Tag Archives: sci-fi

Dark Legacy

Book Review of Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai (Dark Legacy Cycle 0.5), by Domenico Italo Composto-Hart

Dark LegacyDomenico Italo Composto-Harts Dark Legacy is free at both Amazon and Lulu. This is the second review in my month-long challenge to read only authors I ‘know.’

Description from Goodreads:
The End of the Kai of the Dark Legacy Cycle details the violent end of the Kai Order – an ancient, spiritual guild of warrior guardians and priestesses who have sworn their lives to protect the Oracle Queen of Atlantis – at the hands of Maniok, the being referred to as the “Great Evil” in the age-old Song of the Oracle King.

It is a chronicle of Arkan, the last Kai guardian, and his desperate attempt to save the life of his priestess who carries his unborn son, and his escape from Atlantis.

Review:
I find myself in an odd position here. I picked this book up in good faith, but found that it isn’t what I thought it was. I would say, ‘what it presents itself to be,’ but I’m not willing to allot the blame. So, I’m going with not what I thought.

You see I’ve just discovered that Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai is in fact a brief prequel and then the first three chapters of the book Dark Legacy: Trinity, which is book one of the series.

I hate this kind of thing. I just want to be able to pick up a book and know it’s the book, not part of it or an addition to it, or a snippet of something else. If I wanted to read Trinity I’d have picked it up, not a separately bound (well, digitally bound) portion of it. Seriously people! When did this become OK?

So, at 30%, when The End of Kai ended and Trinity was to begin, I bailed. I’m not about to knowingly start a book that I don’t have the end to. In fact, I resent that the author set me up to be in just that position. It feels like a manipulation and a way to trick readers into buying something. (Granted, The End of Kai is free, so it wouldn’t be a second purchase.) I’m not saying it is a manipulation, just that it feels like one.

So please take note. This review is for the first 30% (~50 pages) of this ‘book’ only. Anything after that would be a different book, or part of one and I neither read it nor am reviewing it. I’m not calling it a DNF, because I finished the prequel. But I didn’t read the last 70% of the file.

I found the writing here, while technically fine, pretentious. Or rather, if I was willing to stretch grammar close to it’s breaking point, portentous. The word really is an adjective meaning, of/like a portent and a portent is a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen. So, grammatically it doesn’t really mean what I’m about to use it for.

But anyone who reads a lot of sci-fi or fantasy will be familiar with the heavy, atmosphere-building tone frequently used during passages of prophecy or symbolically significant events. This whole book reads like that…like it’s a portent, like it has meaning beyond the words on it’s pages, like it considers itself more than it is.

I think it’s because it’s a prequel and designed to be a lead-in to book one. If I’m honest, I’m always a little uncomfortable with prequels. I’m never entirely sure when I’m supposed to read them, before the first novel or after the series as a bonus. Plus, I’ve found that when written after the main book(s) they tend to skimp on details, assuming the reader is already familiar with the world and/or characters.

I can’t accuse this book of that. I thought the world was well defined (and really intriguing). But that’s about all it is. There are no mentionable characters, really. This isn’t a story of it’s own, so much as a, ‘hey look, this happened. Don’t you want to know what happens next?’ The book starts with some random street urchin that plays no significant role other than providing a POV, then we see the world through the eyes of a crow (yes, a crow), meet some dying religiosos, a Darth Vador-like bad guy who has some past relation to a couple of fleeing lovers (none of which we learn). We meet them. That’s all. We pass them by while moving on to bigger, better things. Nothing more.

Now, the writing is lyrical and pretty. And while it worked for 50 or so pages, much more of it would have started to grind on my nerves. It felt very tense. Where does this leave me? It’s well written, an interesting world and what is probably an interesting story…but also almost none of that is enough to make me happy with The End of Kai. It’s not enough on its own and I’m pretty irked by its mere existence. So, not on my recommended list unless you go in planning to read the series.

