This is probably my favorite of the author's books that I've read. Well, maybe tied with her very first book. Either way, it was good. The world building was pretty well done and the characters - and there were many - were, for the most part, interesting. I'd definitely pick up the next in the sequel to see where things progress. Oh! And there are no cliffhangers, which I really appreciate.

I received the book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

This is my sixth book by this author. First science fantasy. I’ve previously read a four book fantasy series and a 1 book, stand-a-lone, historical fantasy book. I realize that this book here falls into the science fiction category, but I think of it as science fantasy. What with the mysterious powers that are not science based, and the dryad like aliens.

I mentioned in either one of my updates or in a thread that this book has a similarity, in a loose way, with David Weber’s Safehold series. I do not wish to go too far down this path, but in short Safehold is about: a colony ship arrives at a planet. Something different than planned occurs and the colonists, who had been frozen, are awoken on the planet without any knowledge of their past and thrust upon them is this ‘religion’ that both puts the ships crew as gods, and includes things like ‘technology cannot go above a certain level’ in the rules. Then hundreds of years later an android is awoken – she has the memories of her time as a human female crewmember. She’s going to go out amongst the ‘peoples’ and stuff. Not exactly the same as the story here. Not by a long shot, not really, but that series and this book reminded me of each other.

Here, this book, – a colony ship arrives at a planet – it isn’t the planet they had been aiming for, and something mysterious happened to both put them off course and to give the crewmembers ‘god-like’ abilities. The colonists, who had been frozen, are sent down to the planet. They’ve either been given, or made up themselves (though I think it was given), that the crew members were gods. Though they were allowed to retain memory of their prior existence, and knowledge that the ‘gods’ had been humans at some point. To be fair, the crew members do have god-like abilities. Petty gods, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Tech base is kept at a relatively lowish level, but not due to any religious rules (or need to hide from vicious aliens (the real reason to keep the tech base low in Safehold). No, the tech base is limited to the situation – the planet isn’t the one the colony ship was aiming for, and most of their supplies are already on the planet – that other planet. And the planet they did land on apparently is low on metals. So they know about technology, they just don’t have the means to enable a higher level of technology.

So. That’s the foundation. A colony ship was heading to a new colony world. Something mysterious happened and the ship arrived at the wrong planet. No word is mentioned as to whether or not the ship was stuck there. Or had communication issues. Or anything. Heck, there’s even mention that the colonists had hoped for rescue, so the lack of a word or two mentioning that the ship didn’t have more power, or the communication gear was fried, or something, was vaguely annoying.

Distracted myself there. Sorry. Ship arrived. Crew awake as if from sleep, but look around – they were supposed to have been on duty. They are on the bridge. Many are dead. One, named Dillon, has a raging headache. Duo, is missing an eye. Lazlo is wandering around trying to help – he isn’t the doctor, just someone called upon in an emergency. The doctor is dead. Lessan – the navigator, another person who had woken up, is horrified, jerking around, looking for live people. Marlowe and Christian are also wandering around, and speaking oddly. Lessan decides to go wake up the captain, Dillon – for unclear reasons, wants her to stop. Grabs at her, she tries to pull free, he increases his desire to keep her from leaving, and she’s electrocuted. The crew, as mentioned, has these mystery powers now. Unexpectedly. And, as seen, from the first moment the reader meets him, Dillon is a massive asshole.

So, next chapter – two hundred years later, colonists are wandering around doing stuff colonist like.

This is where I’d say something like ‘the main character is’ or ‘the main characters are’ but . . . there are none. I know that the book description specifically mentions two – Lieutenant Cordelia ‘Delia’ Ross and the Storm Lord (that being Dillon), but neither has the main point of view. Both have point of views, and are important to the story-line, but neither are the main point of view. As mentioned, there is none.

Here’s also where I’d put down the point of views, except, there’s like 20 of them (not really, but a ton of them). There’s Cordelia, Captain Carmichael, Liam Carmichael, Dillon, Lazlo, Lydia (I think that’s the prophet one’s name), Horace, Nettle, Usk (the old drushka point of view (drushka being what I’ve been calling the dryad aliens), B46 (the ‘boggins’ queen), etc (I can’t recall now if Paul Ross, Shiv, Flood, and others also have point of views or not).

So, I can’t really give a list of main characters, because there isn’t really a main character. Nor can I do a list of POV’s, as there are just so many of them. So, let me just boil things down. The colonists live near a swamp in a place called Gale (the main humans in this story, not all humans on this planet). They share the few remaining armor they have left (suits of armor), while others wear ‘leathers’. They patrol around the town, and in the nearby swamp. The ‘paladins’ are the local security/town guards. The town and paladins ‘worship’ the god known as ‘Storm Lord’ – he who helps control the weather – moving rain, clouds, etc. Which Dillon, as Storm Lord, does in fact do.

