Category Archives: Challenges

Wrapping up the Omegas

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Ha, if I ever write a shifter book I think I’ll use Wrapping up the Omegas as the title. I like it. This Omega challenge was a short one, designed to fit into a weekend. I read what turned out to be four books and a short story (and one DNF); everything on my To-Be-Read shelf containing the word Omega.

Omega challenge

And it was an interesting experience, which left me wondering about the nature of the omega wolf mythos.

With the exception of Omega Rising (which was a Farscape-like sci-fi), all the books were about shifters and you know what? I don’t think there’s any real consensus about what an omega is. Is he/she the smallest wolf? The weakest? Is it some inborn trait? Earned? Is it the result of breeding? Does it come with special powers? Is it necessarily a bad thing? What does it mean to be omega? It seems to be agreed they’re bottom of the pack, but not how or why.

Sure, it makes sense that different authors would have different takes on what it means to be omega, but I sensed a real reluctance to commit to their ideals, even within the same author’s work.* Often omegas were said to be the weakest, most abused wolf in the pack (that’s what made them omega) but then shown to be strong and self-reliant, rising above their station and expected abilities. But they never seemed able to lose the stigma of ‘omega’ and I was left to wonder why.

I sense in this the need to set a character up as a victim before redeeming them with a show of strength. Something any reader of hetero romance will recognize. How many heroines have been raped, are fleeing abusive relationships, or come from traumatic childhoods? This idea of a weak, abused omega werewolf just seems to be a codification of one particular kind of victim to victory trope.

And this is fine, really, except that it kind of doesn’t work for me. Because they’re either these beat down dogs or they’re not and, in the majority of the stories I just read, the authors tried to make them both. In one case, the author twisted the plot so hard, trying to accomplish this that she/he simply violated what I understood to be the laws of the world they constructed.

This was my main take away from the experience of immersing myself in a weekend of shifter omega-ness. There were other, smaller ones too. Omegas seem overwhelmingly likely to be claimed by alphas, the leaders of the pack (usually the most powerful one available). ‘Alpha’ and ‘omega’ tend to be such strong aspects of a character’s character that they negate all else.

On a wider scale, other than betas (second in command) there don’t seem to be any other ranks to a werewolf pack and none of those wolves matter and there seems to be a language to werewolves, that while obviously originating somewhere, is being adopted on a wider scale. The idea of going ‘loup’ for an out of control wolf, the soul ‘mate,’ descriptions of inner wolves ‘pacing’ and ‘clawing’ to be free, a ‘scion’ being the son of an alpha. Some of this I recognized as ubiquitous to the paranormal genre, but some struck me as possibly lifted straight from other, more well-known books and series.

So, while four books and short story is hardly a huge sample of available omega stories (especially as one of the books and the story were from the same author), I think it was enough to get an idea of what this particular corner of the paranormal genre has to offer.

If you’re interested in individual reviews they can be found here:

Omega Rising
Omega
Omega in the Shadows
Omega’s Touch/Omega’s Fate

*Obviously, I'm speaking only to the books I read in this challenge. I've read enough shifter books to know I'm not speaking in universals here.

Edit 3/29/16: Someone made a comment on one of the Amazon reviews with a link to a wiki page on the Alpha/Beta/Omega Trope. While, I was well aware this was a frequent pairing, it hadn’t occurred to me that it had solidified into an actual genre of it’s own. Apparently it’s called the Omegaverse. As I said to the commenter, even as a trope I still like enough world-building to know something of why rigid pairing structure occurs.  Is it a social constraint, biological, etc? But it’s nice to have learned something new, all the same. 

Edit 4/17/16: Even though I technically called this challenge finished, I couldn’t help picking up another Omega book and I bet it’s not the last time I do it, this year. So, I figure I’ll just tag the new ones on down here at the bottom.

Omega to the Ranchers
The Omega Prince

Omega in the Shadows

Book Review of Omega in the Shadows (Lost Wolves #1), by Zoe Perdita

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Omega in the shadowsBook three in my Omega Weekend Challenge is Omega in the Shadows, by Zoe Perdita. I picked the book up at Amazon when it was free.

Description from Goodreads:
Rowan Gregor is a CIA agent who vows never to get close to another wolf after his pack is brutally murdered by hunters. Enter Elijah Kane, an efficient and shadowy omega assassin on the run from the CIA. When Rowan is tasked with hunting down Kane, he ends up at the mercy of a wolf with nothing left to lose – a wolf who is sure Rowan is his mate. Elijah Kane is hell bent on proving he’s stronger and smarter than every alpha he meets – including the alpha CIA agent sent to kill him. But Rowan lights a fire of lust that Elijah can’t ignore. They share a rare connection – a mate connection – and he’s not going to give up on Rowan until the man sees it too. Trapped in a snowy wilderness and besieged by hunters, desire sizzles between Elijah and Rowan. Can they overcome their differences, and their pasts, and forge a bond to save their future?