Book Review of the Royce Ree Omnibus (The Emperor’s New Clothes), by Aldous Mercer

Royce Ree OmnibusI picked up Aldous Mercer‘s Royce Ree Omnibus after I saw it recommended in a Goodreads thread I was watching in a semi-stalkerish way…you know, reading all the posts while only being marginally involved myself. Since picking a book to read from the thousands I own can sometimes take me hours, I decided to just forgo the search, buy this one and read it. Done. Annoying decision-making process completely sidestepped. Score!

Description from Goodreads:
Imperial Agent Royce Ree needs to pull off the biggest heist the Universe has ever seen, or it’s bye-bye cushy government job, hello cleaning toilets in a dive-bar on Baga-V. 

To succeed, he will need help from the last person he’d ever ask: his ex.

Review:
I just plain had a blast reading this. I thought that Royce and Les were wonderful characters, their interactions were a pleasure and their poorly concealed feelings for one another marvellous. There was a lot of humor and the whole thing just had a sweet feel to it. The writing was crisp and compelling, the dialogue believable, the world-building just solid enough to give the reader a clear picture without bogging down the story, and the wit often subtle but readily apparent. Plus, there were psychic pets, zombie fashionistas, super spies, naked royalty, secret missions, soul searing love and one spunky rebellious princess. What more could I ask for?

Now, the book wasn’t faultless. There were some minor editing issues, changes in tense and person (3rd to 1st) and occasionally I wasn’t entirely clear what happened in a scene or what a particular technology actually did, but it really wasn’t all that often or noticeable. I’ll also admit that if I had been reading the individual instalments, instead of an omnibus (that read as smoothly as any other book I’ve encountered) I’d probably have been scratching my head about why it’s broken up. But I wasn’t, so I’m pretending it originated as a single text and moving on.

Lastly, I’m not a huge fan of the explain-it-all-in-a-big-historical-reveal-at-the-end technique. Here I thought some of it felt a little too convenient, some of it felt unrealistic (characters who knew each-other all pretended they didn’t without the reader knowing why, for example) and some aspects weren’t clearly explained. An example of the latter was the ‘only if he asks you’ scenario. This was accomplished, ostensibly arranged by Royce, but it was never shown how he managed to manipulate events and people to bring it about. (I realise that only makes sense to people who have read the book, for the rest of you it’s just an example to show that there is an example.)

None of these issues severely detracted from my basic enjoyment of the book though. As a ‘buy on a whim, even though I have tons I should read first’ book I deem it a complete success. I look forward to the continuation of the series and will be looking for more of Mercer’s writing.

Review of C. J. Barry’s Unchained

UnchainedI grabbed a copy of C. J. Barry‘s Sci-fi Romance, Unchained from the Kindle free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Cidra Faulkner saw her family murdered and her people condemned for a crime they didn’t commit. Now a skilled Kin-Sha warrior, she vows to track down the true culprit and exact justice, both for her family and all the Kin-Sha. 

Intergalactic treasure hunter Grey Stone had no intention of helping Cidra until his old mentor tricked him into it. Now he’s trapped into helping the daughter of the man who brought about the downfall of his people — a woman whose very presence jeopardizes all he’s worked for. 

But honor won’t let him say no. And love won’t let him turn back.

Review: (slight spoilers)

This was an all right read…or at least I decided it was once I let go of any science fiction expectations and accepted that it’s really just a romance that happens to be set in space. It’s heavy on the sexual tension and light on…well, light on just about everything else. But it’s still an enjoyable read. Having said that, there were a number of points that really irked me.

For one, Cidra is said to be a well-trained Kin-sha practitioner (think some high level martial arts form). And though we do OCCASIONALLY see her use those skills to kick some butt, she is still very much a coddled, protected princess. The bent of the story is very much one in which the H wants to protect his h and in order to make this possible Cidra feels very fragile. As is so common in fiction, her ‘strength’ comes in the form of being willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others (in other words, her pure heart). How many times have I seen that trait in a heroine?

