New Jersey for me, it's odd nothing against the state but there's parts that look desolate and gray.
Unfortunately NJ has been called "The armpit of the United States. I grew up going to Atlantic City every summer and also have been to Wildewood another beach resort, which back when attracted French Canadians so all signs had both languages. Not allowed to vacation in Ocean City, Maryland until the 1970s.
Very sad about SF. My brother lives in Monterey and said he will never go to SF again. I was fortunate to go to SF in the early 1990s and trying now to remember the way it was.
Also I spent many yrs traveling to NY for entertainment (mostly Broadway shows) and now will never go there again as it deteriorates.
Never been to LV and no desire to go.
I don't think it was meant to read as funny as I found it. The ARMPIT!?!
And that's something new abou NJ that I never knew.
To be honest, I expected a pretty typical Sci-fi Romance book. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a science fiction *story*. Yes, there's a possible future romance (there are five books in the series available at this time, though I don't know if that completes the story arc) but it's an actual story, with world building and background and plot, just like most books were back in the Old Days of traditional publishing. Very refreshing!
At this point, I'm not going to go so far as to say the writing and plot complexity are totally on par with my very favorite authors (I just finished re-reading several Elizabeth Moon books, and everything suffers by comparison to her wonderful books 😏) but, one book in, I liked it enough to buy the rest.
They are available on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, it's an easy way to check them out for yourself.
Follow-up thoughts on this series after reading all five books:
Overall, I enjoyed these books. The author is starting a "spin off" series featuring one of the other characters in this series, and I plan to read it.
Was the writing fabulous, top notch, up to my favorites like Elizabeth Moon? No, it wasn't. But it's better than most out there, IMO. Yes, I could, and will for purposes of this review, nitpick a little.😏
There were only a few annoying grammar mistakes of the "Jim and me went to the store" variety; but not very many, especially considering I'm speaking of all five books.
Reading all books one after the other highlighted what for me was the biggest problem: repetitiveness. If there had been weeks or months between reading them, maybe I really wouldn't have been so aware of the several times in each book where background information was reiterated. I get that a bit of that is necessary for understanding/clarification/refreshing the reader's memory, but I wish the author had condensed it. The explanations were pretty lengthy, and I didn't go back to compare, but they felt almost cut-and-paste identical. And there were several (four or five?) different plot points repeated at length in each book. I found it threw me out of the story and disrupted the pacing.
But there were also some interesting, creative ideas in the worlds the writer developed, as well as a few times that I was really struck by an insight from this character or that. Enough so, that I want to reread the books both to revisit the story and characters, and to find again those spots that touched a nerve with me.
Can you tell that my favorite stories are about people, the interactions, the relationships, the insights and growth they experience? 😏
Was it like, say, Carla Kelly's earlier books, where I'm so caught up in it that I'm aching for the characters, sometimes even crying? No, not that intensity. But snippets of connections that resonated.
Does that make sense?
I saw that the author has quite a lot of backlist. Some looked like pretty fluffy, more typical romance stories, not sci-fi. But if you try this author and like her writing, there'll be plenty more to read, which is always fun in a new-to-me author.
Oh, and FYI, if it matters to anyone in their decision process: there are no graphic descriptions of sex in these books.
(Just a query: does anyone find this type of post useful? Part of it's like an abbreviated version of the reviews that I used to post on Amazon back in the day, because it's the kind of assessment I found helpful. But I dunno if you all agree!)
Post by romancereader on Sept 22, 2023 13:01:13 GMT -7
Huh. I guess somehow, in deleting part of the original post, I ended up "quoting" myself with everything together, rather than quoting a portion of the original post and adding additional comments afterwards. I'm so computer inept -- sorry!
