600+ pages
• Eldritch Abomination: The Ro are a borderline case: Aliens who, millions of years ago, chose to live in no-space. They altered themselves biologically and became fused with their machines, treat time and space like playthings, and merely hearing one speak makes one feel like they're being ripped apart cell-by-cell
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Mackenzie Winifred Elizabeth Wright Connor
• Everything's Worse with Bears: The Grimnoii look like giant, gloomy teddy bears with a love of sharp objects and getting hammered on cider
• The Federation: The Interspecies Union
• Henchmen Race: Th Dhryn, modified by the Ro to wipe plants free of life
• Hidden Depths: Charles Mudge III, who is introduced as a pure Obstructive Bureaucrat, only to become a rounded character
• Human Aliens: IU consulate staff
• Humanoid Aliens: Several species
• Hyperspace: No-space transects
  • Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Or at least, the Ro's version is
• Important Haircut: In the first book, Mac losing her Braid of Sorrow in grathnu
• Interspecies Romance: Discussed. Apparently most species aren't physically compatible, but humans are still rumored to have an Anything That Moves mentality
• Metamorphosis: The Dhryn lifecycle. While most don't transform, Adults can "Flower" several ways: into Large and In ChargeProgenitors, Her Hands, or the Wasted.
• Mind Hive: The Sinzi, who grow an extra set of eyes for each mind and refer to themselves in acronyms. Plus, their minds sleep in shifts, a handy trick when running an IU consulate
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Dhryn
• Oh My Gods: Used verbatim by several humans
• Precursors: The Ro pioneered No-space technology, which is now the crux of the Interspecies Union
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Nik pulls this from time to time
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The Imrya race's hat
• Starfish Aliens: Almost every other species
• Starfish Language: The Sinzi tongue