Vega Falling (Tethered Wings, #2) by Sabine Priestley – Review

Tags

4 stars, flying, romance, Sabine Priestley, scifi, series, urban fantasy

Review by Riley

About Vega Falling

Vega grows stronger the more sensari use it as their sanctum from the brutal caste system of Mandori. And leader Damon Forester will stop at nothing to keep it safe from their enemies.

Until Tara Newton, a hacker with a troubled past, stumbles upon some of his measures. No human should have been able to breech his shifter’s protective essence and locate the code hidden in Vega’s financial systems.

That makes her a dangerous oddity–one his other half demands more of.

As Mandori ups its game, threatening the entire sensari population of Vega, Damon loses his presidency, and possibly the woman his shifter has claimed for mate.

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Review of Vega Falling

Because I had read Twice Tethered, I did not even read the blurb for this book. I mean, I loved Twice Tethered, and I really liked the secondary character Tara Newton, who is the heroine of Vega Falling. If I had read the blurb, I would not have been surprised to find out Damon Forrester is more than a typical sensari. He is a shifter. Shifters bring a new and potentially interesting party into the world of humans and those flying sensari. The shifter influence and reach is yet to be determined in this series though. You get just a taste of them in Vega Falling.

I won’t say what kind of shifters show up in Vega Falling, but Damon’s alternate form, which you met in Twice Tethered, is a humanoid that flies (sensari). Give it your best guess. These shifters have a dual identity, one for each form, which puts a little more color on the page. The abilities of each form bleed over into each other, making Damon more intuitive than the average sensari.

Tara is an unapologetic woman who knows her past is less than stellar, but she was doing the best she could. Rising above her past, now she is an extraordinary computer hacker who works for GenRealms. When Vega’s President Forrester pursues her, Tara knows she is not presidential wife material. But Damon wants Tara, not presidential wife material. I like watching Tara work through her feelings for this man and what she wanted from him.

The backdrop of the love story, is political upheaval. It is not hard to identify Mandori and it’s cabal of corporate leaders as the bad guys. Missing what amounted to a slave labor force that has defected to Vega, they will stop at nothing to return things to their former status quo. Attempting to influence the political situation in Vega is minor compared to their other methods. BTW, all this stuff between Mandori and Vega started back in Twice Tethered, but you don’t need to read it in order to keep up.  (But you should read it!)

Because of Mandori machinations, Damon’s presidency is at risk. The political turnover is the one part of this story that I was disappointed with. I felt like it was discussed on one page. And then on the next page it is done. A little more detail about why Vega citizens would even support a vote of no confidence was needed.

Tara and Damon are one hot couple and the romance overwhelmed the political story. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciated every page of their courtship. Intense, sexy, emotional ups and downs. It’s all there. I also appreciated the sex scenes – spontaneous, hot, but not overlong. Just right.

I am really liking this world of humans, sensari and shifters and all the conflict and romance, and flying that goes with this unusual combination of fascinating characters. I will look forward to more!

Speaking of more, I also read the short story Origins. If you enjoyed Twice Tethered and/or Vega Falling, you should check out this story of the first ever human/sensari hybird. It is a quick read about a human woman and a sensari man who were made for each other even though what they would become should be impossible.

The Ms. Priestley provided a copy of Vega Falling so that I could bring you this honest review.

About Origins

One night of passion changed the world.

She was just an ordinary waitress, crushing on a construction foreman.

One night together changed their world.

Their entire world.

By the end, every person on the planet had heard the legend of Trina and Nico.

Fact is stranger than fiction in Origins, the short story prequel in the explosive new series, Tethered Wings.

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Alien Resistance (Zyrgin Warriors, #4) by Marie Dry – Review

Tags

4 stars, alien invasion, aliens, aliens on earth, humor, Marie Dry, scifi romance, series

Reviewed by Riley

About Alien Resistance

In a bleak future where government systems are breaking down and poverty and violence reign, Madison Johnson is about to qualify as a doctor, after years of study and backbreaking work, in order to keep the promise she made to her dying sister, only to have an arrogant alien take over the hospital and decree that she would no longer be allowed to practice medicine. Hassled by the resistance group that’s trying to recruit her and exhausted from working impossible hours, Madison struggles to convince the disturbingly sexy alien, who always watches her, to let her be a doctor. As she and Viglar grows closer, Madison worries that she’s falling in love with one of the aliens who caused her brother’s disappearance—an alien who does not know how to love…

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Review of Alien Resistance

Alien Resistance takes place on an earth conquered by green-skinned alien invaders. Let’s stop there and get the serious part of my review out of the way. The blurb says “In a bleak future where government systems are breaking down and poverty and violence reign”. Why are government systems breaking down? Because this seems to have left earth ripe for the picking. One of the things that comes up is that in the future earth of Alien Resistance, doctors are spending fewer years studying to be a doctor than they had in the past. Along with the poverty and violence, I thought this was one of the most disturbing suppositions in the book, as I would assume it is part of an overall trend, fictionally speaking. But the reason it is disturbing is because I see similar things happening in our world now. That is really not a subject for a book review blog, but it is one of the things that made me connect with this book.

But let’s switch to the lighter side of the book. Alien Resistance is a romance, full of humor and quite a few heartwarmers. One of the conquerors, Viglar, faces off against one of the conquered, Madison. Much to Viglar’s frustration and the reader’s enjoyment, Madison refused to acknowledge being conquered. In the meantime, the conquerors, while quick to enforce their absolute dominion, are also not immune to harsher side of life on earth and are working to improve it. Aliens on earth is a scifi trope that always intrigues me and this green, hard-bodied alien domination is a fun interpretation of it.

