A Galactic Holiday by Stacy Gail, Sasha Summers & Anna Hackett

A Galactic Holiday is a three-novella anthology edited by Angela James and with novellas by Stacy Gail, Sasha Summers and Anna Hackett. The stories are all science fiction romances (or romance science fiction, more accurately) with a Christmassy theme. A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher, Carina Press, for review purposes.

The first story was How The Glitch Saved Christmas by Stacy Gail. The heroine is a Chicago cop in a future where most of the police force have undergone body modifications, making them somewhat cyborgy and giving them super strength, speed, built in google search, etc. The heroine is the only one on the force resisting the change. Before body mods became standard, she was the top detective. Since refusing to get them, she's been demoted and is treated as a pariah on the force.

The story opens when she's been called to a crime scene where someone broke into an apartment to deliver a Christmas tree and presents to the household's children. The detective in charge of the case is our hero, who has secretly loved the heroine for years, but whom the heroine finds annoying because he's replaced her as top detective since being the first on the force to get body mods.

The resolution of the whodunit aspect was a bit twee, but maybe that's my general dislike of Christmas spirit talking. The romance aspect was OK, but I thought the heroine went from thinking the hero was annoying to realising she was attracted to him a bit too quickly.

The second story was Galileo's Holiday by Sasha Summers. The heroine was a loner "tugger" (owner of a small ship which transports things) whose ship is destroyed by raiders on an icy moon. The hero comes to her rescue quickly, helping her hide from the raiders who blew up her ship. She goes with him to the nearby colony, where she learns all about holidays and celebration. And spends an awful lot of time angsting about how she's going to have to leave him to get on with her life because all she knows is how to be a loner tugger.

Aside from the fact that it's a romance and so we know they're going to live happily ever after, the hints about how she was going to reconcile with that were a bit heavy-handed. She spends a lot of time fixing electronics for the colony, since none of them can do it and she's good at it, thanks to years alone, making sure here own stuff worked. The colony's previous electronics guy died, but before he settled there, he also used to be a tugger. Golly!

That aside, she was pretty kick-arse at being a heroine, what with fixing everything and being brave and saving the day.

The third story was Winter Fusion by Anna Hackett. The heroine and the hero are negotiators for their respective planets, in charge of coming to a trade agreement. Before he goes off, the hero's boss instructs him to seduce the heroine to get a better deal, which he has no intention of doing, but no need to guess how that turns out.

During their negotiation, someone tries to kill them, facilitating them being trapped in a remote cabin for a while. The hero comes from a very utilitarian planet where they don't have families or holidays, so the heroine takes the opportunity to teach him about Yule and presents and, to a lesser extent, family.

My biggest source of annoyance was at how quickly the heroine recovers after finding out he'd been ordered to seduce her. Because she knew him so well after their few days together. It made me wonder, from a story-telling point of view, why bother introducing the plot point at all, when it didn't even add much tension?

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One thing I liked about this collection generally, was that the heroines were all competent and skilled and didn't play the damsel in distress. If they needed saving, they saved the hero in turn at some point.

Overall this anthology wasn't quite my thing, mostly being a bit light on the science fictional world building. At times, particularly in Galileo's Holiday, it felt like I was reading a romance story that happened to have some sci-fi trappings, which isn't what I want out of my fiction. But if it's what you like, go for it. I recommend this anthology to romance fans with at least a passing interest in science fiction. If you're after hard science fiction, maybe give it a miss. It's definitely romance first, science fiction second.

3 / 5 stars

Courting Trouble by Jenny Schwartz

Courting Trouble is the second Aussie steampunk novella in Jenny Schwartz's Bustlepunk chronicles. I reviewed the first book, Wanted: One Scoundrel at the start of the year. A copy of this novella was provided for review from the publisher, which was nice because it meant I got to read it a bit sooner. You should be able to buy it from Carina Press from the day this review goes live, October 1.