Review:
This is one of those books where when someone asks how it was you seesaw your hand and say, “Hmmm, it’s ok.” That’s what it is, ok, not great but not necessarily all bad either. The story has teeth (Hah, see what I did there?), but it drags on and is quite repetitive, both in telling the readers the same things over and over and in using the same words too frequently. Examples: Assassin (100 times), Omega (149 times), Alpha (297 times)! Most of these in the context of saying, “The Omega” did this or “The Assassin” did that.

I also had a problem with the binary nature of the characters. There only seemed to be alpha and omega. This being emphasized by how often the characters are referred to by their rank (in a non-existent pack) as opposed to names. What would the character be if he wasn’t the most or least powerful wolf? But more disturbing than this was the gay versus straight debate. The argument, “I’m not gay,” “you’re attracted to me, so you’re gay,” “I sleep with women, so I’m not gay,” “you want me, so you’re gay,” *blow job* “I thought you weren’t gay,” “I guess I am gay” was often repeated and utterly ridiculous. One would think being bi just wasn’t a thing. And apparently getting one taste of a penis will miraculously change your orientation and your personality, because Rowan certainly seemed to make a 180.

Then, to top everything else off the book ends on a cliff-hanger; a cliff-hanger that, as far as I can see from reading the blurbs of the other books, isn’t directly picked back up. Book three might touch on it, but I’m particularly confident about that.

Omega

Book Review of Omega (Demon Chaser #1), by Charlene Hartnady

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OmegaOmega (by Charlene Hartnady) is book number two of my Omega Weekend Challenge. I got the book from Amazon, almost a year ago, and I believe it was free at the time.

Description from Goodreads:
Demon Chasers… Protectors of humanity. Sworn to uphold the peace. Oath bound to keep the existence of demons a secret.

Katy is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life…or at least, that’s what she thinks right up until she’s abducted and for no apparent reason.

Demon Chaser Cole rescues Katy from the claws of the Alpha of a resident demon wolf pack. Hunted by Bain and his pack he must try and find out why the wolves are willing to risk a two hundred year long standing agreement with the Demon Chasers in order to have her.

The Chaser suspects that Katy is not as innocent as what she seems. Cole had better move fast though because the longer he’s with the raven haired beauty the more impossible he finds it to resist her.

Review:
OMG, that was just one long series of cliché tropes, one after another after another. The whole thing is basically the old stand-by ‘woman is the mysterious Chosen One, but doesn’t know it. She is hunted by the baddy that wants to claim her and rescued by the hero who actually does claim her. In the mean time, she passes out a lot and does stupid things like insist on trying on clothing prior to purchase while being actively hunted, giving the baddies time to find her again. Because obviously a good, sexy fit is more important than anything else, in the moment.’

It starts out with a bad case of the ‘for some reasons.’ For some reason he wanted to protect her. For some reason he was unaccountably attracted to her. For some reason he trusted her. For some reason he told her things he’d never told anyone else. For some reason he HAD TO HAVE HER. For some reason she felt safe with him. For some reason she was attracted to him, even though they’d just met. For some reason she was wet for him. For some reason she HAD TO HAVE HIM. Just to be clear, from a readers perspective, ‘for some reason’ is never enough of a motivating factor.

After the ‘for some reasons,’ we moved on to the fact that the plot basically boils down to who gets to have sex with the girl. Honestly, haven’t we moved past heroines being reduced to their sexual availability and heroes being the man who wins the big P in the end?

Then, of course, we had sex by the numbers. 1. kiss. 2. sucking nipples. 3. fingering clit. 4. slip a finger in and be shocked at the wetness. 4. mutterings about being beautiful and ‘so tight.’ 5. oral sex and instant orgasm number one. 6. PnV penetration, instant orgasm number two. 7. Roaring male climax and instant female orgasm number three. All in about a paragraph, so no room for any emotional build-up or anything and all this after thinking about ‘pounding her without foreplay.’ (Oh, yeah, so sexy. Argh. No.) Tell me fellow readers, how many times have YOU read this EXACT SAME sex scene? I know I’ve probably read it a hundred times.

But there are still more cliché tropes to be had, because we move right into the ‘I love him, but I have to give him up’ and ‘I love her, but I she’ll be better off without me.’ No one discusses this. No one admits their feelings; all those feelings that developed in about two days out of freakin’ no where. There is no chemistry between these two. And of course, we end with her going to him and demanding he accept her. Cliché! Overused! Horrible!

And all of this is decorated with writing like this: “Probably from the fact that he could smell her from here, like a summer breeze and candle lit dinners but also of red lace and leather.” Someone want to tell me what that actually smells like and does red lace really smell differently than, say, blue or white? I noticed a distinct lack of commas too.

I mean, I know these kinds of stories keep selling, so they keep getting written and if they’re your cup of tea, by all means have at it. But for me, I don’t know if I can run in the other direction fast enough. If this hadn’t been read as part of a challenge I almost certainly wouldn’t have finished it.