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Cruising Right into Love
9.0
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À new life brings hope. But will it also bring Victor pain - or the love he craves? A chance...
Contemporary MM Romance
Wheels Up (Out of Uniform #4)
8.0
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Their love is forbidden, but their hearts aren't listening to rules and regulations. Lieutenant...
M_M Military Contemporary Romance
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Inkmistress in Books
Dec 25, 2018
As I mentioned on Friday, this book is the prequel to Of Fire and Stars, so I read it first, even though it was published second. I prefer to read in chronological order when I can.
Inkmistress follows Asra, a demigod of unknown parentage, as she first follows and then is chased by her lover-turned-dragon who is intent on vengeance for the destruction of her village. Her lover, Ina, is convinced it is the King's fault that the village was destroyed, as he's been letting bandits roam over the outer reaches of his kingdom unchecked. So after taking on the form of a dragon, she's off to kill him to avenge her family. Asra is trying to talk Ina out of it, and chases her across the country, from their remote mountain to the inner forests and cities.
I really love Asra. Ina's kind of a bitch, but Asra is loving and funny and just an awesome person, fighting to protect herself and those she loves, even as those she loves evolve and change past what she can hold onto. Her magic takes a terrible price if she uses it, both on her and on the rest of the world. She has to wrestle with so many unknowns - her parentage, her magic, the world off her mountain, politics, other demigods - and somehow she manages to land on her feet. (Though not without help!)
The romance is sweet, and I love the emphasis on chosen families. Both Asra and Ina appear to be bisexual, which also doesn't appear to be unusual in this world. Reviews of Of Fire and Stars complain about the lack of worldbuilding, which is NOT a problem in this book. Perhaps I'll have an easier time having read this book first; which is a bit of a problem - you shouldn't have to read a prequel to understand the setting of the first book in a series! It does make me glad I'm reading them in this order, though.
I really loved this book. The urgency of the chase really came through in the story - Asra had to get to certain places and get certain things done before certain times, and obstacles thrown in her way made you worry she wouldn't get things done in time. It was well-written, with good character development of Asra, at least, and great world-building.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Inkmistress follows Asra, a demigod of unknown parentage, as she first follows and then is chased by her lover-turned-dragon who is intent on vengeance for the destruction of her village. Her lover, Ina, is convinced it is the King's fault that the village was destroyed, as he's been letting bandits roam over the outer reaches of his kingdom unchecked. So after taking on the form of a dragon, she's off to kill him to avenge her family. Asra is trying to talk Ina out of it, and chases her across the country, from their remote mountain to the inner forests and cities.
I really love Asra. Ina's kind of a bitch, but Asra is loving and funny and just an awesome person, fighting to protect herself and those she loves, even as those she loves evolve and change past what she can hold onto. Her magic takes a terrible price if she uses it, both on her and on the rest of the world. She has to wrestle with so many unknowns - her parentage, her magic, the world off her mountain, politics, other demigods - and somehow she manages to land on her feet. (Though not without help!)
The romance is sweet, and I love the emphasis on chosen families. Both Asra and Ina appear to be bisexual, which also doesn't appear to be unusual in this world. Reviews of Of Fire and Stars complain about the lack of worldbuilding, which is NOT a problem in this book. Perhaps I'll have an easier time having read this book first; which is a bit of a problem - you shouldn't have to read a prequel to understand the setting of the first book in a series! It does make me glad I'm reading them in this order, though.
I really loved this book. The urgency of the chase really came through in the story - Asra had to get to certain places and get certain things done before certain times, and obstacles thrown in her way made you worry she wouldn't get things done in time. It was well-written, with good character development of Asra, at least, and great world-building.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Wrong Stars in Books
Aug 26, 2018 (Updated Aug 26, 2018)
Diversity (2 more)
World-building
Amazing alien species
I've watched my fair share of Space Opera (Firefly, Dark Matter, Farscape, Star Trek, Star Wars - don't try to tell me those last two aren't Space Opera, THEY TOTALLY ARE) - but I haven't read much of it. I picked up The Wrong Stars mostly because reviews said it had a demisexual main character, rather than because it's a Space Opera. Regardless, I am SO GLAD I DID. The book is excellent.
First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!
Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was "just right." What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.
I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.
If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!
Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was "just right." What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.
I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.
If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com