Review: Clever Spoof, Hot Romance!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 9, 2010
From the first paragraph of Ellen Fisher's Wrath of Jan, the campy humor of this spoof of popular tv shows and movies that start with the word "Star" is obvious and well-received--by me, anyway. The hero, Captain Stephen T. McNeill, is highly impressed with his new crewmember, whose species is that of "Noo'dis't". The heroine, Commander Vaish, is less impressed, both with the Noo'dis't and her captain, and her snarkiness is proven right when the Noo'dis't turns out to be a saboteur who ejects the hero and heroine in a life pod and takes over the ship along with her terrorist friends. Luckily Fred the computer, with a "brain the size of a planet" (his words), manages to transfer himself to the lifepod, too, and land it safely on a habitable planet, where Stephen and Vaish must test their tolerance of one another to the limits in order to survive. Especially when the planet turns out to be more than it seems...Because this is a romance, you've got more than farce going on, especially in the heat level. The author manages to add some smouldering sexual content along with the quips and tongue-in-cheek nods to popular movies and television shows. (In my opinion, not for the kiddies in this regard.) The story is fast-paced and a little overstuffed, but it suits the tone and humor. Wacky hijinks galore, without descending to the Three Stooges level of humor. I am pretty sure I didn't catch all the pop culture references but the ones I did -- and some were more subtle than others -- were a delight. Other reviewers have commented the humor is subjective and that's true. Luckily you can get a free sample.My only complaint is that I *almost* wish the book had taken itself a pinch more seriously so we could have gotten a longer story with worldbuilding that relied as much on the author's imagination as the humor. But I can't say I was disappointed because it just wasn't that kind of book. Recommended if you liked Galaxy Quest, Space Balls, humorous romances, Star *Anything* and so on.