Death Game
Summary: The Team goes to a new world, gets split up and beat up, and discovers that all isn't right in this isolated fuedal society when they get caught up in the Death Games.
Review:
Unlike most of the tie-in novels I've read from most of the shows I've followed, this one is a keeper for me. I really liked it. It made me cringe, laugh out loud, and feel for the characters. The characters were all true to canon to me.
It started right in the middle of the action and if you like Shep Whumping (getting bruised up) you'll probably like this one because he gets a concussion on page one and Teyla spends the whole book with a dislocated shoulder. Ouch!
Secondary characters get nice nods in the book, including: Cadman, Lorne, Zelenka and Carson. I thought they were all well-done. Most of the "issues" with tie-in novels stem from the feeling that the characters aren't true to the actors' portrayals or that the story deviates from established canon. In this story I personally couldn't point to anything that I could say didn't follow both or couldn't be justified to follow both.
I really liked Zelenka's stories. They brought his character a lot of depth and strength too. His interplay with Ronon was realistic to the show, for me, and often funny.
The bad? Some people may not like the backstory the author invented for Sheppard, though it does fit pretty well with his character and I liked most of it. Others have mentioned wondering why Carson would fly a Jumper instead of Lorne, but that didn't bother me. I chalk it up to Carson needing to practice sometime and since he was going on the mission anyway, Weir probably told him he had to do it. Just my thoughts though.
All in all I enjoyed this one so much more than the other SGA books I've read, admittedly I've only read three others. Something I intend to rectify after finishing Bark! I do own half a dozen or so of the SGA books and want to do a marathon. But I may only be able to do one or two more before January and another challenge.
>>>>>>>>>>>
I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916
Summary: In 1916 the first ever shark attacks on humans off the north-East Coast of America occurred. By some fluke of streams and bays, a shark or two also made their way inland and killed a couple of people. This book is the fictionalization of those true happenings. It's YA.
Review:
This is a very good book for a ten-year-old. Mine liked it enough to beg me to read it. I had no idea until I finished that it was based on a true story. The author did a great job making the situation and the characters come to life. I cared about the hero. It also has a bit of the lesson about not crying wolf in it.
Overall, it was good for the kids.
Currently reading:
Bark! by Darrel Bain and SGA: Angelus.
I decided to save the rest of my SFRs To Read until next year since Rae Lori is already setting up a 2011 SFR Reading Challenge. Go Rae!
If you want to see my To Read list or Have Read list look me up on Goodreads.com There're too many books to list here and I don't even have half of my boxed books listed.
Happy reading, everyone!
Monday, November 29, 2010
All Done! Whoo hoo!
I finished my committment to the 2010 SFR Reading Challenge! For a while there it was challenging to find time to read.
So, of course, after I finished Star-crossed the kids decided to give me time to read--stories they picked out for me.
Since finishing the challenge I've now read:
I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916
Stargate Atlantis: Death Game
And I'm nearly finished with Darrell Bain's "Bark". Talk about a weird but intriguing story. Lots of cussing. Lots and lots, but I love the heroic weiner dog and the idea that if aliens invade they won't walk just walk up on two feet. LOL. Hard start to the story but once I got into it it's really thought-provoking and funny.
I may as well do short reviews for those also.
So, of course, after I finished Star-crossed the kids decided to give me time to read--stories they picked out for me.
Since finishing the challenge I've now read:
I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916
Stargate Atlantis: Death Game
And I'm nearly finished with Darrell Bain's "Bark". Talk about a weird but intriguing story. Lots of cussing. Lots and lots, but I love the heroic weiner dog and the idea that if aliens invade they won't walk just walk up on two feet. LOL. Hard start to the story but once I got into it it's really thought-provoking and funny.
I may as well do short reviews for those also.
#25 Star-crossed
By Marilynn Byerly
Teaser:
Earthman Tristan Mallory discovers that on Arden, men are sex slaves. He has no intention of belonging to anyone, not even beautiful Mara d'Jorel.
Mara despises the harem system and has refused to participate, but her heart won't allow anyone else to own Tristan, To give Tristan the freedom her world denies, she must risk everything, her reputation, home, and her freedom and life. Her greatest risk is losing Tristan's love to another woman.