Huh. I guess somehow, in deleting part of the original post, I ended up "quoting" myself with everything together, rather than quoting a portion of the original post and adding additional comments afterwards. I'm so computer inept -- sorry!
romancereader-
You meant well & that counts. I'm not a gadget person. Today someone asked me in an email to "authenticate" my signature and thought this self-explanatory. I'm tired of business types and tech types who assume all consumers are 20-year-olds! Off my soap-box. I should keep a 20 YO on retainer to be my tech translator?!
romancereader, I very much appreciate your thoughts and the opinions of others here. I also wonder if I should go into more detail when describing the books I read. After all, there are lots of reviews available to check out. I don't always agree with the reviewers on Amazon, however. It's funny how I can read a lot of glowing reviews about a book, and then there will be that one review that mentions something that puts me off the book.
romancereader Definitely found the post useful, a number of this authors books have been on my wish list for while and bumped her up after reading your original review... just trying to decide which to get in audio first... it's between Astral and Dr Galaxy.
romancereader , I very much appreciate your thoughts and the opinions of others here. I also wonder if I should go into more detail when describing the books I read. After all, there are lots of reviews available to check out. I don't always agree with the reviewers on Amazon, however. It's funny how I can read a lot of glowing reviews about a book, and then there will be that one review that mentions something that puts me off the book.
I'd rather not read a romance where humans or animals are neglected, abused or tortured. And a baddie(s) too often skirts justice. If a rom short story feels rushed, maybe the author needed a longer story? I appreciate reviews which note any of these elements.
romancereader, I very much appreciate your thoughts and the opinions of others here. I also wonder if I should go into more detail when describing the books I read. After all, there are lots of reviews available to check out. I don't always agree with the reviewers on Amazon, however. It's funny how I can read a lot of glowing reviews about a book, and then there will be that one review that mentions something that puts me off the book.
I admit to reading the one- and two-star reviews first for that very reason. For example, rape and abusive characters? No thanks, I'll pass!
romancereader Definitely found the post useful, a number of this authors books have been on my wish list for while and bumped her up after reading your original review... just trying to decide which to get in audio first... it's between Astral and Dr Galaxy.
Yes, I need to look at the author's backlist more closely. I just lightly scanned what was available, and was surprised that there were so many.
I've finished book #1 in the spin-off series, SALVAGE. It features Cherry, the half-sister of the main character in the original series, Nora.
It's got an interesting premise. (I don't want to give away too many details, but this is very early on in the story, and not exactly revealing the plot.) There is an alien child that has been adopted by a character Cherry joins up with.
Now, mind you, I'm not scientifically well-educated. If the author's science is shaky, or even outright wrong, chances are, I won't know it to be bothered by it. Bad science can rightfully ruin books for lots of readers, but what distracts me aren't the big concepts. I get thrown by the little things. Like how the heck can this alien speak the human language when their anatomy is completely different? There's no translator box interpreting squeaks or whistles or clicks, or whatever. Somehow, he just talks. Gah, that still bugs me! I had to consciously set that glaring inconsistency aside and ignore it to go on with the story.
On the plus side, this book has its moments. It continues to be about "people," both as individuals and as societies, their relationships and interactions, good and bad -- all things I enjoy in a story. The author continues to be creative. The old worlds (the federation) that the multi-planet society in the original series came from 500 years before has evolved in a different trajectory, and that adds interest.
This first book "ends" with the conclusion of a plot point, not exactly a cliff-hanger, but definitely not the conclusion, which was basically true for the original series. The author clearly has the rest of the story in the works; book #2 comes out on the 29th, I believe, so one doesn't have to wait a year to continue.
And, yes, I'm going to continue the journey, though at this point, I'm not quite as enamored as I was with the original series. Luckily for the author, I stumbled across the original series first!
Post by romancereader on Sept 24, 2023 9:26:27 GMT -7
Two more thoughts about SALVAGE:
1) I think part of my ambivalence has to do with the lead male character. I don't like him much at this point. Hopefully, that will change. (Other readers may like him more.)
2) There was a point in the story where the space ship goes down to a planet and spends a considerable time under water. Again, not a scientist. But that was a point where I found myself thinking, is this even possible? A ship of that size and weight in two completely different environments? Would a propulsion system that works in space work in gravity and water and for a prolonged period of time? Maybe it would, but it felt "wrong" to me, and threw me out of the story a bit until I decided to consciously ignore it and move on. (And a story loses a bit in my personal rating system if I have to keep setting aside/moving past plot points that don't work for me.)