Tag Archives: science fiction

Daughter Moon

Book Review: Daughter Moon, by @hg47

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Daughter Moon, by the mysterious @hg47. I for real bought this one. It wasn’t even free on Amazon. 

I normally start with a description of the book, but Daughter Moon has a ridiculously long (though accurate) synopsis which can be found here. I’ll sum it up by saying that an ace hacker is sent on a suicide mission to save a techno-goddess stranded in time. Then is forced to face an alien invasion, political infighting, and a whole horde of nanobots…not to mention a planet of horny virgins.

Review:
Oh wow, this is some serious hard sic-fi right here. I might even stretch it to speculative fiction. Either way it covers a lot of ground, from Dworkin’s `all sexual penetration is rape’ to Newtonian physics and functional nanotechnology…not to mention time travel. This book takes some thought to read though. I strongly recommend reading it, but not when there are too many distractions about. It would be easy to get lost in the multiple time-lines and overlapping ‘Direct Interface Lifetimes.’ You want time available to think through the information presented to you and appreciate the detailed science that the story is interlaced with. A lot of research must have gone into the technical writing. Whomever @hg47 is in real life, he/she has no shortage of education. (Unless he/she is just a simple genius. You never know.) The bibliography (yea there is one) kept my internal social scientist happy and lit my physicist husband’s eyes aglow.

But it’s also funny, though in a subtle kind of way. For example, a discussion of the works of Kate Gödel (a feminized reference to famed physicist Kurt Gödel) while the villainized Einstein got to keep his masculinity….Spielberg and Shakespeare, well maybe. I also found it endlessly amusing to spot all of the future huwomanity’s idolizations of famed feminists: the Shere Hite shuttle, Simone de Beauvoir museum, Andrea Dworkin and Avital Ronell ships, classic…or would undoubtedly be for a race of socially superior women. The use of feminized language (huwomanity, womanoeuvred, etc) did take some getting used to, but it works.

If you like your Sci-fi with a hard edge this is the book for you. The writing reminded me a lot of Heinlein with a little Douglas Adams humour thrown in for good measure. Some of the AIs even reminded me of Marvin at times. Seriously, if you’re into the genre pick it up.

The Demon of Synar

Book Review of The Demon of Synar, by Donna McDonald

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I grabbed Donna McDonald‘s The Demon Of Synar from the KDP free list.

Too long description from Amazon:
Being captain of his own rescue ship is the kind of life Captain Liam Synar always dreamed of living. Being a master of his family’s hereditary demon was never in his plans because his brother had been trained for the purpose. Yet what choice did his father have when Conor’s evil came to light? Reluctant or not, Liam is the only Synar left to rule Malachi. Now his exiled brother hunts him to capture the demon while Liam stays on the run and saves Peace Alliance ambassadors in his spare time. As if that isn’t enough trouble to handle, his mate, Ambassador Ania Looren, now unknowingly hosts his family’s demon inside her body. Liam sent Malachi into her to save her life after Conor’s men almost killed her. And though Liam hadn’t wanted to, there had been no choice but to abandon her two years ago. His plan of keeping both her and the demon safe from Conor had worked, but his success at hiding what he’d done has finally reached an end. His next rescue has to be his estranged mate before Conor finally figures out the truth.

After accepting only one mate in her long life, Ambassador Ania Looren is now wishing the number had remained at zero forever. Mating Captain Liam Synar is turning out to be the worst mistake she ever made. Something happened after Liam abandoned her, something more than just the pain of losing her chosen male from her life. Something about his absence has stripped away the peaceful enlightenment she struggled years to achieve. Now she can’t meditate, can’t pray, and her compassion for other creatures seems to be dying. She is becoming again the kind of person she’s spent her existence trying not to be. On top of that, she’s been accused of murdering three males who attacked her and her family. She doesn’t even remember what happened that day. Now Liam is back and demanding she go with him to his ship. What choice does she have? Ania reluctantly agrees because it’s a better fate than being arrested and put through social reconditioning on her planet. The half life she’s been living for two years is no more worth keeping than her mating commitment to a male who obviously hadn’t wanted her after all.

Review:
The Demon of Synar is not what I expected at all. From the synopsis, I thought it would be a paranormal romance of sorts (albeit set in space), maybe even an M/M romance since Malachi is obviously male. It is neither of these things. I suspect there will be more romance in future books, but there is almost none in this one. Despite that, I really like the story, the characters, and their special differences. It’s fast-paced and engrossing.

What I didn’t like is that the book is the first in a series, but at 125 pages it barely scratches the surface. With multiple planets, species with different abilities, and then all of the personal drama that makes up the plot it is far from complete. Even skipping two very important years in the beginning the book still ends with what is essentially the beginning of the story. You meet the characters, become familiar with the environment, and come to terms with the challenge…and then it ends…on a solemn declaration of the task at hand no less. As a bait and switch, it’s pretty effective, though. It’s well-written and engaging, so I really want to know what happens. Undoubtedly, I’ll end up buying the second (probably more) in order to satiate the need to see it through and enjoy every word of it. But no matter how much I enjoy the story there is something that rankles me about having to buy two books to read one story.

Addendum: Reviews for the second and third books can be found on Goodreads:

The Demon Master’s Wife
The Siren’s Call

Book Review of Rogue Hunter: Quest of the Hunter, by Kevis Hendrickson

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Author, Kevis Hendrickson, sent me an e-copy of the sci-fi novel Rogue Hunter: Quest of the Hunter

Description from Goodreads:
Zyra Zanr is the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. Criminals everywhere cower at her name. During the attempt to capture a notorious fugitive, she stumbles onto a conspiracy to murder the senators of the InterGalactic Alliance. Behind this plot is a clandestine force seeking to destroy not only the InterGalactic Alliance, but mankind as well.War looms on the horizon as Zyra collides with this deadly force threatening to rock the very foundations of time and space. Zyra’s quest to uncover the mastermind behind this plot will pit her against an evil menace beyond her wildest imagination. Only Zyra can save humanity from an impending holocaust. Victory will mean the salvation of the human race. Failure will mean the end of all that Zyra holds dear.

Review:

Zyra Zanr is one tough cookie. She is willing to tackle challenges on a galactic scale with almost no-one covering her back and manages to survive time and time again. Rogue Hunter: Quest of the Hunter tells her story admirably. It starts on a high note and maintains it throughout. Zyra is an interesting character and I loved the men in her life. They each have a little something to appreciate about them. There are a few too many ‘and then she suddenly saw a …’ — insert miraculously placed laundry shoot to dive down, convenient atmospheric control panels to change air content and kill pursuing aliens, willing pilot to rescue you at the last second, etc. Similarly, Zyra’s talents seemed to be almost boundless. She is faster, stronger, smarter than almost everyone else. While I accept that as the ‘Grande Dame Bounty Hunter’ that is to be expected, credibility is stretch a little too thin when she and her unaltered equipment are still hacking computer 300 years in the future. Does technology not progress in the future universe?

There is a pretty drastic shift in the book and plot about half-way through and I don’t feel like the second half holds up as well as the first. This is largely because [without giving too much away] she looses contact with all of her friends leaving almost no-one for her to interact with. Therefore the story becomes much more heavily dependent on description of feelings, thoughts and actions than on the direct interaction of characters. Despite this, a lot of ground is covered and the action continues. This is the first in a series of books focusing on Zyra. (At least I think it is the first. There is definitely room for prequels.) Arcs are left open and there are definitely unanswered questions at the end. But there is more than enough here to keep the reader interested. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next instalment.