Tag Archives: science fiction

Book Review of Christine d’Abo’s No Quarter

I’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 Arshad Ahsanuddin’s Sunset (Pact Arcanum, #1)

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I grabbed Arshad Ahsanuddin’s Sunset (Pact Arcanum, #1) off of the KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:

By Day

Los Angeles, 2040. When the terrorist known as Medusa threatens to kill millions with a stolen nuclear bomb, Nick Jameson makes a fateful decision. He reveals himself on global television as a Daywalker – a vampire with a soul. To save Los Angeles, Nick exposes not only his own gifts but three separate cultures based on millennia-old magic.

By Night

The three metahuman races exist in careful balance, working to maintain a fragile peace. Nick and his fellow Daywalkers successfully master their natural bloodlust. The Sentinels, armed with both magic and steel, repress their warlike instincts. And even some Nightwalkers, normally their natural enemies, have deserted the Court of Shadows to join the triple alliance. Nick Jameson is deeply involved with two such Nightwalkers – handsome Lorcan and powerful Rory. Both men love Nick. But neither can protect the new Ambassador to Humanity from the events he has set in motion.

By the Sword

Jeremy Harkness was lured into Medusa’s service under false pretenses. A loner with no one and nothing to cling to, he was willing to die for his cause. But the night Medusa tried to obliterate Los Angeles, Jeremy met Nick Jameson, triggering the onset of his own psychic gifts. For Jeremy is the third race of metahuman, a Sentinel, born to kill the Nightwalkers with no quarter asked or offered. And neither Medusa nor the Court of Shadows will settle for peace when they can make war

Slightly spoilerish Review:

I don’t know that I’ve ever read anything quite like Ahsanuddin’s Sunset. It presents an extremely structured and well thought out metahuman society that lives alongside a future humanity. Honestly, I thought it was just a little too magically and scientifically advanced, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the fantasy. I’m so glad I did, because it was a lot of fun. I adored the characters. There was a lot of witty repartee that made me laugh, the fight scenes were tight and the adventure kept me on the edge of my seat.

What I find so unusual, however, is that I think it reads a lot like a series of interconnected vignettes. It’s not mind you, but with all of the temporal back and forth it feel that way…like watching the frames of a film go by slow enough to see each one. Snick, a new scene…snick, another one…snick, and another one. They all relate and move the story forward, but not in a smooth continuous flow. There are gaps between each one. This isn’t a criticism, just a comment on the stylised framework of the book. It works well, but is different. Once I was used to it I enjoyed it. I do think some of the characters’ depth is lost though. Important events are referred to, but as the story doesn’t cover a continuous stream from time A to time B they aren’t all relayed to the reader. Like the fact that Nick fought 47 duels to protect Jeremy and his honour, for example. It is discussed after the fact, but not shown. As a result I was really taken by surprise by Nick’s passionate desire to protect Jeremy. He had been off doing things that would have made that apparent, but the reader doesn’t know about it.

Similarly there are a number of details that make up the characters but are not particularly explored. A number of them appeared to have been quite famous in the humane world, but we don’t really know anything about that. Nick’s drug dependency could have been a big deal, but is glossed over. Prior to the events of this story Nick was apparently tortured horridly as well as suffered from a rare and extremely painful disorder that prompts him to seek out others of the same affliction. We know almost nothing of these things other than that they happened. Now, it’s a longish series, maybe some of this will be addressed in future books. I don’t know. But I was left wishing they had been been further explained. Of course, that would have made for a very long book.

All in all I really did enjoy it. It is well crafted (especially the world-building), entertaining, and enjoyable. What more could you ask for?

Book Review of J. Allan Anderson’s Hearing the Ankou’s Cart

Review:

Hearing the Ankou’s Cart is an awesome read if you like futuristic, space-based Sci-Fi. It is full of bright, full-blooded characters, human drama, Machiavellian corporate governments, mysterious enemies with questionable intents, and well thought out tech. I especially enjoyed this last aspect. It was easy to visualise how things worked.

Galant’s puppy-dog style over protectiveness was only improved by his ceaseless bravery. My heart went out to him more times than I could count. I also share a bit of his fear/respect of Murphy and could readily relate to this facet of his personality. The last thing I want is for my life to get too interesting. This is actually a bit of a mantra in my household.

Sybilla, on the other hand, often berated herself for cowardice I never saw. While she had almost no people skills she had enough courage and dogged determination to get things done…no matter how many times, or how badly she screwed them up the first time. I completely respect that. Her mangled English gave her a definite character trait, but it also left her feeling a little child-like.

I did feel like the book wrapped up a little too quickly and left a little too much opening in the end. I could easily see there being a follow-up in some distant future, though it is certainly a stand alone book. I highly recommend it.

I read it in ebook format and had a lot of trouble with the book itself. Roughly every third page (sometimes more frequently) it jumped to the end of the book or to some random future page. It was a lot like having someone constantly loosing your place for you. It got really frustrating. Unsure if the problem was with the book, Amazon, or my actual device I went to far as to cold boot my kindle and twice delete the book and downloaded it fresh from Amazon in an attempt to fix the problem. I never managed for revolve the issue. I just made a point to always know my page/location. This definitely detracted from the reading experience. But the fact that I persevered despite the challenge of constantly having to relocate my page speaks volumes for the quality of the story. I wanted to know what happened no matter what. I even went to far as to track down a prequel short story (Hellblazer) to garner a little more insight into the characters and story.

See Sadie Read

Sci-fi, fantasy, UF/PNR & LGBT+