Although Courting Trouble is definitely a sequel to Wanted: One Scoundrel, I think it will also stand alone fairly well. None of the plot, beyond the fact that the two main characters met in book 1, depends on earlier plot points.

Esme is a suffragette in Perth the Swan River colony, 1895. Book 1 introduced her love interest, the Californian Jed, who is still courting her now. Or trying to work out how to court a suffragette without making her angry. Their interactions amused me, especially Jed's attempts at courting. He's not very good at doing so at the start without reducing Esme to a damsel in distress and I completely shared Esme's anger at some of his antics.

Part of Schwartz's alternate universe is the introduction of Bombaytown in the Swan River colony. Much like Chinatown, but Indian, it plays a central role in Courting Trouble when Gupta, the teenager Jed saved in book 1, comes to Jed and Esme for help. Of course, this leads to the central dastardly plot and direction of action. In the end, the bad guy seemed to me to be as much a victim of colonialism/the British Raj as of his own crazies, something I didn't think was quite addressed as much as it could've been.

All in all, Courting Trouble was a great fun read and I was a bit disappointed when it was over so soon. I certainly wouldn't object to reading a novel-length story set in the same world. From Wanted: One Scoundrel to Courting Trouble, I feel Schwartz's writing has improved, becoming tighter. The steampunk elements which originally drew me to the series are still crucial to the plot, though perhaps less prominent (or less silly?) than in Wanted.

I definitely recommend Courting Trouble to anyone who's read and liked Wanted: One Scoundrel or to anyone interested steampunk, particularly those looking for a different setting. (Also, if anyone knows of any other Australian-flavoured steampunk books, please let me know; I'd love to read them.)

4.5 / 5 stars

The Ravenous Dead by Natasha Hoar

The Ravenous Dead by Natasha Hoar is a new ebook-only novella published by Carina Press. Continuing Carina Press’s trend of releasing series of related novellas, The Ravenous Dead follows on from The Stubborn Dead (link to publisher page). I haven’t read The Stubborn Dead and, while I could guess vaguely what it might have been about, I didn’t feel I needed to have read it before The Ravenous Dead nor that The Ravenous Dead was likely to have spoiled the earlier story for me (of course, I might be wrong on that second part, who knows).

Rachel is a rescue medium which means that it’s her job to help free souls which are stuck on Earth and deal with certain supernatural creatures. In this novella, a reaper, an undead soul-eater, is ravaging Vancouver and leaving a trail of bodies in it’s wake. Rachel sets out to stop it with her protege (with his own special powers) Kit.

It was a little bit gory at the start when the bodies were described but after that the story was mainly action and a little bit of detective work.

There were a few scenes from the reaper’s point of view which felt a bit odd. They seemed to make the reader sympathise a bit with the reaper (who didn’t end up as a particularly soul-thirsty reaper on purpose) but then ended with him being an emotionless killing machine. It turned out there was a reason for this, story-wise, but it confused me a bit.

There was a nice hook at the end for a possible future story which definitely made me want to read more.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad story but it didn’t elicit any particularly strong emotions in me. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and is looking for a quick and action-heavy story to pass the time.

3.5 / 5 stars

Liar's Game by Kait Gamble

Liar’s Game by Kait Gamble is a new novella out from Carina Press on July 2nd. A copy was provided to be from the publisher via Netgalley. The official blurb summarises quite well, so I thought I’d start by including that.

Rumors of Aurelia Popkiss’s death have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, she and her crew have been drifting through the big black, scavenging to survive since the day she “died.” Yet after years of being on the wrong side of less than favorable odds, they never thought that finding a young girl stowed away on their ship would prove to be among the worst things to happen to them.

From the moment Aurelia finds Kateryn concealed in her cabin, Auri knows she’s hiding something. But even Aurelia can’t imagine the true reason for the stowaway’s sudden appearance in her life.

Kateryn’s past is as convoluted and murky as Aurelia’s own. The girl is out for revenge and nothing is going to stop her from destroying Aurelia and her crew-including Keys, Aurelia’s fellow shipmate and the man she’s secretly in love with-to get it.

