Sci-Fi Romance discussion

Have you read any interesting books outside the SFR? Talk about them here. :)

Allrighty, thanks for starting this thread NU!

I just finished Ten Ruby Trick by Julia Knight, and I really loved it, and think some of you might as well.

Ten Ruby Trick is a wonderful mix of fantasy, swashbuckling adventure and romance. Though it's more a fantasy with strong romantic elements, because the romance doesn't follow standard romance tropes at all.
It might seem a typical swashbuckling romance at first, but it's so much more. It's a story about first love, old lovers and new lovers. It's as much a story about freedom and what you would do for it as a story about what you would do for love. It's a story about free choice and the dangers of Utopia. About trust and betrayal and a tiny bit of revenge.

There's typhoons, bar fights, explosions, buldering cannons, a whole lot of bloodloss - on the side of the good guys, bad guys and innocent bystanders. There's whores, magicians, ambitious crew members with a personal agenda and a whole bunch of slaves who are forced to do what they don't want to do.

It's wonderful, thrilling and exciting, and yet touched on some more serious themes between all the adventure. It was totally different from what I expected, and I'm very glad I tried it.

Highly recommended!

My Review

I recently read and . I thought both of them were pretty good.

Wow, that sounds really good, Jan. :o

Jan! Squeeeee! So happy to find someone who loved Ten Ruby Trick as much as I did.

I picked it up based on a slight acquaintanceship with the author and that gorgeous cover. It blew me away.

I rarely review books on my blog but I made an exception because I thought it was a book that deserved good word-of-mouth.

http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/2011...

I think SFR fans would really enjoy it.

Squeeeee in return! I was so amazed by it. I think that's because the blurb doesn't touch on the the most interesting parts of the story.
You expect a fun swashbuckling romp, and you get it, but in addition you get this dark theme of the struggle for freedom and utopia's and slavery... Sigh. I was such a happy camper while reading it.

Isn't SFR, but anyone interested in a great paranormal-ish book should pick up Silver Phoenix. Just finished it and it took my breath away with the descriptions, settings and the style. I almost want to pick it right back up and read it again.

I just finished Hard Bitten, part of the Chicagoland Vampires series. That's urban fantasy, vampires, and it's more on the people/characters and relationships (romantic or non) side than action, but I love it. The author's witty/sarcastic, but it deals with some gritty issues so it's not chick-lit.

Now I'm reading First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones, which is also fun and witty, coincidentally! LOL. Perhaps lighter though.

I'm reading Stargate Atlantis: Halcyon. The worldbuilding is pretty good. The characters are pretty much in character. The author is British per the Britishisms like calling a flashlight a torch when in the Americans' pov. But that's not too distracting.

I'm afraid this one is going to take me a while because there's almost no action. Lots of meeting people and worldbuilding but not much going on. Little sense of urgency.

I'm also having a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief enough to believe a world in a distant galaxy whose humans were seeded in ancient times would have developed Dukes, fiefs, and so many similarities to mideval England that it's like reading a story set on Earth.

Maybe I'm just grumpy because I've had no air conditioning for three days and found out they don't plan to repair it for four more. Luckily, it'll only be in the high 80's and humid. Last week it was over 100.

Oh, wow, I would be grumpy too, Anna! LOL. Time for a visit to the lib, LOL. I'm always dubious about novelizations. I think it'd just be like reading transcripts if I'm already pretty familiar with a show, or I'm doubtful of their substance.

I've only read a few that I'd really call terrific. I think the Trek and Star Wars novelizations are good.

For SGA it's hit or miss. Some are really bad and you can tell the authors never watched the show. Most are okay and a few are terrific. This one is okay but a bit slow and dull, especially compared to most of the SFRs I've been reading that were fast-paced.

I'm faced with a decision when I finish: trade it or keep it because it's out of print and rare. I doubt I'll ever reread it so I'll probably Paperbackswap it.

Hi AnnaM, I read the wrath of khan novelization and it was amazing. I thought it was one of the darkest novels I have ever read.

Hi, Alex,

You're right. That one was excellent. I read it many years ago.

A lot of "novelizations" now are really original fic in the show universes--extrapolations more than true novelizations, since the shows are finished.

AnnaM!!! Hugs on the a/c! We lost our this week. Record heat. Before they fixed it, it got up to 93 inside the house! Big hugs!

Okay, SGA novels, yeah, mixed bag there. I've tried some and liked them, others I was like, what? I miss the show, though. :-(

Thanks, Pauline! I'm glad you got your a/c fixed. We ended up getting a portable unit since we have kids and an epileptic dog. I got tired of wetting him down every hour.

I miss SGA too!

Bless those portable units!

I'm still mad they focused on Universe instead of the next SGA movie. I think I'm bitter, too. (grin)

I have strong opinions about it, Pauline. I totally agree with you.

I am a massive babylon 5 fan, but the five or six books I have read were disappointing. I read the bester series and a few others. I would like to try more of these books as I loved that show.

My favorite Star Wars novels were those by Timothy Zahn. I still reread them occasionally. Not SF but the guy who does the Monk books is pretty good. He was a writer on the show. I haven't read the later ones, but liked the early ones. Kinda quit reading mystery when I headed into space. (grin)

Hi Pauline, I read the Timothy Zahn trilogy. They were actually the first star wars books I read. I loved his writing style. They were perhaps my favourite star wars books.

I ma reading and some Sara McCarty westerns.

I really love space westerns but there are not enough of the them out there. :)