J.L. Langley ~ My Fair Captain
From: Samhain Publishing

My Fair Captain is going Japanese!

News from Samhain is good they are launching into the Japanese market with some of their top titles. One just happens to be the SciFi Gay Romance from J.L. Langley ~ My Fair Captain.

Jamie Craig ~ Outcast Mine
From: Carina Press

In the night you hide from the madman
You’re longing to be
But it all comes out on the inside
Eventually

Knock twice
Rap with your cane
Feels nice
You’re out of the rain
We got your skinny girl
Here at the western world
Steely Dan ~ Here At The Western World

Zannie Adams ~ Hold
From: Ellora’s Cave

Are there any people who can understand
With just a little vision you can take my hand
Are there any people who can understand
With just a little vision you can take my hand
This is not the only Empire

I want to give love
I want to destroy
I want to break the rules and I want to reap the joy
I want to go high
I don’t want to go low
I don’t want to know the reasons why you had to go

Super 8 & Tab ~ Empire

I feel sorta strongly that I need to give credit where it is due when a ebook stands out to me as much as this one does. I don’t usually find myself saying things like that about a Straight Romance ebook and not usually even a Sci-Fi Romance because well you know they usually stick pretty close to whatever their reference material is making them just not all that unique or special. It’s like Japanese Anime movies and how many references to Blade Runner or Star Wars can you spot per scene.

BUT…

When a Straight Romance author references the ultra-violent Gay Romance from the HBO series OZ in a Sci-Fi of all things well I Teddypig salute you and want you to sit next to me in the proverbial hand basket. I mean it guys you have got to read this Sci-Fi Prison Romance! The feelings of pure awesome is just over flowing.

Now you might be saying… Teddypig if this is so spectacular why did you only give it a Grade B?

Well um, I hate what the writer did for about 1/3 of this ebook to be honest. The very beginning of it and the dragged out end of it to be exact. Zannie tries desperately to make our Hero and Heroine innocent as lambs in order to somehow sell the HEA better.

I don’t know, but if you remember anything about OZ you know Beecher was convicted for killing a kid while drunk driving and Keller was a serial killer freak and we the viewing audience still wanted them to have the HEA.

So NO Zannie Adams, NO I did not need to know that they were all that innocent and I did not even need to know where they finally ended up escaping to. You could have taken some of that information you dumped into the beginning and ending and added a couple more scenes to the awesomeness that is 2/3 of this book, which takes place in a dystopian space prison mind you, with some more touching Hallmark moments and finished it all off with them escaping to some uncertain future of freedom (Which is about all you can hope for in dystopia these days according to the end of Blade Runner) and I for one would have been a happy sappy pig.

Anyway, hell yes you get a solid Grade B for stirring my sick twisted soul.

Keep up that wickedly too cool for your peers sense of style and go break some more rules and I for one will stand lookout for you. I just wish there were a few less Gay Contemporary Romances and a few more of these gems in my TBR pile.

Sheryl Nantus ~ Blaze Of Glory
From: Samhain Publishing

Treva Harte ~ King In Check
From: Loose Id

Marion Zimmer Bradley ~ The Forbidden Circle
From: DAW

The Forbidden Tower (published 1977) is set in her well known world of Darkover and is the second book in the unofficially recognized Forbidden Tower “sub cycle”. Marion Zimmer Bradley never actually designated The Spell Sword, The Forbidden Tower (both found here in this newly published book called The Forbidden Circle) and The Bloody Sun as a true trilogy within the series but since she made the effort in 1979 to re-write The Bloody Sun with a new first chapter explaining how the events in The Forbidden Tower lead to the story found in The Bloody Sun… I for one, lump all three books together when talking about them. Now why did the publisher want to add to the confusion and call this The Forbidden Circle is beyond me but at least you are getting two of the three books.

Series wise, the most interesting thing about this grouping is way it tracks Marion as a writer The Spell Sword was written when Marion was 16 and is the first book about Darkover she ever wrote and the story’s simplicity reflects her age. The Bloody Sun is considered by fans the first “adult” Darkover novel that defined a style and a formula that would bring Marion a huge fan base. Placed smack dab in the middle, The Forbidden Tower is Marion at her peak writing skills and is a prime example of the writing done during her most creative period right before the 80′s. As a warning though, Marion Zimmer Bradley along with several other of the well known sci-fi series writers (Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey) follows an unfortunate rule in the fact that I stop recommending anything by the author after about oh 1981 or so. It may seem to be an arbitrary cut off date but take it from me, the golden era of Sci-fi fantasy series seems to end with the late 70′s in my opinion.

