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C791

Book Review Eve Langlais’ C791 (More Than Macines, #1)

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C791I grabbed Eve Langlais‘ C791 (More Than Machines, #1) from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting, it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
Machines aren’t supposed to feel, but this cyborg can’t help falling in love.

Assigned as a specimen collector for a captured cyborg, Chloe is intrigued by the machine disguised as a man. Kidnapped during his daring escape, he shows her that despite the chip in his brain, his humanity is not completely lost.

Formerly known as unit X109GI, Joe is on a quest to discover his origin. While he doesn’t find the answers he’s looking for, he does discover that affection and lust aren’t just for humans. But when it comes to a battle between logic and love, which side will the cybernetic organism–once a man–choose?

Evaluating his feelings will have to wait though because the military isn’t done with Joe. But their threats against him pale in comparison before the shocking discovery of project C791, the revelation of which stuns the rebel cyborgs–and ignites a fury for vengeance.

Review:

I’ve read a couple of Eve Langlais’ books now and I generally enjoy them for their smouldering sex, blithely paired with enough levity to ensure the reader isn’t too cheesed out. I mean, a plot can get pretty corny and still be really enjoyable as long as it doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. I think this is where Ms. Langlais shines. However, I have to admit that this book is hovering around the 2.5 star mark and threatening to sink. It was not one of my favourites. 

This isn’t to say it was all bad. There were still some good one-liners. The sex was still hot. In the middle section Joe turned from the alpha bad-boy cyborg to a cute, confused cyborg with disarming boyish charm that I really liked. The C791 reveal was a good one. Seth and Solus were fun sidekicks. As with so many of Langlais’ heroines, Chloe is described as beautiful and sexy as well as rounded, plump even, thereby breaking from the narrow societal standards of beauty. And though opening itself up for sequels, the story did end. There were some appreciable aspects to the story. So I didn’t hate it.

But I did hate the four important aspects of it. To start with, Joe’s dialogue was painful. Now, this was addressed. He was said to have not fully grasped human syntax. Fair enough, but there were some awkward passages, especially in the beginning. His first couple sentences in the book made me laugh out loud, and not in a good way. (It did seem to get better as the book progressed.)

Secondly, his character seemed unstable. Like I said, he started out as a strong, bad-ass leader of the cyborg rebellion. Then went all googly-eyed and little boy-like. Then ended up practically a basket case. He was inconsistent at best. Likeable, but undependable. 

Third, the air at the end of the book got really, really thick with heavy sentimentality and overplayed emotions. Sci-fi erotica just doesn’t have the gravitas to support it, so it felt horribly unnatural. 

**Spoiler***Lastly, and to me most importantly, the book employed the infuriating and cheap plot device of providing Chloe a history of sexual abuse that contributed absolutely NOTHING to the plot. It was COMPLETELY unnecessary. It was pure dirty TITILLATION. It provided opportunities for her to be called a dirty whore and threatened with future abuse, and nothing more. 

This didn’t heighten the suspense for me. It just made me ask, “Why was that necessary?” Answer: It wasn’t. Sure, if a history of rape (repeated gang rape or otherwise) is an important part of a plot, I’ll endure it. But it wasn’t here. The rest of what was done to Chloe was enough to provide her with the necessary anger to move the story along. The periodic victimisation references were not needed. They were overkill to the extreme, unpleasant and came across (to me, anyway) as evidence that the author couldn’t or wouldn’t dig a little deeper than such a trite overused cliché. For anyone who’s read many of my reviews, you know this is a hot button for me. Pretty much ruined the book. 

I have no doubt that this won’t be the last Langlais book I read. Not as long as she keeps popping them up on the free list, anyhow. But this will remind me to be a little more cautious as I approach them from now on.

The Trilisk Ruins

Book Review of The Trilisk Ruins, by Michael McCloskey

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The Trilisk RuinsI grabbed The Trilisk Ruins (Parker Interstellar Travels #1), by Michael McCloskey, from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
Telisa Relachik studied to be a xenoarchaeologist in a future where humans have found alien artifacts but haven’t ever encountered live aliens. Of all the aliens whose extinct civilizations are investigated, the Trilisks are the most advanced and the most mysterious.

Telisa refuses to join the government because of her opposition to its hard-handed policies restricting civilian investigation and trade of alien artifacts, despite the fact that her estranged father is a captain in the United Nations Space Force.

When a group of artifact smugglers recruits her, she can’t pass up the chance at getting her hands on objects that could advance her life’s work. But she soon learns her expectations of excitement and riches come with serious drawbacks as she ends up fighting for her life on a mysterious alien planet.