Tristan's friend Kellen is acquired as a bed slave by vicious Cadaran d'Hasta, head of Arden's Internal Security, who has used the lives and deaths of thousands of men to gain her power. Intelligent and amoral, she'll do anything to destroy him and Tristan and any woman weak enough to love them. With the help of a local intelligent alien who resembles an Earth cat and Dorian Dalia, Tristan's long-time romantic interest, Tristan, Mara, and Kellen escape the planet. Through the vast emptiness of space and the most primitive of human colonies, they seek freedom, but Cadaran is always one step behind them.
Review:
This love story had a totally different feel than the last one I read. It's more romance, and darker, with more sex spelled out and some torture to boot. This is a twist on the "planet full of women with hardly any men" theme. Unlike Catherine Asaro in Last Hawk, Ms. Byerly spells out some of the sexual torture until you really see what a sick and twisted person the villain is. Fortunately, that makes up a small part of the book and she does show the ramifications on the poor guy for the rest of the story. PTSD, anyone?
The hero, Tristan, and his friend Kellen, I liked immediately. The heroines took longer to grow on me but I ended up liking them too. I even liked many of the secondary characters.
My favorite character? The Rab-cat, Floppy. He was cool.
This story isn't very fast-paced. The relationships develop realistically over time. There's romance and some action, fights and spaceships, a mystery and a conspiracy, betrayal and revenge, sex and hope.
It was good. I liked it. I won't reread it but I will give the author's other works a read too. And I would revisit the same universe again because the worldbuilding was good.
The bad? The editing was awful. Sorry. Misspelled and missing words. And in my ebook copy Chapter 21 ended in mid-word mid-sentence. "... h-" Nothing.
For me parts of the story were really slow, and then the villain was not "on-screen" for quite a while. I did wonder why the women of the colony didn't figure out the mystery earlier and why it took an alien man to figure out how to talk to the intelligent indigenous species, but not bothered enough to not want to finish reading.
It did have a HEA and a satisfactory ending. The romance was good. The SF was good and didn't dominate the story. Overall I liked it, but not a keeper for me, more of a jumping off point to more of the author's works.
Teaser:
Earthman Tristan Mallory discovers that on Arden, men are sex slaves. He has no intention of belonging to anyone, not even beautiful Mara d'Jorel.
Mara despises the harem system and has refused to participate, but her heart won't allow anyone else to own Tristan, To give Tristan the freedom her world denies, she must risk everything, her reputation, home, and her freedom and life. Her greatest risk is losing Tristan's love to another woman.
Tristan's friend Kellen is acquired as a bed slave by vicious Cadaran d'Hasta, head of Arden's Internal Security, who has used the lives and deaths of thousands of men to gain her power. Intelligent and amoral, she'll do anything to destroy him and Tristan and any woman weak enough to love them. With the help of a local intelligent alien who resembles an Earth cat and Dorian Dalia, Tristan's long-time romantic interest, Tristan, Mara, and Kellen escape the planet. Through the vast emptiness of space and the most primitive of human colonies, they seek freedom, but Cadaran is always one step behind them.
Review:
This love story had a totally different feel than the last one I read. It's more romance, and darker, with more sex spelled out and some torture to boot. This is a twist on the "planet full of women with hardly any men" theme. Unlike Catherine Asaro in Last Hawk, Ms. Byerly spells out some of the sexual torture until you really see what a sick and twisted person the villain is. Fortunately, that makes up a small part of the book and she does show the ramifications on the poor guy for the rest of the story. PTSD, anyone?
The hero, Tristan, and his friend Kellen, I liked immediately. The heroines took longer to grow on me but I ended up liking them too. I even liked many of the secondary characters.
My favorite character? The Rab-cat, Floppy. He was cool.
This story isn't very fast-paced. The relationships develop realistically over time. There's romance and some action, fights and spaceships, a mystery and a conspiracy, betrayal and revenge, sex and hope.
It was good. I liked it. I won't reread it but I will give the author's other works a read too. And I would revisit the same universe again because the worldbuilding was good.
The bad? The editing was awful. Sorry. Misspelled and missing words. And in my ebook copy Chapter 21 ended in mid-word mid-sentence. "... h-" Nothing.
