Review: Has Promise
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
Sometimes you just need a man to turn your head. Jacqs is as content as he can be as the ship’s pariah and often sexual harasser. He’s tried to get with all the women but is usually turned down. He’s never thought about the men before so when a sexy new officer comes on the ship and starts to shake things up, Jacqs is surprised but intrigued by their instant chemistry and connection. Not one to let a little thing like turning gay slow him down, Jacqs throws him into the new relationship. It’s all fun and sex games until the war starts to come dangerously close to their new home.Turbulence is a weighty book. Not just in length but also in concept. There is quite a bit going on from the beginning. The first third of the book deals with establishing Jacqs and Zeke’s relationship. Jacqs has never been attracted to a man before and his newfound sexuality doesn’t trip him up the least. I found this part of the story to be the strongest. It’s interesting with a lot of good character development and world building. The science fiction world created is unique and goes into deep explanation of various sexual orientations. It seems this world has a much more inclusive labeling process, which I liked and found interesting. The concept of the war seemed very remote in this section and almost unimportant. Instead the focus is on Zeke and Jacqs getting together, which I almost sped read through it was so good.From there the story slows down quite a bit as the two have a lot of sex and do very little else. This could be an inherent problem with sci-fi stories set on a space ship since the lack of action definitely comes into play. Here I found the story lagged and I struggled to keep my attention in the book at several points. Not that the writing wasn’t wonderful but that nothing really went on and the two main characters just had a lot of sex. That’s great but I wanted something to really happen. I soon got my wish as the absent war suddenly takes center stage and there is a flurry of activity. The writing and characterization surprisingly both picked up and I learned more about the men through their actions than I did while they were having lots of mind numbing sex. The action has a definite tipping point and leads to an unexpected outcome.Although the story is somewhat up and down in terms of action and how it kept my attention, I did quite like reading it. The writing is clean, descriptive, and imaginative. All the characters, from minor to significant, feel important and fleshed out. The are no throw away people. The plot could have been more even throughout but honestly the incredibly strong start and solid finish helped me through any weak points in the middle. I would easily recommend this to sci-fi fans that want a substantial component of their story to be world building and there is definitely enough romance to please fans as well.Originally posted at long and short reviews