In the swamp are two intelligent or proto-intelligent species. One of which is actually broken apart into two factions – one that wishes to wipe out the humans (old drushka), and one that does not (drushka). The proto-intelligent species, boggins, is at a level wherein they can use sticks they find on the ground as spears, and have a certain low cunning – they’ve been ‘augmented’ though to a level of true intelligence (a level they might have reached on their own if they had had the opportunity and lots of time). The old drushka still have a ‘wipe out the humans’ mentality, though they haven’t done anything to advance that mentality in a good long while; at the same time they don’t like how the whole drushka has been split and wish to join everyone back up again. The boggins are running around trying to figure out what to do with this new intelligence, though they know that one of the things they wish to do is wipe out the humans and the drushka.

There is a solid story here. It’s readable, it’s interesting, and it intrigues me enough to pull me along. There’s a slight problem, though. With minor exceptions, like a few of the yangui’s (sp? – the augmented humans), Nettles and Shiv (drushka), I kind of despise everyone.

Of the original crew: Dillon’s insane with lots of power. A real asshole. The other ‘god like’ crew members, except for Duo and Lazlo, are mostly unknown to the reader – might even be some great people in there, or more assholes, not given enough to know. Duo’s another insane one with lots of power, but doesn’t get a lot of ‘screen’ time (or pages). Lazlo’s a weak-ass coward who has spent the last 250 years lusting after Dillon and doing his bidding, which includes some seriously evil shit, despite the fact that Dillon is just friendly to Lazlo because Lazlo has this ability to heal.

Of those on the planet: Captain Carmichael is described in a way that lends one to believe she’s super competent and really good at her job. Though when she actually tries to do anything, she is shown to be kind of incompetent and lacking in abilities – no idea what that’s about. Long and short, she’s an incompetent dick with a veneer of competence and respect. Liam Carmichael, son of Captain Carmichael, is a drunk and a skirt-chaser who is largely incompetent. Lieutenant Cordelia Ross is friends with Liam, and shows a lot more competence than many others in this story. She’s also, though, a drunk and a skirt-chaser with a lot of bigotry (see: her reaction to seeing ‘Sun and Moon’ people in the town) and arrogance mixed in.

Of those who are drushka (and why is that always lower case in the book?): Nettles is competent and good at what she does. Shiv acts impulsive and immature, but she’s likable despite these handicaps. None of the drushka, though, has enough pages to get a firm handle on their characters.

Of those with point of views who I haven’t mentioned above: some I do not know why they are in the book. They have no real presence, beyond a couple scenes here and there. No, not why they are in the book, why they have point of views. Lydia, the prophet, appears to be there to . . . um . . show what a prophet is like. And have yet another person be sorry for in regards to close ones deaths.

Romance
Almost forgot this one here. There's a bit of romance going on in this book. It drives several of the characters actions so I can't say that it is not of importance. But this isn't a capital R romance. It just is a book that includes romance. drushka and humans. Gods and humans. Humans and humans. Straight, lesbian, and gay relationships. More straight than any other kind. Not counting one-night-stand type deals, there is 2 lesbian, '2' gay (I might not otherwise count Dillon and Lazlo, but Dillon has controlled Lazlo for 250 years because of Lazlo's lust for him, even if there isn't anything more than a manipulative relationship here), and 2 straight. I'm being purposely vague. Though I'm not sure why. Story opens with three relationships in place (well, once the prologue is over) - Lazlo and Dillon (gay), Paul Ross and Reach (straight), and Lydia and Freddie (lesbian). Three more 'develop' over the course of the book.

Overall
Bah. Enough of that. Let's do the overall thingie. There is a good solid story here. There are just too many people telling it. And most of them are not people I want to have anything to do with. Even so, I was planning on giving this book a rating near 3.5 to 3.8 stars – closer to 3.8. Since that is ‘close enough’ to 4 stars, I was going to mark the book as 4 stars. Since there’s no way to mark the book as being 3.5 stars. I was hovering on the edge, though and . . . . something that occurred very near the end pushed me in the opposite direction. In the end, I cannot give a rating higher than 3.3 stars – still a good solid rating. And without half stars, that gets marked down as a 3 everywhere that lacks half stars (GoodReads, Netgalley) and 3.5 everywhere that has half stars (LibraryThing, if I still posted there, Leafmarks – similarly if I still posted there), and 3.3 on my blog.

May 9 2016
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