For me parts of the story were really slow, and then the villain was not "on-screen" for quite a while. I did wonder why the women of the colony didn't figure out the mystery earlier and why it took an alien man to figure out how to talk to the intelligent indigenous species, but not bothered enough to not want to finish reading.
It did have a HEA and a satisfactory ending. The romance was good. The SF was good and didn't dominate the story. Overall I liked it, but not a keeper for me, more of a jumping off point to more of the author's works.
#24 Taking Liberty
Author: Jodi Redford
Teaser:
"From zero to naked at warp speed…
Rini Campell’s one shot at keeping her field agent position with the United Galaxies’ repo department means bringing in the spaceship Liberty. Piece of cake. Except she didn’t count on the pilot still being on board. Or being buck naked.
Lucus Granger doesn’t have time to deal with a pain-in-the-ass repo agent. Not when he’s minutes away from dropping off a cargo haul for the psychotic alien dictator of Aquatica. Though he figures it’s just about the stupidest bargain he’s ever made, he allows Rini to tag along for the flight.
Big mistake.
Stranded in enemy territory, they find themselves fighting a battle on two fronts. Against a creepy dictator who’d as soon drown them as look at them. And against a blazing attraction hotter than the godforsaken planet itself. For these two wary hearts, love could bloom in the desert…if it doesn’t kill them first."
Review:
I adored this book. The voice is strong and it reminded me immediately of Firefly. I've read a lot of books this year and this one is one of the few keepers that I intend to reread. I will buy any other story in this universe because it was so captivating for me.
Despite what the teaser says, there's not much nakedness. LOL. And it's more toward the sweet than the erotic, though the sex is not behind closed doors. There's plot, wit, banter, action, a strong heroine, a dashing and interesting hero, and a bad guy who's not horrible, but bad enough.
The story is well written and caught me from page one. The only time the really strong voice slipped for me was during the sex, but that may be just me. All in all, for me this story Rocked with a capital R.
The bad? Perhaps a few moments of trying too hard to be funny, and Rini's parents were a bit too predictable or overused to me, but the rest of the story is so good in my opinion that I can overlook that. The editing was good too.
Teaser:
"From zero to naked at warp speed…
Rini Campell’s one shot at keeping her field agent position with the United Galaxies’ repo department means bringing in the spaceship Liberty. Piece of cake. Except she didn’t count on the pilot still being on board. Or being buck naked.
Lucus Granger doesn’t have time to deal with a pain-in-the-ass repo agent. Not when he’s minutes away from dropping off a cargo haul for the psychotic alien dictator of Aquatica. Though he figures it’s just about the stupidest bargain he’s ever made, he allows Rini to tag along for the flight.
Big mistake.
Stranded in enemy territory, they find themselves fighting a battle on two fronts. Against a creepy dictator who’d as soon drown them as look at them. And against a blazing attraction hotter than the godforsaken planet itself. For these two wary hearts, love could bloom in the desert…if it doesn’t kill them first."
Review:
I adored this book. The voice is strong and it reminded me immediately of Firefly. I've read a lot of books this year and this one is one of the few keepers that I intend to reread. I will buy any other story in this universe because it was so captivating for me.
Despite what the teaser says, there's not much nakedness. LOL. And it's more toward the sweet than the erotic, though the sex is not behind closed doors. There's plot, wit, banter, action, a strong heroine, a dashing and interesting hero, and a bad guy who's not horrible, but bad enough.
The story is well written and caught me from page one. The only time the really strong voice slipped for me was during the sex, but that may be just me. All in all, for me this story Rocked with a capital R.
The bad? Perhaps a few moments of trying too hard to be funny, and Rini's parents were a bit too predictable or overused to me, but the rest of the story is so good in my opinion that I can overlook that. The editing was good too.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
#23 Nebula's Music
Yay, my twenty-third book in the SFR Challenge! Nearly done!
Nebula's Music
Author Aubrie Dionne
Pages: 94.
This is the story of human-cyborg, Nebula, and her journey of self-discovery. About years after her creation she begins to experience memories from her donor's prior life. These memories involve a captured rebel fighter who is being held on the ship she works on.
Radian, a rebel fighter, is the former fiance of the woman from whom Nebula was created. He's vowed to avenge her death and rescue her sister, who was captured by the alien Gryhponites as slave labor.