Our hero the lonely, misunderstood, man from outer space (typical Marion Zimmer Bradley trademark) Andrew Carr comes to Darkover and rescues the “damsel in distress”… and hey, this all was really gone over in The Spell Sword but you get a quick summary in The Forbidden Tower too. He ends up married to said “damsel in distress” Callista and living in her father’s castle with sister in law Ellemir and brother in law Damon, who stay over in the next room. Now if this all seems like the end to some children’s fairy tale and if you stop reading after The Spell Sword you would be correct in thinking that it all sounds pretty unexciting and well worn plot wise, no surprises there. This next book though, The Forbidden Tower then starts turning the whole “happily ever after” on it’s head while beating it severely around the head and shoulders till it screams for mercy.

Turns out that the “damsel in distress” is a highly trained telepath with a couple of serious sex issues and the other members in the family are telepathic too. Our poor heterosexual hero, farm boy, space man, Andrew Carr turns out to be telepathic also but he has no idea how an alien society like Darkover makes all this work. He has to come to grips with relatives who can read his every thought and every emotion as he learns more about the strange world he has chosen to live in and do all this while trying to fit himself into this noble alien family. While we are at it he also has to learn the politics, the expectations, and the cultural taboos and last but not least their sexuality.

Now notice; I told you that Andrew Carr was heterosexual and that the in-laws were in the next room and that they were all newly married and telepathic and teaching Andrew to be OK with all this? Um, well think about it and you will understand why I love this book. Pure pot boiler!

The Forbidden Tower in my opinion was Marion Zimmer Bradley at her peak writing skills in the 20 or so books she wrote in the Darkover series, what gets written about the Darkover society here is much more detailed than she had ever been up until this point and that is probably why she decided to rewrite the older book The Bloody Sun in 1979 in order to give it a more consistent flow with the world she evolved and elaborated on. The Forbidden Tower is more than just a sequel to a simplistic story she wrote at 16, it’s an exploration of how even in the fictional world she built the characters lives do not come with easy answers, convenient labels, and every decision has a sometimes unknown price even after the story ends. She also goes to great lengths to intelligently explain her worlds culture and I don’t think you can get more intimate culturally than learning about their sexuality and how they express it. The typical sci-fi cliche telepathy aspects provided Marion with a springboard for why the Darkovan culture is so alien in contrast to our own even though it is familiar on the surface but what she explores even sexually here is never graphic or vulgar like say your Robert Heinlein.

Now about this sexuality that gets talked about in the book… This is the only book in the whole series that contains more than a brief mention of how these Darkover people express sexuality in their married lives and only because they are having to explain these things to Andrew. I am not talking about out and out pornography just intelligent discussion of the facts not descriptions of the acts. In a nutshell, sexuality is simply an expression of intimacy and a persons sexual preference only designates the emotional needs not the physical events that may occur. In other words, on Darkover whatever gender you would choose to marry may not be the only gender you will ever have sex with. Especially if you have a truly intimate friendship with someone, it is accepted and also somewhat expected if you share such intimacy it will also be expressed sexually even with the same gender. Their society has a very fluid idea of sexuality that allows for those gray areas in life to exist and occasional events to happen without being absolutely traumatic to your sense of self or what others may think of you. Marion expresses this whole quagmire of complex and hard to define human sexuality so well that this unique perspective has stayed with me since I read this book many years ago. It made sense to me as a teenager and I still appreciate Marion’s thoughts about it all now.

The most memorable part of this whole book in my opinion is the reactions of our poor heterosexual hero, farm boy, space man, Andrew Carr in learning all this twisted and perverted stuff. Here he was playing the traditional story book role of macho hero and faithful husband only to find the culture he married into has an entirely different set of expectations of him. The scene I will never forget is close to the end of the book when Damon confronts Andrew after he gets used to the fact he likes the whole sharing a bed with the other couple setup and keys him into the fact that Damon (Another man!) is in that bed too and Andrew needs to get over that particular aspect.

What is hilarious in hindsight is Marion Zimmer Bradley was a woman writing sci-fi novels back when women were not supposed to do such things who also ended up writing more intelligent gay or bisexual male characters with a natural masculinity and believable motives and realistic relationships with other men and women than most of the “real” Gay authors of the time period. It is incredibly sad but since her death a lot of people are missing out on a very unique amalgamation of space ships and technology, and sword & sorcery (well OK… psychic, mental matrix magic, oh whatever!) done in a fashion that is quite entertaining even if it can seem that it is heavily borrowing from the typical pulp sci-fi genre. Give this “Happily Ever After” a shot you might like it with your M/M Romance.