For another (and this is a personal pet peeve), the primary way that grey is described is as ‘primally male.’ Granted it was rephrased a few times, ‘masculine’ was used on occasion, etc. But the whole thing drove me to distraction, for a couple reasons. One, it’s a HORRIBLE way to describe a man as sexy. It infers that just by virtue of being male he is attractive to Cidra. I get that what the author is going for is that he possesses the attributes women find attractive in a man in abundance. I do get that, but it’s not actually what is said when the narrator says things along the line of:

He glided from position to position, purely, powerfully male. It called to her on a level she couldn’t explain.

Cidra gasped at his masculine power and hunger.

She pressed the length of her body to his, absorbing the fluid flow of male strength.

He was pure male muscle and strength.

What this actually does is separated the trait that is being male from the character and it alone is presented as attractive, not Grey himself. It’s dehumanising (just as it would be for women). At it’s most basic, it suggests that Cidra is attracted to a man (with no further description necessary to attract her). Is that really all we need here?

Second, if being a man is all it takes…or even extrapolating the argument out to include the appealing male attributes that calling him MALE (which how is should be said) is supposed to be relaying, Rourke or Bohr should be better candidates for Cidra’s attention. Both are bigger and more muscular…more masculine or MALE according to any circumstance in which MALENESS is enough to make someone sexy and attractive. Argg. Surely there are better adjectives out there!

For the most part, I thought that the writing was fine. There were a lot of really abrupt scene changes. The book could really do with some form of indication for this, heck even a line of asterisks would do. But I needed something to warn me, ‘hey, you’re leaving Grey and Cidra now and are gonna spend some time with Rourke and Decker.’

There were times that it was painfully predictable, however. This was mostly because the set up to some scenes was so readily apparent. Here’s an example: at one point Cidra and Grey travel to a very male-dominated planet to speak to a socially powerful man. Before Cidra even got off the ship I knew, just KNEW that at some point he (Bohr) would corner her and try to force himself on her. Not ten pages later, that’s exactly what happened.

I was further annoyed at this particular instance because it also presented an inconsistent cultural construct. Women were supposed to be severely oppressed and hold almost no rights. However, the woman Cidra meets isn’t at all cowed by her social situation as someone raised to believe herself a secondary citizen should be. Her (Sil’s) boldness didn’t fit the culture she was placed in. What’s more, there was supposed to be some sort of law empowering women whose mates weren’t faithful. Why would a über male-dominated culture that doesn’t believe in women’s rights or autonomy contradictorily provide them the legal means to castrate their husbands? Wouldn’t happen!

It was also incredibly repetitive about certain things, like Grey’s overpowering maleness. ‘Heat’ was another one. I realise these characters aren’t necessarily human, just humanoid. But Grey must run hot, ’cause his body heat seared Cidra in a hundred different ways. She felt is ‘wrap around her.’ His ‘masculine scent and body heat swept her senses.’ His ‘close proximity generating more heat than…’ ‘His big body wrapped around her, gilding her with his heat…’ She felt ‘the incredible heat of his arms.’ She could ‘feel his heat through the thin fabric…’ At one point heat even ‘roared through him like a supernova’ and he experienced ‘burning arousal.’ (I bet that’s painful.) I could go on. I stopped keeping track at about 50% and only started once I’d read enough to notice the repetition. But it’s the primary way that lust is expressed here.

It was only exacerbated by the way Grey’s virulence was highlighted by being described as barely contained (like fire?).  He came across as hardly able to control himself at all. He was always on the edge of snapping or unable to think or move on account of something he saw in/on Cidra. He even growled on occasion. He definitely came across as a bit of an ape-man and I don’t think he was supposed to.

Lastly, there’s a fairly massive coincidence at about 90% that was less than believable. It felt very contrived and convenient. It did however bring all of the characters together at last.

So, all in all, I had a lot of personal complaints. There were a lot of points that bothered me, even as I generally liked the characters themselves. But these points may not bother other people. As a piece of fluffy entertainment, it did the job. Oh, and it really is a stand-alone book. It ends!