Though Nebula is no longer the woman Radian loved, she's drawn to him and joins his mission to rescue his love's sister.
**
Review: MINOR SPOILER ALERT!!!
Overall, I enjoyed this story even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The cover rocks. It's beautiful! Loved that. The characters are interesting. Nebula is an accomplished pianist and excellent at her job. Her self-discovery is steady. Her memories are realistic and poignant. I liked the secondary characters. Some were really likable.
Radian is a good hero. He's dashing and committed and thoroughly in love with the not-so-wonderful woman Nebula once was.
I did feel the story was a bit rushed, as if the author was told to finish in 100 pages but needed 150. Neb and Radian fell for each other a bit too fast, even given their past. Others were too accomodating and trusting of strangers to me. One secondary character, a boy of 15, acted and was treated more like my 4 year old than a teenager. That part pulled me out of the story, though it may not bother anyone else.
Nebula didn't live up to her full cyborg potential to me. She kept saying how she was stronger, faster, smarter, etc., than humans but then in some instances where she could have really shined she stood back and watched or it sounded like she was just doing what all the normal humans could. Most of her potential was used playing the piano or doing math. Again, it felt like some of this was cut out to make the story shorter.
I still liked the story. There was enough to keep me reading.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
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My only qualm about the technical aspects of the worldbuilding is who would create a space craft that splits in two and not put a control bridge on both parts? It's fun conflict but really? Would they do that?
My only qualm on the Romance side is that Radian basically admits he loves Nebula because she looks like the woman he once loved who, even her sister admits, wasn't very nice, didn't love him back and made accepting his proposal conditional to his letting her sister live with them. Neb remembers this too. Nebula's a lot nicer than her donor so it's no wonder he jumped at the chance to be with her.
END SPOILERS
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Qualms or not, I did enjoy most of the story and wanted to find out what would happen next. I would read another story set in this universe and I would read another story by this author.
Anna
Nebula's Music
Author Aubrie Dionne
Pages: 94.
This is the story of human-cyborg, Nebula, and her journey of self-discovery. About years after her creation she begins to experience memories from her donor's prior life. These memories involve a captured rebel fighter who is being held on the ship she works on.
Radian, a rebel fighter, is the former fiance of the woman from whom Nebula was created. He's vowed to avenge her death and rescue her sister, who was captured by the alien Gryhponites as slave labor.
Though Nebula is no longer the woman Radian loved, she's drawn to him and joins his mission to rescue his love's sister.
**
Review: MINOR SPOILER ALERT!!!
Overall, I enjoyed this story even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The cover rocks. It's beautiful! Loved that. The characters are interesting. Nebula is an accomplished pianist and excellent at her job. Her self-discovery is steady. Her memories are realistic and poignant. I liked the secondary characters. Some were really likable.
Radian is a good hero. He's dashing and committed and thoroughly in love with the not-so-wonderful woman Nebula once was.
I did feel the story was a bit rushed, as if the author was told to finish in 100 pages but needed 150. Neb and Radian fell for each other a bit too fast, even given their past. Others were too accomodating and trusting of strangers to me. One secondary character, a boy of 15, acted and was treated more like my 4 year old than a teenager. That part pulled me out of the story, though it may not bother anyone else.
Nebula didn't live up to her full cyborg potential to me. She kept saying how she was stronger, faster, smarter, etc., than humans but then in some instances where she could have really shined she stood back and watched or it sounded like she was just doing what all the normal humans could. Most of her potential was used playing the piano or doing math. Again, it felt like some of this was cut out to make the story shorter.
I still liked the story. There was enough to keep me reading.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
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~
~
~
~
~
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My only qualm about the technical aspects of the worldbuilding is who would create a space craft that splits in two and not put a control bridge on both parts? It's fun conflict but really? Would they do that?
My only qualm on the Romance side is that Radian basically admits he loves Nebula because she looks like the woman he once loved who, even her sister admits, wasn't very nice, didn't love him back and made accepting his proposal conditional to his letting her sister live with them. Neb remembers this too. Nebula's a lot nicer than her donor so it's no wonder he jumped at the chance to be with her.
END SPOILERS
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Qualms or not, I did enjoy most of the story and wanted to find out what would happen next. I would read another story set in this universe and I would read another story by this author.
Anna
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