Morgan Hawke ~ Fallen Star (Interstellar Service and Discipline 2)
From: Loose Id

Break the window
By the town hall
Listen the siren screams
There in the distance
Like a roll call
Of all the suburban dreams

Let’s take a ride
And run with the dogs tonight
In Suburbia
You can’t hide
Run with the dogs tonight
In Suburbia
Pet Shop Boys ~ Suburbia

Thank god they finally updated that cover. But blond? Really?

You all have probably read the review of Fallen Star with my good blog buddy LBea over at Nose In A Book. I love reviewing with LBea because for me it’s like taking a tour of the book and being able to share the high and low points with someone else around to pick out the parts you may have missed. LBea is also funny and insightful which makes it so effortless.

Now I think we hit a lot of things in the old review that people who go to read the book should be aware of. Fallen Star does have some parts to it that might cause issue. It has a heroine being captured and some non-consensual things going on through what turns into a Ménage Romance. Unlike all the double dicked surface resemblances to such (What I like to call) Shock Romances like Elizabeth Amber’s The Lords of Satyr this works. That Nicholas ewwwww I cringed through that whole dang book!

Morgan Hawke gets away with it by being a smart cookie. She might write a shocking scene but she always makes sure you can relate to the heroine going like “You did WHAT to me?” “I’m gonna kick your ass!” And it works! The reader never loses the fun of the read or loses wanting to know what happened next. It’s that smarts of making sure the reader continues to relate to the story that makes me come away from the book thinking I might not like everything but that Morgan Hawke is one smart writer. She could sell ice in the Arctic. The first book Victorious Star did not work as well as this one did but Morgan fixed all those issues I had.

“Isabeau?” The sweet and eerily familiar voice whispered poisonously from the corridor behind them. “Izzie Fallon?”
Fallon’s head came up in alarm. Every hair on her body stood at attention. There was no way in bleeding fury her boss’s pet assassin could be on this ship. She turned around to look back up the corridor. They couldn’t have let that nightmare of a cyborg onboard!
Metal struck hammer-blows against metal.
Sobehk jerked at her side. “What in bloody Chaos …?” He turned around to head up the corridor.
“No! Don’t!” Fallon grabbed Sobehk’s arm. “If it’s who I think it is, you’ll only make him attack you. You don’t stand a chance against him unarmed.”
The shriek of tearing metal followed. Shouts echoed down the corridor. Then wet crunches and choked screams.
Sobehk tensed. “What the fuck is going on?”
Fallon’s fingers tightened around Sobehk’s arm. “If we’re lucky, it’s nothing you guys can’t handle. If we’re not lucky, it’s a friend of mine.”
“Isabeau, that doesn’t make sense.”
A smallish, gangling, and completely naked human male came timidly down the hall. His face was plain, with ordinary brown eyes and a mop of bland blondish-brownish hair. He was one of those people you never looked twice at. He lifted his chin and moved his head from side to side. He appeared to be looking for something, or listening for something. A band of silver gleamed around his throat, and blood painted his bare arms almost to the shoulders.
Sobehk frowned and set his hand on Fallon’s shoulder. “Where in bloody Chaos are his handlers?”
Fallon stared at the blood-soaked arms and fought off a shiver. “They’re probably dead.”
