the cover art should've been warned by the terrible picture of the guy and the backcover description, was expecting some straightup mystery set in a scifi context, Instead, you get a preposterous meetnotcuteinabar scene with an sappy/creepy lothario that i'd more expect to see in a Will Ferrell parody, Followed by moany bosom heaving, All as the toolong opener, Didn't keep readingstars
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for review consideration,
Oh The Cold Between, how much I wanted to love you, You're a military scifi novel written by a woman that contains several strong and likable female characters: there just aren't enough of you out on the shelves these days.
So I stuck with you, I kept going and kept going just waiting for that moment when it would all click together for me and somehow it never quite happened, which is just so disappointing.
Trying to peg the why of it, however, has been difficult,
Pacing may be an issue: the book touts the mystery surrounding the tragedy that happened twentyfive years ago and yet we don't really learn what happened untilof the way in.
So we have an extremely slow buildup, which then forces a quick resolution that ultimately feels anticlimatic because it all happens so fast, The revelation surrounding the mystery doesn't really aid things either: it's not exactly obvious, but it doesn't feel as revelatory as it should either especially since it's a conspiracyyears in the making.
The antagonists may be another issue: there are two, and both feel one note, One is a sadist who goes fully as far as threatening to rape our protagonist both while she's alive, and promising to continue to do so after she's died.
The other is power hungry, or maybe power mad, and he seemingly has no other speed so he's either angry that he's getting shut down, or probably abusing the power that he does have.
Nuance would have gone a long way for both characters here, I know that Bonesteel was trying to make a point about corruption and unchecked power, but those kind of messages tend to get muddled when the bad guys are so flat.
Finally, I'm not sure that I quite bought into the relationship between Elena and Trey, While I appreciate her sense of justice in not wanting to leave him behind, Bonesteel wrote them as if they'd been together or known each other for quite some time at one point Trey even tells another character something to the effect that he doesn't know Elena at all.
But you know what, neither does Trey, They had a one night stand, Even by the time you factor in the time spent in space and running and what not, they've known each other for what, a week Maybe two absolute tops He doesn't know her that well either, and so when he's telling her he loves her, it's kind of suspect.
The book does focus a lot on that relationship and Elena's relationships in general, so if it doesn't work for you, it hurts the book as a whole,
So yeah. Like I said. I wanted to love this book and I just couldn't and that's just such a shame, I really loved this one, Elena is an appealing protagonist, who has sufficient history to make her wary of being pulled into situations where she is liable to be hurt again, But this story is as much about Greg, a Central Corp captain who is defined by a tragedy in his past and how in the present he still struggles to put it into context.
Of course, if the book was all about somewhat damaged characters staggering from the loves and losses of their past, I wouldnt be giving this one the time of day what makes it special, for me anyway, is the fact that it is set in a really intriguing corner of space.
Space opera is all about effective world building that gives a clear idea of the political and socioeconomic setup across the galaxy without taking pages of dry information to do so.
Bonesteel has this one nailed, Within a short space of time, I had a clear idea of how successful the colonisation attempts were and how effective the various terraforming projects have been or not.
Central Corps is the law enforcement agency that gets wheeled in to deal with events beyond the capability of colonists or the planetary police, As such, they need to be prepared for almost anything, So when something untoward happens to one of the crew, everyone is appalled and very shocked, I liked the fact that it really mattered to all the main characters, despite the fact that death is clearly part of the deal, It meant that the stakes mattered,
I stayed up far too late to find out what happens and burned through this one really quickly as I found it unputdownable, As with most mysteries, the good ones anyway, there were plenty of alternatives on offer as to what was happening before we got to the final climactic denouement, which was every bit as exciting and full of action as I could have hoped for.
This one is highly recommended for fans of space opera,
/This book just could not catch and hold my interest, There are several good ideas and plot mysteries that get introduce but they couldn't keep me interested, Sometimes a writers style just doesn't click with me, but that doesn't mean it a
totally bad book, If you are looking to try something new then it might be for you, Not recommended So, we have a romance/SF/military murder mystery,
I have always thought that books like that, with the possible exception of Bujold's Vorkosigan series, are likely to do none of the parts well,
Indeed, I saw one review that compared this to Bujold, That's a bit like saying Coors Light and Trappist Rochefortare alike because they are both beers,
Bonesteel's third book will probably be good, Her second will be mostly good,
Near the end, I was finalizing my opinions when I came across within less than a full page three examples of things I hate from inexperienced authors, who probably learned them in workshops.
One: unconscious man wakes up, sees a man, and decides from the man's posture that he is a doctor, OK, Sherlock, right on.
Two: You already know what the justawakened man's first words are going to be, don't you Are they "Where am I" or "What happened" or "What day is it" or "Who are you" or "amp my head hurts" No, no, silly.
They are, as always, "How long have I been out"
Three: He sees the doctor's green eyes, and instantly knows she is intelligent, Why can't the TSA learn just to look at people's eyes Maybe I was sensitized to that because early on we learned that one of the heroes has eyes that are.