The Zyrgin are supposed to be intelligent and have invested effort into studying humans. But no matter how much he may have studied humans, Viglar often does not understand what Madison says, often leading to humor. As Madison said, “It’s a saying, and how come an intelligent guy like you thought a human could have kittens?”

This alien ignorance of humanity carries over into perceiving human emotions and customs. Which was just a frustrating for me as a reader as it was for Madison as a character. Then again, maybe those aliens are not that ignorant after all, just extremely stubborn and see no reason to get along with the puny humans – they are the conquerors. They do not have to be nice at all.

Then, all of a sudden, Viglar throws in something that belies this stubbornness by throwing in a Star Wars reference at a completely appropriate time.

Madison hid a smile against his chest. His earnestness was rather endearing. “I will seduce you to the dark side.”

“The force is strong in this one. You will not seduce him to the dark side.”

Madison nearly fell off the couch. She stared at him with her mouth inelegantly open. “How on earth do you know Star Wars?”

Madison is often stunned by Viglar’s intelligence, and in this case, wit. I love these little bits of interactions between Madison and Viglar.

The fact is, the Viglar and his kind are intractable, dominating aliens who do not hesitate to use violence to bring humanity in line. This attitude appears to conflict with their apparent altruistic efforts to help the under-privileged humans by building hospitals and orphanages and who know what else? What is their end-game?  I found my lack of understanding of Zyrgin motives a bit distracting from time to time.  But I did not need that understanding to appreciate the story of Madison and Viglar.

Alien Resistance is the first book in the Zyrgin Warrior series that I have read, so I can assure you it stands on its own. While reading books 1-3 might give a little additional insight into some of the less important characters, it is not necessary to enjoy book 4. If you like a hardheaded alien hero, a headstrong human heroine combined with heart and humor, I recommend Alien Resistance.

The author provided a copy of her book so that I could bring you this honest review.

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Wilders (Project Earth, #1) by Brenda Cooper – Review

Tags

4 stars, artificial intelligence, Brenda Cooper, future earth, nature, scifi, technology

Review by Riley

About Wilders

Coryn Williams has grown up in the megacity of Seacouver, where her every need is provided for—except satisfaction with her life. After her parents’ suicides, her sister Lou fled the city to work on a rewilding crew, restoring lands once driven to the brink of ecological disaster by humans to a more natural state. Finally of age, Coryn leaves the city with her companion robot to look for her sister.

But the outside world is not what she expects—it is rougher and more dangerous, and while some people help her, some resent the city and some covet her most precious resource: her companion robot. As Coryn struggles toward her sister, she uncovers a group of people with a sinister agenda that may endanger Seacouver.

When Coryn does find her sister, Lou has secrets she won’t share. Can Coryn and Lou learn to trust each other in order to discover the truth hidden behind the surface and to save both Seacouver and the rewilded lands?

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Review of Wilders

Nature and progress collide, both subtly and violently. That is the short description of the events of Wilders. In a future where most people live in vast technologically advanced cities, the wilds outside the city are struggling to survive.

Coryn Williams has grown up in the city and, although she may not love it, she is very comfortable there. But her sister Lou, left several years ago to become part of the rewilding effort. In Wilders, Coryn leaves the city to find her sister and gets caught up in Lou’s life whether she wants to or not.

Coryn is young, just graduated from high school. However, Wilders does not read as a young adult. The storytelling is mature and complex and the characterizations are from an adult view. The occasional sibling arguments between Coryn and Lou remind you they are young, but do not overshadow the adult decisions and actions that both take.

And they have both made major decisions that will affect the rest of their lives and possibly those around them. While Lou seems to be aware of that, Coryn will take a while to figure it out. The journey of Coryn and Lou will take them from city to the outside and back to the city. Along they way, they will encounter danger, friends, enemies, hope and courage. If you accompany them, that journey will make you reflect on your own views of nature and cities and the people that dwell therein.

For my part, I wondered about philosophy of the cities and those that control them. Either you are in or you are out. People don’t really go back and forth. Neither seemed to be an ideal place to live – to me. The city was stifling and the wilds were often unpoliced. These are just a couple of observations. Any reader will have their own views depending on their background.

Before the events in Wilders, an ecological disaster nearly wiped out the wilds. Human-kind, recognizing that they need the wilds in order to survive, commissioned the rewilding efforts. Corporate foundations run the rewilding, but why? I would have liked to know more about what happened in the past. And how humans came to realize what they needed to do. Exactly what is that connection between nature and man’s continued existence? In Wilders, there is a lot of effort that goes into trying to maintain the wilds, but the story is lacking in motivation for that effort.

That effort, though, is noble and beautiful. One of my favorite scenes involves Lou showing her sister a vast herd of buffalo. A herd still at risk, but one of the most amazing things Coryn has ever seen. Nature has the ability to amaze me any day, so I could relate to the feelings experienced by Lou and Coryn.

The book is not just about restoring the natural balance. And this is the part that kept me reading. There are forces at play that will interfere with the rewilding efforts and much of the story is about confronting those forces. Resistance and intrigue will challenge Coryn and Lou as they try to reconcile their own relationship. And all the while, there are the usual power-plays that typically plague such a situation, with our heroines somehow planted in the middle.

Mostly, I think of Wilders as a story of progress verses nature. Technology can have both positive and negative influences on our lives and that is evident in the story. Nature is depicted as wild and beautiful, but not necessarily welcoming. This applies to both the natural world and human nature. If this sounds too philosophical, you might also consider that Wilders could be said to be a coming-of-age story for Coryn. She proved to be a most interesting character to follow and might have more of a story to tell in coming books in the Project Earth series.

The author provided a copy of Wilders in exchanged for an honest review.

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