“The collar is for controlling killing aggression …” Sobehk glanced down at her. “Is that your friend?”
Fallon swallowed and nodded. And she had thought her luck couldn’t possibly get any worse. “He’s a nano-based mimetic cyborg. I doubt your collar has any effect on him.”
“The collar has some effect; he’s obviously sightless.” Sobehk glanced down at Fallon. “Wait a minute — he’s mimetic?”
Fallon nodded slowly. “He shape-changes.”
“Who is this guy?”
Fallon winced. “Tusk is my company’s assassin.”
“A mimetic cyborg assassin.” Sobehk rolled his eyes. “Great.”
“And he’s good. He’s single-minded, single-purposed, and has never failed a mission.” Well, he had failed once. That was how she found out how to take him out if she ever needed it. The following week, she’d had her augmentation upgraded for dexterity and speed.
The young man’s head came up. He stared straight at Fallon with unfocused eyes. “There you are, Izzie!”
“Oh, hi, Tusk.” She pasted a smile on her lips. “What’s going on?”
The young man smiled. “Oh, the boss wanted to see you.”
“He did?” Fallon kept her hands open and loose at her sides while slowly moving in front of Sobehk. “Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
Tusk shrugged. “Couldn’t find you.”
“Oh, that’s right …” Fallon rolled her eyes and glanced up at Sobehk. “Some guy was chasing me all over the station.”
Tusk shuffled gracelessly toward her, smiling absently. “Rudi said you’d be here, so I waited for you.”
Fallon frowned. “He did?” How in bleeding fury had Rudi known that she would end up here? “How long were you waiting?”
Tusk pursed his lips. “Three days or so.”
Three days? Fallon felt her temper surge. Rudi had set her up. That back-stabbing son of a bitch …
Sobehk glanced down at Fallon. “Who’s Rudi?”
Fallon scowled. “This guy I made my last delivery to. New guy, stinks of the Imperium. He tipped me for the delivery and gave me a pass to the club where I met you — three days ago.”
Sobehk frowned. “That sounds like a setup.”
“Yep, it sure does.” Fallon glanced at him. “The question here is, why?”
Tusk tilted his head. “Rudi told the boss you didn’t make the delivery.”
“He … what?” Impending doom dried her mouth. You did not ever miss a delivery. “Tusk, he lied.”
“Oh … That’s too bad.” Tusk’s brows lifted then fell. “Because I gotta bring you back to talk to him, or kill you.” He sucked on his bottom lip. “But we’re in space already, and I don’t know how to fly the ship, so we can’t go back.”
An icy sweat soaked her back. “Tusk, I’m sure something can be arranged …”
Tusk shook his head and eased closer. “No, I don’t think so.”
Sobehk stiffened and grabbed Fallon by the shoulder. “He’s not terrifically bright, is he?” He pulled her behind him.
“No, but he is terrifically deadly.” Fallon shoved back in front of him. “Do not get in front of his target.”
Tusk sighed and smeared a hand across his cheek, staining his face with blood. “I’m gonna miss you, Isabeau.”
Sobehk frowned. “Is he actually crying?”
Fallon winced. “Yes. He does that, right before he attacks.”
Tusk shuddered violently.
Fallon licked her lips. “Now’s a good time to get your knife out, and if you have a spare, I’d love to have it.”
“I don’t have a spare.” Sobehk drew his long dagger from his boot and moved to Fallon’s side.
Fallon dropped her voice to barely a whisper. “His only weak spot is at the base of his skull in the back just below the data jack. Nothing else will have any real effect on him.”
“Got it.” Sobehk flipped the dagger in his palm. “Just stay out of the way.” ~ Page 46

