Review: A fun and entertaining read, beginning to end!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2013
.... Despite initial misgivings, given some of the reviews, I found Steel Beneath the Skin to be quite an entertaining read.  Congratulations, Niall (if that is your real name), you have a smooth, professional, and clever writing style.  I found myself reading this one end to end almost non-stop (I had to sleep) and enjoying every minute.  I have already picked up the sequel to ‘Steel’..... Given the vehemence of some of the negative reviews, I might have given this one a pass, but the plot-line intrigued me and the price for the length seemed fair.  I am glad I picked it up.  Yes, there IS sex in this story, a lot of it, and some quite graphic (I would not recommend it for readers under 16), but I have encountered the variety of porn that masquerades as SF and this is not it.  It may veer close once or twice but there is a well thought out, well written Science Fiction story here and the sex is actually an integral part of the storyline; it emphasizes the sea change that has taken place in human culture since the time of Aneka Jansen’s 2011AD kidnapping by the alien Xinti.  Twelve hundred years later she is revived into a society so different that humans now call themselves jenlay and their attitudes toward sex are totally ‘apolitical’ in a way that might be described as ‘post-Christian’ just as some pre-Christian societies simply viewed sex as just another body function and made no big deal out of it.  To the jenlay, sex is merely something you do for fun and to relieve tension, which seems a better solution than popping pills all day.  The predominance of female/female sex didn’t bother me, though I suppose that’s because I’m a guy.  I didn’t really see it as pushing any sort of lesbian agenda.  It was just people enjoying each other.  I must confess that a lot of similar guy/guy sex scenes might have lost me or at least prompted me to do a little skimming.  As it is, I found the sex scenes to be treated with a light (if graphic) touch, and a sense of humor..... There were a few editing glitches, mostly orphan words left over from cutting and pasting, but not enough to degrade the read.  I have seen more in recent ‘mainstream’ publications..... Ultimately, this is an enjoyable, entertaining, look at a possible future society, which is, in the end, what Science Fiction is all about.  It is done through the (cybernetic) eyes of an interesting protagonist and I look forward to more adventures with Aneka Jansen.