Tag Archives: sci-fi

Book Review of Autumn Dawn’s No Words Alone (Sparks, #1)

Leave a reply

No Words Alone

I grabbed Autumn Dawn‘s Science Fiction Romance, No Words Alone, off of the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
As the only woman in a team of marooned explorers, whom do you trust–your friends…or your enemy?

When Xera is stranded on a desert planet with a hostile crew and a cadre of murdering aliens, her friends aren’t who she thinks they are. As the translator, she’s the only one who can forge a truce. As the only woman, she’s the prize they lust for, and when her captain turns on her, she’s going to need the help of her enemies to escape his wrath.

Because on this inhospitable world, the warlike Scorpio were her only chance. Looking into the fiery eyes of their handsome leader, Xera saw a nobility and potency she’d never before encountered–a reaction she knew her fellow humans would despise. A future with Commander Ryven was…something to consider. But first they had to survive.

Review:
For the most part I enjoyed this book. It starts out by introducing us to Xera and her crew mates. They’re in a bit of a tight spot, having crash-landed on a hostile planet with the enemy. It’s tense, but the two groups need each-other to survive. It all felt a little reminiscent of the movie Pitch Black really—the beasts come out at night and all. Shortly thereafter Xera’s thoughts, quite reasonably, turn to her very specific danger as the only woman among a group of unknown, probably dangerous alien males and the definitely not all together trustworthy men of her own crew. Lucky for Xera the enemy captain, Ryven, seems to have a soft spot for women and sees to her safety.

I had a few issues though. I say Xera’s fears were reasonable and they were (almost any woman would recognise them), but part of me had to wonder how likely it would be for a woman to be on the crew in the first place if the risk was so real. There really is something to be said for not PUTTING YOURSELF into dangerous situations. Ryven was wonderful. He was smart, ruthless, kind, and loyal. He seemed to understand human nature enough to recognise the signs of danger in Xera’s crew. The problem was there wasn’t any reason he should understand human nature. He’s a Scorpio and Scorpio men apparently aren’t anything like human men.

I liked this beginning far better than the rest of the book if I’m honest. The beginning is Sci-fi, the rest is predominantly romance. Yes they go out on the occasional space ship and encounter the occasional hostile alien, but it’s mostly about Xera, Ryven and the process of Xera settling into her new life with Ryven. I like a good romance as much as the next person but this one has all the hallmarks of being too positive. Too positive? Yes, too positive. A totally hot, kind, considerate, rich, heir to government falls in love with Xera on sight, then rescues her and takes her home to his wonderful family, who welcome her with open arms. She helps the downtrodden princess, thumbs her nose at local gender expectations without repercussions, and despite being an alien from a trespassing race is accepted by the populace at large. Granted, she wasn’t really given any choice in the matter of marriage, but could it really all of been so painless? She never even bothered to fight it.

The problem with narratives of this sort is that you know in advance that nothing really bad is going to happen. Everything will work out in her favour one way or another, be it realistic or not. That takes a lot of the suspense out of the story. I also was extremely saddened to think that even after humanity colonises the stars basic patriarchal attitudes towards women and sexual virtue would still hold such a strangle hold on Xera.

Having made my complaints I have to reiterate that I did enjoy the read. I liked almost all of the Scorpio men. Xera was easy to relate to, and the book was well written, without too many editorial mishaps. If I see the sequel on the free list I’ll definitely grab them.

Book Review of Christine d’Abo’s No Quarter

Leave a reply

No QuarterI’ve been on a real erotica and M/M kick lately so I grabbed Christine d’Abo‘s No Quarter from the Amazon KDP list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
When bounty hunter Gar is given a simple locate-and-retrieve mission, he’s convinced it’s a waste of his skills. His success rate is legendary, and this assignment is almost too easy.

There isn’t a more prolific space pirate in the galaxy than Captain Faolan. When he walks into a bar with a proposition heavy in mind, he’s not expecting anything to go wrong.

Forced from his solitary existence to work with Faolan, Gar can’t deny his need and desire for a man who he should put in prison. When the hunter becomes the hunted, Gar must learn to put his faith in a man he doesn’t know, or run the risk of ending up dead.

Review:
Though I think it probably should have been titled No Quarters, this was an entertaining enough book. The sex was practically molten it was so hot. I mean like really smexy and there is a lot of it. I really liked both Gar and Faolan (much more in the beginning than in the end though). The plot was engaging and the writing fine.

