Oh, I’ve had so much fun this month. I’ve been reading stories! Yes, fiction! Romantic fiction at that, too!
Transgression (City of God series)
R.S. Ingermanson
This is a time travel novel that falls under the science fiction genre rather than the romance genre (the two most common parent categories for time travels).
I was drawn to the story because the characters travel back to Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and his disciplines and I always find historical glimpses of that time and place fascinating. As a science fiction novel, the historical settings should be accurate. Sometimes, romance time travels gloss over the details.
I haven’t reached the time travel part yet, but even reading about modern Israel is absorbing.
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Primary Inversion
Catherine Asaro
I’m starting to read a lot of science fiction romance. It blends my two favourite genres, and depending on who wrote it, it can be a thumping good read.
Catharine Asaro has a science background and it shows in her novels, which are thoughtful, detail-rich stories, that also feature really interesting characters and universes. She also writes pretty good romances, too.
The only problem I had with this story is that she ended up with what I considered to be the wrong guy!
What do you think? Who do you think the heroine should have got?
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Grimspace
Ann Aquire
Like Primary Inversion (above), Grimspace is an older book, and considered something of a classic in SFR circles. Which is why I read both of them.
Grimspace was first released in 2008, which was right about when cyberpunk novels went ballistic, right along with movies like The Matrix. Suddenly SF and Fantasy characters everywhere were “jacking in” to wetware, hardware and software, all over the place.
Grimspace reflects that trend, but for all that, it was an interesting read and a very nice romance, too. It took me a while to get used to the first person, present-tense narrative, which is not one of my favourites. But it was worth the effort.
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Wanderlust
Ann Aquire
Because I enjoyed the first book so much, I got the second in the series.
I read it to the end, which is saying something: There’s a lot of books I simply can’t finish.
But I didn’t enjoy this one nearly as much as the first. There was an “anti-romance” which I can’t explain without spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. I also found the lead character had become whiny and pathetic. She picks up at the end, but I had grown to dislike her by then and really didn’t care what happened to her. Which is a shame, as the series had potential. I’m not tempted to read more.
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When Women Were Warriors
Catherine M. Wilson
This is a fantasy novel that might have a romance in it. I haven’t really started reading, although I did my usual dip and test run – a few pages to see if the writing itself would hold up.
And man, those first few pages were good! It’s the sort of poetic, rythmical writing that just draws you in deeper and deeper.
I’m looking forward to reading this one….
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