Smashbomb

A story that drops you right in to the action. The world building is believable and the characters are diverse. Considering that this was first published in 1988, there are characters of colour. gay and women in positions of unquestioned authority. None of this seems forced, the gay relationship isn't contrived, the leading female character, Rally, isn't over-bearing as so many strong female characters are often written in the past, and she is very competent and highly thought of by other characters in the book.
How this has slipped through the net, I will never understand. This deserves to be more widely known, and it is such a shame that the author didn't publish anything else that I know of or have been able to find. If she did, I would find it, read it and no doubt recommend it!
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Caravel, for my copy of the book and the opportunity to read and review it!

Kudos

Sean Farrell (9 KP) rated Slipstream (A Crisis of Two Worlds, #1) in Books

Mar 15, 2018

After my playthrough of the "Mass Effect" trilogy of video games wound up as a tragically optimistic, sci-fi, gay love story; I decided to look into finding some gay sci-fi romance fiction and stumbled upon this title. I have to say I am glad I did. This book is by no means perfect; there are a few questionable character decisions and some of the dialogue just doesn't feel like something that people in the age group represented would ever actually say, but despite those flaws, this still wound up being a highly entertaining read. The romance elements are kept somewhat to a minimum, which actually works better for me, but when they do arise they are indeed pretty romantic and about 90% believable. The sci-fi / fantasy / adventure elements are more pronounced and while they can stretch credulity a bit more regularly, they were more than suitably exciting enough to allow for the requisite suspension of disbelief. It ends satisfactorily while still leaving quite a lot to be resolved in the sequel, which I can say I look forward to reading.