Review:
Hrmm, it was OK, I suppose. Not gripping, in fact I thought the whole thing fell a little flat, but I also wouldn’t call it a disaster or drivel. It was just uninspiring. The main characters did a lot of running around, surmising their situation to each other, and remember things, but very little of significance actually happened. Not nothing, mind you, but not as much as you would expect for 300+ pages, most of which was useless description of stuff. The romance/sex was abrupt, pointless and out of place, the writing/dialogue were stiff and sophomoric, and the characters baseless.

What rescued the book for me was Kirizzo. He was about as far from human as an alien can get, very centipede like. But I found that I related to him more than any other character in the book. This was largely because he was far more fleshed out than any of the others, but also because he wasn’t bogged down with useless details and his unbiased assessment of humans intriguing.

The story seems to be an interesting beginning to something. It’s definitely not a stand alone book. The problem is that, having finished it, I don’t what the primary plot arch is or will be. Is it an action adventure, following two romantically involved artefact smugglers—Indiana Jones in space? Is it a space opera about an errant daughter on the run from her politically and militaristically connected father and his morally debased government affiliation? Is it a sci-fi about exotic alien species being encountered for the first time? I have no idea and at this point, I should.

Again, it’s not a bad book. It has an interesting premise. The writing, though stiff, seemed well edited. I don’t remember any noticeable typos. The whole thing just left me, personally, a little cold. But there are undoubtedly readers out there who will feel differently.

Book Review of Tenaya Jayne’s Forbidden Forest

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A quick note before I get on with this review: For all of you who have sent me review requests, I haven’t forgotten you. Nor am I purposefully ignoring you. I’ve been through the list each time I picked a new book to read. It’s just that I still read for fun and nothing on my request shelf currently appeals to me. This doesn’t mean it won’t tomorrow though.

Forbidden ForestOK, on with the review of Forbidden Forest (Legends of Regia, #1), by Tenaya Jayne. It’s free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Born in shame. Cast from society. Shape Shifter/Elf hybrid, Forest must fight for any respect she can get. Targeted in her youth by a vampire noble who placed an illegal slave mark on her, she is forced to obey him, no matter what.

Slipping the grip of her master and abandoning the prejudice of Regia, her native world, Forest takes a job on Earth, guarding the portal, using her skills as a warrior to enforce Regia’s laws. Now, called home for a black ops mission, Forest must put aside her own prejudice to transport the vampire prince, Syrus, through enemy territory in a time of war. 

Prince Syrus, mage and master of the Blood Kata, wants Forest more than he’s ever wanted anything. In spite of their mutual mistrust, their attraction cannot be denied. Through the danger of their mission, and the secrets they both keep, it doesn’t matter what they feel. Forest is forbidden.

 Review: 
Ok, for the record I’m writing this review while T’ed off because I’ve just had a bit of a shock to the system. Yep, it was the sudden and unexpected “The End” that I ran up against. The story doesn’t frickin’ end. Seriously, what good does half a story do me? Why do authors keep doing this? It pisses me off every single time.

So, looking past the lack of ending (I can do this, really), I thought that the story was pretty good. It was predominantly a love story, since the whole ‘gotta get Syrus through the Wolf Forest’ just seemed to be an excuse for the two of them to be thrown together. Very little actually happened in regard to the supposed dangers and many of the solutions felt miraculous since we were given so little of Forest’s history ahead of time. (She knows her way around the living maze of a forrest because she grew up near there. Oh, ok, didn’t know that. She is mysteriously protected because she befriended a ghost at some earlier time. Oh, that’s nice for them. Can bluff her way out of Philippe’s clutches because she’s traded with him in the past. Great. etc)

So even though I thought some things went a little too smoothly for the pair I did enjoy their back and forwards banter. I like how fragile Syrus could seem at one moment and then badass the next. I like how strong Forest was supposed to be, even if she did little more than cry and fall apart in actuality.

To recap, I was pleased with the general story. There is obviously a lot more going on, with political intrigue on the horizon and the whole Leith situation yet to be resolved. But I had a hard time settling into the story for a few reasons. The rather abrupt switch from modern Austen to medieval Regia threw me for a loop. I then kept spinning since the language was undisputedly modern and there were a lot of modern earth wares popping up as smuggled items. (See here, we have to eat out Lucky Charms by torchlight and wear a sword with our Levis.) The history between Forest and Leith is just barely sketched out but immensely important. I needed to know more about it. And finally I just basically needed to get to know Forest more. It’s not that her character is shallow or anything, but we’re told that there is a lot more to her than we see and it would have been nice to get if those detailed. Then of course, on the other end of the book, after finally settling into the story it just up and ends on you.