I'd kept seeing good reviews of Linnea Sinclair's books on different blogs so I went ahead and picked this up when I was in Arizona.
I think the cover is a big hint that this is a sci -fi. It is rather space opera, action-y with guns and spaceships and wars. But. It's also romance heavy, at least for a sci-fi book. My impression when I was reading this was – if you like sci-fi, AND you like romance, you'll like this. If you only like one genre and not the other, I'm not sure you'll enjoy yourself. This was shelved in the sci-fi/ fantasy section, but I'd call it more of a crossover book. I found it rather an addictive read myself. After the first chapter (which I thought started off slow in the first couple of pages), it got interesting.
Trilby Elliot is the captain of an OLD spaceship which she uses to transport cargo as part of her business as an independent freighter. The ship is a bucket of bolts and full of non-functioning parts barely kept together by Trilby and her robot Dezi. Trilby is constantly running out of cash and calculating how much she can repair with the money she gets on her next run. To keep costs down, she secretly uses an uninhabited planet that's far from the path of usual space traffic to make modifications to her ship. While she is there another spacecraft crashes to the surface and Trilby discovers an unconscious man thrown out of the wreckage. This man calls himself Rhis and says he is a leutienent in the Imperial forces who crashed on the planet after escaping enemy 'Sko. Chases, gunfights, political intruige, romance, undercover work and alien encounters follow.
This was good for a fun read though I did notice some nits:
- Dezi reminded me a lot of C-3PO.. I guess I didn't care too much about this, but it could be annoying to others.
- I noticed that the author repeated certain things a few times -certain phrases were repeated in the same area of text. Some examples: Trilby thinking how certain Zafharian traits must be in the water, Rhis thinking of Trilby as a air sprite, and all the times Trilby kept turning around and bumping straight into Rhis's chest (what was up with this?). It started to jar me when I kept seeing things repeated, especially phrases.
- The romance was predictable. I think the setting and the rest of what was going on is what made it interesting here.
- There is the Zafharians, the 'Sko and the Conclave, but all of these factions have other nicknames which Trilby uses in practically the first 3 pages. It took me a little while not to be confused and realize Zafharians = the Imperials = the Empire and also figure out the other names used when referring to The Conclave and the 'Sko.
- I never did get exactly ALL of the plot of what was going on with the bad guys and their plans at the end of this book. It felt a little sparse on the details or maybe I missed something obvious. I got most of it, but.. I still have a couple of but.. what would they gain by doing it that way?
Anyway, besides those nits, I have to say, I was glued. It was a fun way to pass an afternoon and I'd gladly read another one by this author.
specficromantic 