But I also had a few issues with the story. To begin with there was the fairly drastic change in attitude that both men took in order to fall into each-others arms the first few times. One minute their at each-others throats, amped up and barley restraining themselves from murdering each-other, the next their having hot passionate sex. This I could buy (given the extenuating circumstances) except that they were suddenly tender, considerate lovers. I would have at least expected angry sex, but no, it was all soft embraces and ‘I’ll take care of you’. Then there was Mace. What are the chances of that happening? Realistically almost none, but paradoxically I also found it painfully predictable. The same could be said for the bad guy. Could he really have been responsible for ALL OF THAT?

This was a fairly erotic M/M read, but at it’s core it really is a romance. Two lonely, broken men find each-other and heal each-other’s wounds. I have to admit I preferred them hard and broken to romantic and fragile, but that’s just me really. I’m not a firm believer of the requisite HEA. As a Amazon freebie I was more than happy with it. I even considered getting the sequels, but their pricey for their length so I opted instead to see if they ever comes up for free.

Book Review of Robin T. Popp’s Too Close to the Sun

Leave a reply

Too Close to the Sun

I picked Robin T. Popp‘s romantic space opera, Too Close to the Sun up off of the KDP free list. At the time of posting it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
Hunted and on the run, galactic smuggler Angel Torrence stole a ship to escape capture, not realizing until too late that the ship’s computer, not she, was in control. With its disembodied voice, arrogant, bossy and sounding very male, it blared out of the Icarus’ control panel, not to thank her for rescuing him and his ship from the terrorist attack, but to instruct her to set a course for the most perilous planet in the known universe. 

On the riskiest mission of his career, Colonel Nicoli Romanof had allowed his life essence and his physical form to be separated. And the Harvesters had taken the bait; his body. Now he needed the cocky pilot who’d stolen his vessel to help him retrieve his person and destroy the deadly race of aliens. Then he discovered the young pilot was a woman and he kissed his chances of success goodbye. 

When Nicoli refused her assistance because of her gender, Angel would have moved heaven and earth to prove she was up to the task. But she never expected the colonel’s physique to be so magnificent or his heart to be so courageous. When a passion she couldn’t deny flared between them, she wondered if they’d found love or flown…Too close to the sun

Review (with slight spoilers):
This book was all right. It had some things I really liked and some that I literally scoffed at. On the plus side, Angel was independent and fearless. She was a heroine in her own right. There were some really funny little side comments in the book that made me laugh. Nicoli was a sexy, honor-bound male who was more than willing to put his life on the line to do the right thing and protect those he cared about. You have to appreciate that. The book also presented an interesting take on what it means to be ‘free.’ Thus, the title of both the book and Nicoli’s ship is clever.

On the negative side, this is a case of insta-love to the extreme, initially based on NOTHING more than appearances. I mean NOTHING. In both cases, they (Nicoli and Angel) fell irrevocably in lust with the body of the other when it wasn’t even inhabited by their consciousness or life essence and without knowing it was the other person. So literally just their naked body. But the reader is led to believe that true love could bloom from this very quickly. I found that a little hard to swallow.

While Angel is a strong-willed heroine who rescued Nicoli as often as he rescued her, she never had to rescue him because he had simply put himself in pointless danger or done something stupid. Example: lose her way in the dark (in her own home world), step in a crevice, and twist her ankle. Really!? That move alone almost negates enough respectable heroineness to put her in bimbo territory. Lastly, everyone has a happy ending. I know, that should be a good thing right? But how realistic is it? Examples: The antagonist has been working toward his carefully laid plan for a very, very long time, and then he suddenly lets it all fall apart for no apparent reason. He suddenly can’t keep his cool and does irrational things in public, giving himself away. Why, or rather why now? Then after Angel and Nicoli defeat this bad guy (or rather are present when he defeats himself) a benevolent leader takes over. But there is no mention of what happened to the previous leader, who wasn’t the big bad. I can’t imagine he just suddenly decided to peacefully pass the reigns to another….mysterious happy ending. Plus, everyone pairs off perfectly. It’s all just a little too clean for me.

The writing was fine, and the book ended with a teaser of the next one, Dark Side of the Sun. It looked interesting enough to be worth reading. So, all-in-all an alright read.