Jul. 6th, 2021

jacey: (Default)

At the end of The Sugared Game (Will Darling #2) Phoebe broke off her engagement to Kim Secretan and went off to Paris to launch the very talented Maisie as a fashion designer. Three months later and Kim, no longer working for the shady government agency, is helping Will out in the bookshop. Things are quiet… until Kim's annoying, bad-tempered older brother, Chingford, commits murder at his exclusive London club… or does he? It looks like a cut and dried case, but Kim wants to find out the truth, not because he believes his ass of a brother is actually innocent, but because if he hangs, it leaves Kim heir to the title and estate and that is not a life he wants. He's never been able to please his overbearing father, the Marquess, and can't bear the thought of being bullied by the world's worst parent. Kim has made some bad decisions in his life, in particular refusing military service in the war. He is now living with the death of his younger brother who volunteered in his place. Can he overcome his past? Can Will and Kim have a future? The m/m sex is still explicit, but finally they are talking about feelings. This seems to be a trilogy, and, indeed it wraps up very well, but there could be more adventures. I, for one, would like to see another book in the series.

 

jacey: (Default)
Perhaps I shouldn't review my own book. After all, I could just say best-book-ever, please buy it, and leave it at that, but I wrote Crossways in 2014 and it came out in 2015 and I haven't read it since... so taking time and distance into account, I'd forgotten some of the detail, and I ended up reading it as a reader, not as a writer... and... I enjoyed it.  It's the middle book of the Psi-Tech trilogy, sandwiched between Empire of Dust and Nimbus. The pace is relentless and the multi-stranded plot plays out with main characters, Cara and Ben, whose viewpoints did the heavy lifting in Empire of Dust.

At the end of Empire of Dust, Ben, Cara, the psi-techs and the settlers sold the planet Olyanda and its platinum reserves to criminal-with-ambitions, Garrick, and took refuge on Crossways, rogue space station, or maybe space station of rogues. They'd outmanoeuvred two megacorporations and lived to tell the tale, but an ark ship with 30,000 more settlers frozen in cryo, is missing presumed lost in space. Ben has promised to investigate and Ben always keeps his promises. Cara is searching to find a new home for the displaced settlers before they drive Garrick bonkers with their unreasonable demands. The psi-techs have decided that since the megacorps want them dead, they'll stick together and form The Free Company (psi-techs for hire). Ben and Cara are on everyone's most-wanted list. They bested the megacorps once, but it doesn't mean that they have escaped free and clear. Expect ambush, treachery, space battles, family in peril, very strange aliens, and an impossible flight.

Cara is a top-grade telepath. Ben is a psi-tech Navigator, able to fly that liminal space beween jump gates. He's been trained to believe the 'visions' in Foldspace aren't real, but there's something sentient in the Folds that is certainly NOT an illusion - a big scary void dragon. In order to find the missing settlers they are going to have to brave foldspace again and again and Ben's not sure he can do it any more.

I recommend starting with Empire of Dust, but if you start with this one I don't think you'll find catching up a problem. I'm always happy to answer questions if you have any. Thanks for reading.

PS, The cover is by the hugely talented Stephan Martiniere and I love it. www.martiniere.com
 
 
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jacey: (Default)

I'm continuing the possibly inadvisable attempt to review a book I've written. I had a genuine excuse this time; I'm a core author for an upcoming anthology Brave New Worlds for Zombies Need Brains Press, and I've suggested that I write something set in my Psi-Tech universe. I have an idea to continue the story of two secondary characters who walked out of Nimbus towards the end, and I needed to refresh my memory of them and the exact circumstances of their leaving. It's five years since I wrote this, so I'd forgotten some of the details. (Hey, I've written more books since then.)

Nimbus follows on from the massive space battle at the end of Crossways. The station, now in orbit above Olyanda, is being rebuilt piecemeal, Garrick is still determined to forge alliances with other independent worlds to keep the megacorporations at bay. Someone is killing Free Company telepaths (mind to mind, from a distance) so Cara is on a galaxy-wide quest to find the woman who is the key to unlocking source code in the psi-tech implants in order to keep them safe. Ben is still having nightmares about the dark entity in foldspace, the Nimbus, so menacing it even frightens the void dragons. When people lost many years ago in the Folds start coming back it seems like a reason to celebrate, but is it? They haven't aged a day, even the ones lost fifty years ago. Who are they really and why do they return with murderous intent? Ben and Cara reach a conclusion, but no one is going to like it, especially the megacorps. Ben is still at the top of their most-wanted list and if he has to give himself up in order to make a point, he will do, aided and abetted by Cara, the Free Company, and his formidable grandparents.

 

If the plot seems episodic at first, don't worry, it all comes together in the end. The Nimbus will change how mankind navigates the stars.
 
 
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