Singh, Nalini - Slave to Sensation
Or: the shapeshifter condo book!
Lucas Hunter is the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard Changeling pack. A serial killer is currently targeting Changeling women across packs, and Lucas suspects that the killer is Psy, even though the Psy race supposedly suppressed all their emotions in a protocol called Silence in order to get rid of crime and other nasty stuff. He starts working with Sascha Duncan to build Changeling condos and to try to get more information from the Psy from her.
Sascha, on the other hand, is supposedly a cardinal-level Psy-you can tell who these Super Powerful Psy are because their eyes are all black with little white specks, like stars (I am not kidding! They also turn into rainbow fireworks when she orgasms. SO NOT KIDDING!). But her powers have never manifested, and she's spent a lifetime hiding her defectiveness from her extremely powerful mother and from the rest of Psy society.
And finally, I can say it truthfully: TOGETHER, THEY FIGHT CRIME!
Well, a crime.
(And they build condos.)
I've read several of Singh's Psy-Changeling series before, and her extremely possessive and violent men really don't do it for me. Also, Sascha is much more of a healer figure in later books, which made me much less inclined to be interested in her. Fortunately, in this book, she is all icy Psy, and she has a lot more angst than Lucas, which surprised me.
Don't get me wrong. Lucas does have angst. He is a hero; he must have angst. However, Sascha's angst is the main plot driver. Lucas' angst does have some bearing on how the relationship progresses, but almost all of the change comes from Sascha, which is sadly still abnormal in romances. Unfortunately, as with most of Singh's books, once Sascha's shields come down, the relationship suddenly becomes much more conventional and much more boring.
Also, I totally wanted more of the condos. I loved all the details about the deal negotiations and the talk of materials and such! The condos sadly go away when the serial killer plot really kicks in, but I loved what we got of them.
As noted, the book has many of the same flaws that are in the rest of Singh's books. While I like that she does have some women fighters, most of them are still men. I also continue to hate the whole Changeling mating thing and the men's possessiveness. On the other hand, this series continues to fascinate me as well, because of how things like emotional neediness and the desire for comforting touch is built into the Changelings, alpha men included. Also, Singh starts here with her trend of multi-racial characters; Sascha is a quarter or an eighth Japanese, Scottish, and I think something else. Sadly, the trend goes along with lots of Starbucks skin descriptions and frequent use of the word "exotic."
In conclusion: interesting worldbuilding, flawed prose and execution, and somewhat interesting gender and race stuff that never goes as far as I want it to.
This entry was originally posted at http://oyceter.dreamwidth.org/842318.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Lucas Hunter is the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard Changeling pack. A serial killer is currently targeting Changeling women across packs, and Lucas suspects that the killer is Psy, even though the Psy race supposedly suppressed all their emotions in a protocol called Silence in order to get rid of crime and other nasty stuff. He starts working with Sascha Duncan to build Changeling condos and to try to get more information from the Psy from her.
Sascha, on the other hand, is supposedly a cardinal-level Psy-you can tell who these Super Powerful Psy are because their eyes are all black with little white specks, like stars (I am not kidding! They also turn into rainbow fireworks when she orgasms. SO NOT KIDDING!). But her powers have never manifested, and she's spent a lifetime hiding her defectiveness from her extremely powerful mother and from the rest of Psy society.
And finally, I can say it truthfully: TOGETHER, THEY FIGHT CRIME!
Well, a crime.
(And they build condos.)
I've read several of Singh's Psy-Changeling series before, and her extremely possessive and violent men really don't do it for me. Also, Sascha is much more of a healer figure in later books, which made me much less inclined to be interested in her. Fortunately, in this book, she is all icy Psy, and she has a lot more angst than Lucas, which surprised me.
Don't get me wrong. Lucas does have angst. He is a hero; he must have angst. However, Sascha's angst is the main plot driver. Lucas' angst does have some bearing on how the relationship progresses, but almost all of the change comes from Sascha, which is sadly still abnormal in romances. Unfortunately, as with most of Singh's books, once Sascha's shields come down, the relationship suddenly becomes much more conventional and much more boring.
Also, I totally wanted more of the condos. I loved all the details about the deal negotiations and the talk of materials and such! The condos sadly go away when the serial killer plot really kicks in, but I loved what we got of them.
As noted, the book has many of the same flaws that are in the rest of Singh's books. While I like that she does have some women fighters, most of them are still men. I also continue to hate the whole Changeling mating thing and the men's possessiveness. On the other hand, this series continues to fascinate me as well, because of how things like emotional neediness and the desire for comforting touch is built into the Changelings, alpha men included. Also, Singh starts here with her trend of multi-racial characters; Sascha is a quarter or an eighth Japanese, Scottish, and I think something else. Sadly, the trend goes along with lots of Starbucks skin descriptions and frequent use of the word "exotic."
In conclusion: interesting worldbuilding, flawed prose and execution, and somewhat interesting gender and race stuff that never goes as far as I want it to.
This entry was originally posted at http://oyceter.dreamwidth.org/842318.html. Please comment there using OpenID.