Anyway, let’s get back to looking at this book from the angle of a Ménage Romance.

Balance: Wow, how hard is this? Morgan does not even introduce Kahn, the ménage, at the beginning of the book. She waits and lets you the reader get attached to the developing romance between Sobehk and Isabeau and only after you start to buy it then she springs Khan on you. Not only that she ends up making him the focus for how they all interrelate to each other. He’s more powerful and manipulative than either party and wins by raising the stakes. Pretty tricky there if you ask me.

Clarity: Again, since the story does not start out with all three characters on stage Morgan has to slowly introduce how they will mold together in the end. She plays a slight of hand and what you think you see at the beginning is not what actually ends up being there at the end. I never had to backtrack to figure how this person relates to that person etc it all remained clear from point A to point B and that is not easy to pull off.

Benefit: That is apparent from the beginning. The heroine is not this sobbing pristine victim of circumstance. She’s a wickedly strong ass thief that ends up bettering her position with her smarts and her talents despite getting busted. The heroes all have their motives both underhanded and upfront for why they are doing what they do. Khan ends up in the end getting everything he wants because he is the most underhanded of them all and tricks both Sobehk and Isabeau into doing exactly what he wants. But… That all makes sense in this book and it is damn fun watching him do it.

Khan used his free hand to lift the small blue cup. “Sobehk, she may have caused my blood pressure to spike, but my blood pressure has been high since I first saw you on the Vortex.”
“No.” Sobehk growled.
Khan growled right back. “Yes, damn you. I know you feel it. I can smell it on your skin!”
Sobehk curled his lips back from his teeth, but his chin lifted to bare his throat. “I denied recognition when I left the academy; I deny it now!” He made a visible effort to drop his chin.
Khan sneered, his head low and his long teeth flashing. “You can deny it all you like. That doesn’t change the biological fact that it’s there!”
“Khan, I will not submit!” Sobehk snarled openly, baring the full length of his teeth, but his eyes were wide. “Not then, not now!”
“Sobehk …” Khan sighed, the snarl fading from his expression and from his voice. He took a deep breath and released it. “You already gave me your submission years ago.” He set the cup down. “All that’s left are the legal formalities.”
“No. I don’t want to … serve.” He turned away.
“Why is this so difficult for you? Your father was Dhe’syah to mine; it’s only right that you are Dhe’syah to me. Why do you think your father put you with me?”
“I said no.” Sobehk shook his head then turned to glare at him. “If you push this, I will return to my original quarters.”
Khan’s brow lifted and a very nasty smile curled his lip. “Sobehk, this is my ship, and my crew. You go nowhere that I do not approve of.”
Sobehk jerked back. “What?”
Khan’s eyes narrowed, but his smile remained. “I prefer to have your voluntary admission, but I have no difficulty waiting for your body to make that decision for you. And don’t think I won’t make you kneel for it.”
Sobehk glared, but his chin began to lift. “You wouldn’t …”
Khan’s brows rose and his smile broadened to show teeth. “I told you before, the only constant is change. The Academy was a long time ago.” He sighed and his smile disappeared. “I need you. I need you with me, Sobehk.”
Sobehk dropped his gaze to the table. “Please, don’t force this on me.”
Khan picked up the small blue cup. “I’d rather not, but I am … tired of being alone. Of having no one I can … trust.”
“Trust.” Sobehk groaned. “That was a foul shot.”
Khan snorted. “You’ve always been a pain in my ass, but you have never been untrustworthy.” He sipped.
Sobehk rolled his eyes. “You had to have at least one …?”
“No.” Khan set the cup on the table very carefully. “This … occupation is not conducive to anything but ambition.”
Sobehk looked up and smiled just a little. “And greed?”
Khan groaned. “Go ahead and say it.”
Sobehk assumed a completely innocent expression. “Say what?”
Khan glared at him.
Sobehk’s smile broadened. “Well, if it will make you feel better.”
Khan rolled his eyes.
Sobehk set his chin on his hand and smiled, just a little sadly. “I told you so.”
“Ah …” Khan snarled. “I hate it when you’re right.”
“Oh, come on!” Sobehk snorted. “You hate it when anyone is right — but you.”
Khan stared hard at Sobehk, his mouth tight. “Sobehk, I need my Dhe’syah.”
Sobehk turned his head sharply, as though he’d been slapped. “Khan, please …”
Khan glared at him and spoke through clenched teeth. “I have waited long enough. We have both waited long enough!”
“Don’t!” Sobehk turned completely away, presenting his shoulder. “Khan, I’m asking you … please don’t push this, at least not now.”
Khan sighed. “Very well. Not now.” ~ Page 176

Grade A for creating both a smart and complex but also shockingly good Sci-fi Ménage Romance there Morgan Hawke. YOU SO ROCK!

Naomi Brooks & Angelia Sparrow ~ Glad Hands
From: Ellora’s Cave

You know what I hate? You know what I really hate?

Here I was reading probably one of the few M/M Scifi Romances I have read lately featuring a hot sexy Native American Truck Driver (I LOVE THAT!) and OK OK so the love interest is this poor abused young runaway kid. The cover while it is hot does not show this huge age difference too well by the way.

Anyway, so it’s a road story with lot’s of miles to cover and it’s excellent because let’s face the fact these can be boring stories but this so works here because of the Scifi stuffs. You guys did a superb job world building and a great job writing these characters with depth and the action parts were fun.

Up to and including chapter 10 I can easily say this story was so getting a Grade B or even the rare Grade A.

Then you tacked on 6 more chapters of WTF.

Why?

I just did not understand why we needed to see all the mundane aftermath and to drag it out like that… I mean who the fuck cares if the runaway kid needs to get tested for STDs? Or how he called into some radio talk show to recount his adventures? Do we really have to see it? Did it really add anything? I don’t think it did.

Could we have wrapped up everything that happens after the heart pumping great escape in a epilogue or something? I hate to be such a party pooper. It’s not like you are the only writers out there that have done this. I was just enjoying the story so much and was disappointed to see it go so far past the natural ending. I skimmed through like the last three chapters and I don’t think I missed anything important. Grade D

Morgan Hawke ~ Lost Star (Interstellar Service & Discipline 3)
From: Loose Id

Now this was an unexpected surprise.
Where have you been Morgan Hawke the M/M world turns it’s lonely eye to you wooo wooo wooo.

Evangeline Anderson ~ Broken Boundaries
From: Ellora’s Cave

Huge fully documented review with my opinion with LBea at Nose In A Book.

Short Summary: A solid and well deserved Grade F.

Dear Ellora’s Cave,
Don’t sell me a “Gay Romance” and throw in bullying, threats of suicide and acts of rape as part of the story. It’s not a Romance in my opinion.

What do you guys out there think?