Aurelia captains a ship full of ex-criminal men. They are all fiercely loyal to her and a bit over-protective. The further along I read the more it made sense but there was still something a bit dissonant between Aurelia being described as headstrong and then letting the guys restrain her so she doesn’t get hurt/in too much trouble. The opening chapter, in particular, hit a lot of clichés and had me concerned about the rest of the story. Fortunately it improved, particularly once Kateryn, the stowaway, showed up.

Although it’s listed as science fiction romance, I’d be more inclined to call it space adventure romance or something like that. There’s minimal realistic science (see below) but the background setting reminded me a bit of Firefly. But with space pirates instead of space cowboys.

The ending strongly suggested that there will be more novellas/stories in the series, which is a trend I’m liking with the Carina Press stories I’ve read. Hopefully the sequel will flesh out more of the background of the world. I’d like to see where exactly the nobility come into it, future-historically.

On the science-front, Liar’s Game was less science fictiony than I was hoping. The actual science was non-existent, replaced with a few cool gadgets, and setting-wise there were some elements that just didn’t make sense. I never quite got a feel for the layout of the ship (in the sense that there were a few times I was confused when people moved from one room to another a bit too instantly) and there was a bit where the way a shuttle left the main ship was baffling and probably should’ve caused an explosion. Also a strangely uneventful landing on Io — this was at least partly explained, but I would’ve liked to read more and it would have been a perfect opportunity to talk about the technological development of humanity.

The main characters’ ship was secretly floating around the solar system but mostly seemed to be relatively close to colonised moons or planets. If you’re trying to hide from society, why are you that close (a few hours flight) to civilisation? Even though they’re being pirates, surely they’d want to hide on the other side of the sun from the big hubs when they’re not in need of supplies? Also, NASA etc already track many asteroids, some of which would be comparable in size to ships, so I don’t quite buy their ability to hide for so long (I don’t think cloaking devices were mentioned). On the other hand, being set in the solar system does eliminate the problem of space being too big for viable piracy, so that’s something.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to science fiction fans, but lovers of romance or adventure romance will probably enjoy it. Overall it was readable by pushed some of my pet peeve buttons which I expect wouldn’t bother many other readers.

3 / 5 stars

The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell

The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell is the second story set in the same world and with the same protagonists. I read it without reading the first novella, The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale, also from Carina Press, and I didn’t feel this novel/novella (it’s right on the cusp) suffered for it. I suspect it contained many spoilers for the first story, and I can guess the general plot of the first story, but at no point did I feel lost or confused for not having read it.

That said, it’s possible this review might contain spoilers for The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale simply because I’m not entirely sure which bits might be spoilery. You’ve been warned.

Stormy, as she is affectionately known, is apparently a time pirate. I say apparently because nothing particularly piratical takes place in BToSG (sorry, it’s too long to keep typing out), but it’s part of her back story. She was born in 19th century London, spent her childhood poor and on the streets until she was taken in by a time-traveller who took her and her adopted brother to the 21st century at age 14ish. Now living in the 19th century and married to the Duke of Leister, I found Stormy a little too blasé about her acquired wealth. I was willing to believe that hanging out in the 21st century modern mannerisms might have rubbed off on her, but I was unwilling to believe that after a childhood of poverty she could so casually mention her toddler daughter intentionally destroying a dress without being angry for her ungratefulness. (Especially since Stormy isn’t a bad person.) It was a really minor, throw-away line but it bothered me for the lack of authenticity.

The story revolves around Stormy identifying a suspicious time traveller, having her husband and brother help her follow him around and then a rescue adventure after her brother accidentally gets himself transported in time with aforementioned shifty time traveller. They end up in Salem a couple of years after the witch trials where her brother appearing out of time gets him arrested for witchcraft. Of course.

