Everina Maxwell

This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it if I were trapped in a room with nothing to read except books from this series, but I probably wouldn’t actively seek it out whilst I’m still being allowed to roam free.

Audio Narration
The narrator is Raphael Corkhill. For the most I thought his narration was fine, and he was pleasant to listen to, but I did have a couple issues. I’ve often complained about narrators who over-dramatize the voices for characters of the opposite sex, but his reading of female characters was so under-dramatized that I often couldn’t tell if a character was female or not until the text made it clear which character was speaking. The distinction between a male versus a female voice is one of the things that helps an audiobook listener distinguish between characters, so this was sometimes a problem for me.

I think the other issue I had was just a result of the narrator attempting to do what the text said. There are a couple characters who are portrayed as speaking with a slight accent that becomes more pronounced when the characters are under some stress or feeling a sense of urgency. The narrator did this, but sometimes I had trouble recognizing the characters at those times. The text does mention character names often enough that I was usually able to keep straight who was talking, though. It just sometimes wasn’t until after the dialogue that it became clear who had said it.

Story
The SF&F group has once again tricked me into reading a romance novel. :) (Ok, I admit I did it to myself, because I avoid reading any info about a book before I start it. I prefer to jump in blindly and be surprised, even if the surprise isn’t always pleasant.) This book is at least 50% romance, probably more. The science fiction aspect was purely setting with very little substance.

The main premise is that war between various planets is avoided through treaties and arranged marriages. Prince Kiem, a man with a history of getting himself into trouble, is unexpectedly commanded by the emperor (his grandmother) to marry a man from another planet, Jainan, whose husband from Kiem’s family recently died in a shuttle accident. He’s not happy, but the marriage is critical for avoiding war, so he goes along with it. Angsty romantic tropes ensue, along with some fairly generic political intrigue.

This is one of those books that relies on characters constantly misunderstanding each other and being incapable of talking things out with each other. In this case, I kind of bought into it under the circumstances, but it’s a trope that unfailingly annoys me. I did enjoy Prince Kiem. I don’t think he was a particularly unique character, but I definitely have a soft spot for the rogue-ish characters with a good heart, and he fits that niche nicely. I kind of liked Jainan, but his internal thoughts were quite frustrating at times. There was background to explain why he was the way he was, but it was still frustrating for me as a reader.

The political intrigue aspects of the story seemed under-developed. I think it was more of a vehicle for the romance than a story in and of itself, although the action did pick up in the second half. Some of the key underlying elements that were supposedly driving the plot, such as the concepts of the auditors and the remnants, were never fleshed out well.

In spite of all my complaints, both the story and the characters held my attention better than I would have expected them to. This story wasn’t really up my alley, but I never felt bored or restless while listening to it. If the second book had stayed with the same characters and explored their lives after all the angsty romance stuff was resolved in this book, I might have been a little more tempted to try the second book, but I took a peek at the description and it looks like it’s another romance featuring different characters, so I think I’ve had my fill of that for now!… (mais)

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/hugos-2023-the-astounding-award-for-best-new-wri...

It’s another queer space opera romance, where the super politically connected Bad Boy is thrown together with the Good Boy trying to overcome his controversial family heritage, in a world where mind-control skills are just sufficiently developed for the plot, and you can see where it’s going from the third chapter. I liked it more than the previous book though.… (mais)

A M/M royal marriage of convenience with two rather romantic young men, strangers to each other until the day of the wedding. One was widowed his former spouse a cousin of the other. Misunderstandings, murder, politics, betrayals, space opera. The characters we spend time with are pretty pleasant if not terribly interesting, and gender seems to be a matter of which pronouns are used and what is worn, and in the milieu of the story indicate by wearing either flint for F or wood for M or glass for U. But gender doesn't seem to have any other weight within the book in terms of rolls or expectations and no children are mentioned as being in the palace, at least at any of the events attended or spaces occupied by the main couple.… (mais)

I love going into Books blind. The cover suggests one thing, and then the story inside is so different. In this case, I loved it. Is this a space adventure? Yes! But at heart it’s a romance novel. This romance novel is between Prince Keim and Count Jainan, in this space adventure, marriage is a contract and often used to bring two worlds together. With the resolution (galactic contracts) fast approaching the emperor must make sure that her treaty bond with the Thean planet and people is strong. To do that, she must marry their representative to a member of her family. This is a game of politics, but like any good love story it does have a happily ever after. The author can paint a realistic fantasy world, where some things feel like the earth we know, and someplace we don’t, but were named for things missed or remembered. For example, in Iksat, a bear has six legs and scales, but it is still just as deadly as an earth bear. When this book isn’t on Iksat, it’s out in space and it’s full of adventure, political intrigue, a little bit of mystery and a lot of heart. It does have a few slow points where it feels the 400+ page is that it is, but not often the reader wants to get to the happily ever after. The reader wants to know if their assumptions are correct. This was a wonderfully divergent space story that was nothing I was expecting but everything that I needed.… (mais)