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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.

Book Review: Rook, by Richard A. Shury

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rook cover

Description from Goodreads:

The year is 2188. Long ago, Earth was invaded by marauding aliens; these aliens were defeated, but their technology remained. Using it, humanity has reached out into space, but only to continue the conflicts of Earth. Rook is the story of a hardened mercenary who steals valuable items – for a price. After he steals a vaccine for a deadly virus, he finds himself in a crisis of conscience, one that will put him in the firing line of anyone who stands to profit from the virus’ spread. Will he be able to survive long enough to do the right thing?

Review:

Rook can essentially be reduced to one man’s attempt to do the right thing, possibly as an attempt at redemption. The character Rook is a highly skilled assassin/thief who suddenly develops a conscience and sets out on an audacious journey to protect the innocent. It’s a thankless job, but he feels he has to do it. The book really is a one-man show. It focuses almost exclusively on the title character.

Here’s the thing, though… a lot of galactic history is given, which, while interesting, really isn’t necessary unless the book is going to be part of a series (thereby giving it purpose it currently lacks), but none is provided for Rook. This means that the reader has no idea why he should suddenly decide on a course of action that is obviously presented as a breach of character. About 65% in there is a little bit of internal dialogue (should that be monologue if he is talking to himself?) about it, but how he feels about his actions still doesn’t explain why he took them in the first place. This makes the book feel pointless…or rather beginning and endless. The reader doesn’t know what is being built up to or when it has been accomplished.

I have considered the possibility that the story is actually an allegory of how small one man’s efforts are to the whole, even when he is exceptionally well trained and giving his whole. Like Rook no matter how hard one tries, 99.999% of the world (galaxy in this case) won’t know you exist, even fewer will know what you sacrifice, and everything just keeps moving along regardless.

Now, having said all of that I have to praise Shury’s writing skill. The book is incredibly well written. The fight scenes are exciting, the plot engrossing, and the technology and galactic history well thought out. There is even a timeline at the end. If this were a longer piece or part of a bigger whole, it would have seemed more important. But it is clear that Shury took some time to really establish the back story to this story, and I, for one, would be really interested in reading more.

Book Review of Grid Traveler Trilogy, by J. Carrell Jones

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Grid Traveler TrilogyAuthor, J. Carrell Jones sent me a paperback copy of his novel, Grid Traveler Trilogy. I’ve had it for months, but I’ve put off reading it because it doesn’t have any other reviews. I don’t like to be first, in case I don’t like a book and there aren’t any other reviews to balance things out. But I’m so conscious of the fact that it costs authors money to post paper copies that I’m starting to feel guilty now. So, I finally gave in and read it.

Description from Goodreads:
Long ago we were visited by aliens. They shared knowledge and told us stories of life. They showed us magick and made us believe. Then one day they left. We wondered what happened to them. We searched the skies . . . Through the years we performed “magick” hoping they would return. Epochs passed and we went searching for them to discover proof the Elders and Ancient Ones existed. Toward the end of the last war a hero fell from grace. This is the story of Sean Blakemore and his path to redemption. This is where our journey beings. Grid Traveler Trilogy contains the first three Grid Traveler eBooks: Distant Reality, Alien Shores, and Lines Crossed.

Review:
This single book contains three ‘acts’ or episodes (Distant Reality, Alien Shores, Lines Crossed). Before I get into the real review let me address the episodic nature of the book. The whole thing is very Star Trek-like—lots of orders to the helm and such—but also, despite being interconnected, each act reads and feels like watching a single, 52 minute episode of one of the television shows. It has a basic beginning, brief middle, quick wrap up and an end. Everything happens quickly. Considering the writer is wearing a Star-Trek (I believe) the New Generation costume in his author bio picture, I can’t imagine these similarities are accidental. I’ll stop short of calling it fan-fiction, but the Johnson does often feel very much like the Enterprise.

For the most part the writing was pretty good. The POVs did frequently shift very abruptly and on occasion it fell into the habit of using names and titles too often. You know what I mean, when every time a person is addressed the sentence starts with the persons name. No one does this in real life and it stands out in written form.

There were also times when it felt naively good-natured and, therefore, unrealistic. When the two tendencies coincided it shattered the readers’ ability to submerge themselves in the story—such as when Sean decided to forgive everyone in Act One, or in Act Two, when Dr. Logger stated, “Sean has told me that his Command staff must not be excluded from any information, members or not. If I hadn’t witnessed how this ship operates under extreme conditions I would have objected to a request like that. But after witnessing first hand, I have no objection to telling you any and everything.” Yea, she’s just gonna give up hundreds of years of secrecy just like that? However, this was the exception rather than the norm. It also happens to be a pet peeve of mine, so I couldn’t not mention it.

On the whole, I thought women tended to come off poorly, as manipulative, prone to freeze under pressure, or just go power mad (occasionally all three). I mention it not only because I found it unfortunate, but also because I think it will affect who the book appeals to. You see, I think the Star-Trek comparison might bring in the male crowd (as would the cover and book description), but the amount of romance/sex will probably appeal to the female crowd. Unfortunately, both will also possibly be put off by the other.

My point is that the sex seemed out of place, in two ways. In the beginning, the romance was very fast. It was too fast to be realistic. Think PNR insta-love. Then later on, by Act Three, Sean had developed a harem, a fickle libido and the sex was gratuitous and disruptive to the plot. Go ahead, imagine Star Trek and then throw in a couple orgy and/or lesbian sex scenes. It kind of looses some of it’s integrity, don’t you think?

It completely didn’t fit the genre and it is therefore unclear who the intended reader is. Is the book intended for romance and erotic readers, who would be predominantly female, or hard science fiction fans, who would be mainly male? Of course there is flex in either direction. Generalities are always dangerous, but you probably get my point. The question is especially important given that there is no indication that this is a romantic or erotic novel in the description.

Despite it’s muddied genre classification, I did enjoy many aspects of the story. A lot of the characters were a lot of fun. Sean was wonderfully loyal and steadfast to his crew and I REALLY enjoyed some of the crew’s quirks. I was especially fond of the constant running pools and the importance of food. Cookie was arguably the most important person on board. The mixing of Wicca and Science was an interesting plot device and, despite leaving enough of an opening for future books, I wasn’t left with a precipitous cliffhanger. Not a bad read.