It was a fun read. Not the kind of story to be taken too seriously because then you start noticing the people in the past sounding a little bit too much like modern Americans. There was a surprising twist near the end which livened it up after I thought the tying up of loose ends would be predictable. Stormy started out as brash and amusing but later on became a bit less of the strong heroine I was expecting. From what we learnt/were told about her, I expected more saving of the day on her part.

I’ve tagged it as romance, because it’s marketed thus, but the pairing isn’t the main character (since Stormy is already married). This didn’t bother me at all, but I thought maybe I should warn romance readers who might be expecting more.

Overall, I might pick up the first story and/or the sequel (when it becomes available at some unknown point in the future). I recommend it to anyone interested in a light time-travel story, with some light steampunk overtones and a bit of romance thrown in.

I received an advanced review copy of The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale courtesy of Carina Press. It will be released on the 28th May and will be purchasable from this link.

3.5 / 5 stars

Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz

Originally posted here.

I stumbled upon this book quite by accident after following a link that took me to the author’s website. When I saw she had written a steampunk novella set in Australia, how could I possibly resist buying it? I didn’t really need the added incentive of being able to count it towards the Australian Women Writers Challenge. And before you argue, steampunk counts as science fiction because of the technological and scientific sentiment inherent in (the characters) inventing new old tech.

Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz is set in and around the Swan River colony — mostly in Perth and Fremantle. The protagonist, Esme, is the daughter of a gold prospector and inventor who struck it rich relatively recently. She is also a suffragette spearheading a political party with the goal of giving women and non-Anglos rights and votes.

The story opens with her realisation that, since her main political opponent has somehow arranged for all political debates to take place at gentlemen’s clubs, she needs a male spokesperson to be a figurehead leader. Unfortunately, all her present male supporters are too busy with their own affairs to devote sufficient time to actually leading a political party. So, with the aid of her captain uncle, she set about finding herself a newly arrived scoundrel (“fresh off the boat” — would that there weren’t other connotations to that phrase) whom she intends to pay to be her puppet.

Enter Jed. A conveniently unknown American recently arrived from England with her uncle’s (steam-powered) ship. Jed quickly agrees to be the front-runner for her political party and a friendship/attraction blossoms between them (well, it is also a romance story).

Esme’s main rival is an old-money easterner (insofar as there is any aristocracy in pre-federation Australia, he seems to be a prime example). Unlikeable to the bone, he doesn’t seem to realise that Esme finds his desire to prevent anyone that isn’t male, white or rich (or, really, anyone that isn’t him or his friends) from voting abhorrent. He started off merely an arrogant prat, but this escalated for the climax in an exciting way, I thought. (No spoilers.)

The steampunk elements are scattered throughout the story. For example there are the steam powered boats that make it to Swan River from England in a matter of weeks, not months, miscellaneous minor steam-powered contraptions and even forays into electricity and magnetism (Tesla gets a very brief mention, too). From a scientific point of view, I found no obvious faults, although I’m a little sceptical of the kangaroo-inspired land vehicle mentioned at one point.

As I implied at the start, the thought of a steampunk story set in Australia made me very keen to read this and I was not disappointed. I hereby encourage more Australian authors to write Australian steampunk. Steam + gold rush allows for a wealth of material to draw from.

Speaking of the gold rush, being an easterner myself, I only really know a bit about Victoria’s gold rush, and next to nothing about Western Australia’s (arguably, I know more about Western Australia’s current mining boom than any of the past). It was nice to read about a slightly different gold rush. I liked that Schwartz put in a significant Indian population in Perth (cf Chinese miners in Victoria).

The writing was ever so slightly clunky in places, mostly when there was an instance of head-hopping (between Esme and Jed) within the same scene. I also found the story got more amusing as it went along — after a slightly uneventful beginning — and I really enjoyed the climax and ending. It had me laughing out loud a few times in the second half. I loved Esme, who was strong, progressive (obviously) and kept her head in trying circumstances. Overall, I recommend this to anyone with a passing interest in steampunk or Australian history.

4 / 5 stars.