. . what colour are they, class, . . yes, they are grey.of real people have grey eyes, butof novel heroes do, Oddly, in movies, it's blue eyes that are vastly overrepresented,
OK, well, then, Trey and Greg are right out of Sex and the City, Trey is the mysterious, older, highly capable man who appears to be mad, bad and dangerous to know, Greg is the Real Nice Guy who is obviously the perfect catch, but he's just So Dumb About Some Things, Jessica's OK. Elena's your Tom Swift character: give her a spoon and two twist ties and she'll build you a raygun in eight minutes, Most of the bad guys are nyahhahhah mustachetwirlers with no nuance at all, Danny, well, I can't tell you about him just now,
Scifi readers, please adjust your settings, This is Star Trek science, where to go somewhere you grimble the frammis beyond safe settings and hope it works, If something has to be done, a hero will hop into a troop carrier solo, and whiz around like a real pilot, I can only hope it's a really SMALL troop carrier, for a platoon maybe, As another reader noted, the local galaxy seems to be about the size of Chicago, I prefer my SF to come from authors who can tell me why a planet has unusual tides and then make them a key plot point who can work out the challenges of landing a crippled ship on a strange planet.
There's a great deal of action where characters have very incomplete information, That's a good thing up to a point, and works most of the time, but eventually it all added up to just a bit too much,
And don't get me started about the big scene near the end with Stoya, Quite possible the most predictable scene I have read inyears, Two full demerits.
And I'm not at all sure about the scene where they fly low over a city that has been dead for at least ten thousand years, and look in a window to see a table covered with knickknacks.
Perhaps I could note that Pompeii was destroyed by a volcano inAD,,years ago, Picture those ruins. Now imagine that they were five times older than that, or more, Maybe on a planet with no atmosphere, with knickknacks made of adamantium, Bah.
Summary: Bonesteel has enough promise to make it if she works with an experienced SF editor who will be mean to her, Or else she could give up and join the writers who are getting rich dashing off careless novels every few months maybe some urban fantasy or a vampire romance.
Ahoy me mateys! Grab your grog! Here be bookof the ninth installment of theBells trilogy showcase, Arrrr!!!
the cold between Elizabeth Bonesteel
This be an impromptuBells Showcase, I have been meaning to read the Central Corps trilogy ever since Matey Sarah brought it to me attention, So not too long ago I checked out the entire series from the library via interlibrary loan, Then it sat and waited patiently for me to get to it, Time passed and on Sunday I realized the books are due back at the end of the week, Crunch time!
I am very glad that I did not return book one unread, This book follows the crew of the CCSS Galileo, The ship is finally able to take some shore leave on the colony of Volhynia after an extralong deployment, What is supposed to be a short pleasurable trip goes wrong when one of the crew is murdered, But it seems like someone is trying to do a coverup, The members of the Galileo be determined to find the truth and avenge their dead comrade,
The first thing to say about this book is that it had an absolutely amazing prologue, The action takes place aboutyears before the main plot but dang was it an explosive start, It does eventually tie the plot together but the mystery of what happened is a cool subplot through the novel,
After the delightful prologue, I was surprised that the story seemed to focus on a lustful onenight stand with sex scene included, But I promise it does make sense in the long run and the relationship does not overwhelm the greater story, I did love the characters in this, I have a soft spot for well run ships and quirky crews that mostly get along, In this novel, there are many points of view,
The first major point of view is Elena Shaw, a pilot and mechanic, I adore her. She is intelligent, competent, and has a temper, Another point of view is Captain Greg Foster of the Galileo, He is a bit of rule breaker but is always trying to do what's right for the ship and his crew, Then there be retired PSI Captain Treiko Zajec, PSI and Central don't get along but the murder investigation inadvertently draws them together, Besides the main three, I also grew to love side character, Jessica, She annoyed the hell out of me at first but as the plot evolves, she begins to play a larger role and I discovered her strengths,
While the character relationships are the highlight of the book, I also enjoyed the world building of this one, Humans have been trying to settle the galaxy and Earth would like everyone to believe that it is going great, The colony of Volhynia be one of their star attractions, The reality is that many colonies are failing, Terraforming is the key to survival but doesn't always work, On the fringes of space supplies run out, people die, and politics are fraught, Central, PSI, and Syndicate raiders all have various ideas on how the Sectors should be run, Every colony seems to work slightly differently, I very much enjoyed the setup,
There were some negatives, Captain Foster does seem to be a bit rogue a little too often, He and Elena are in the midst of a rather annoying fight that could have been solved by communicating and the continual angst often annoyed me, The bad guys were stereotypical and obvious as soon as they arrived on the page, The politics are only lightly explained and much of the backstory of the internal conflicts between PSI, Central, and the Syndicate aren't adequately explained, I wanted a bit more world building and a better resolution for the two main mysteries,
But ultimately I loved the action and characters and especially the ending, I even ended up enjoying the romance and its realistic ending, I can't wait to find out what happens next, Check in tomorrow for what me thinks of book two, Arrrr! The setting of the book a bit of a murder mystery and it seems that it may link back to a missinghip fromyears ago, Elena is on shore leave on the planet next to a wormhole that sends out an EMP blast every day like clockwork, While she is out having drinks and consoling her broken heart her ex boyfriend is murdered and by coincidence the man she spent the evening with is framed for Dannys murder.
Once she is back up on the ship she finds out Trey, the man she whiled away a night of passion is being arrested as Dannys killer, With the captain giving her some time to figure out what is going on things start moving very quickly and she realizes that she doesnt know as much about Danny as she thought as it seems he was working on the disappearance of a Central Corps ship in the area of the wormhole.
Things move off planet and towards the wormhole as things dont appear to be what everyone first thought, The story is good and the mystery of the wormhole is pretty much solved by the end of the book but there are more questions and a good ending for most of the people involved.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss,
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Elizabeth Bonesteel