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Partners #1
Partners - Book One
After a massive volcanic eruption puts earth into nuclear winter, the planet is cloaked in clouds and no sun penetrates. Seas cover most of the land areas except high elevations which exist as islands where the remaining humans have learned to make do with much less. People survive on what they can take from the sea and with foodstuffs supplemented from an orbiting set of space stations.
Jess Drake is an agent for Interforce, a small and exclusive special forces organization that still possesses access to technology. Her job is to protect and serve the citizens of the American continent who are in conflict with those left on the European continent. The struggle for resources is brutal, and when a rogue agent nearly destroys everything, Interforce decides to trust no one. They send Jess a biologically-created agent who has been artificially devised and given knowledge using specialized brain programming techniques.
Instead of the mindless automaton one might expect, Biological Alternative NM-Dev-1 proves to be human and attractive. Against all odds, Jess and the new agent are swept into a relationship neither expected. Can they survive in these strange circumstances? And will they even be able to stay alive in this bleak new world?
Jess Drake is an agent for Interforce, a small and exclusive special forces organization that still possesses access to technology. Her job is to protect and serve the citizens of the American continent who are in conflict with those left on the European continent. The struggle for resources is brutal, and when a rogue agent nearly destroys everything, Interforce decides to trust no one. They send Jess a biologically-created agent who has been artificially devised and given knowledge using specialized brain programming techniques.
Instead of the mindless automaton one might expect, Biological Alternative NM-Dev-1 proves to be human and attractive. Against all odds, Jess and the new agent are swept into a relationship neither expected. Can they survive in these strange circumstances? And will they even be able to stay alive in this bleak new world?
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 8, 2013
26 people are currently reading
467 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Good
49 books298 followersMelissa Good is a full time network engineer and part time writer who lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida with a handful of lizards and a dog. When not traveling for work, or participating in the usual chores she ejects several sets of clamoring voices onto a variety of keyboards and tries to entertain others with them to the best of her ability. She is a prolific author of many published novels and a very well-known author of Xena fan fiction. You can find other info at www.merwolf.com.
Melissa “Missy” Good is the Royal Academy of Bards 2005 Hall of Fame Author and the winner of 2008 Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award.
Melissa “Missy” Good is the Royal Academy of Bards 2005 Hall of Fame Author and the winner of 2008 Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 17, 2014
Jess, a maverick agent of a special forces group defending what remains of America after a nuclear winter, would rather work solo after a terrible betrayal by her partner of many years. But Interforce, the organization she works for, insists on foisting a lab-grown techie on her. These are genetically engineered "humans" called bio-alts (bio-alternatives) especially grown for specific functions from piloting aircraft to sweeping floors, equipped with as much or as little brainpower as required for their assigned role.
The head of Interforce suspects the organization still has a mole and requests that Jess be partnered anew with an experimental 'learning' bio-alt (think Terminator, but cuter) to suss out that mole. Jess vehemently objects at first, but eventually the bio-alt wins her over, not, as you might expect, with her cuteness, but with all her other talents. :) Of course, this being lesfic, the cuteness wasn't wasted either.
The first half of the book is quite the page-turner, as the book sets up the post-nuclear setting using Jess' past experiences. There is politicking, killings, attempted assassinations and whatnot. However, once Jess and Dev (the name of her bio-alt partner) are sent down to earth on a mission, things simmer down quite a bit. The alone-time is a perfect setup for the budding attraction. The author takes her time with this, as it should be. People who like their sci-fi detailed and their romances slow-burning will appreciate the pace at this point. I was mostly bored. I was expecting the author to explore the issue of 'slavery' of bio-alts more but it was just mentioned mostly in passing, as observations by Dev, who, despite being a bio-alt herself, doesn't seem to find anything wrong with the whole system. And neither does Jess. I'd like to think it's not because they didn't care but because they're just too busy exploring their surroundings (and each other, lol). Hopefully, this will be dealt with more in-depth in Book 2.
If you like your sci-fi more fast-paced and action oriented, I highly recommend instead The Girls From Alcyone--Lots of action set pieces plus a sweet romance.
The head of Interforce suspects the organization still has a mole and requests that Jess be partnered anew with an experimental 'learning' bio-alt (think Terminator, but cuter) to suss out that mole. Jess vehemently objects at first, but eventually the bio-alt wins her over, not, as you might expect, with her cuteness, but with all her other talents. :) Of course, this being lesfic, the cuteness wasn't wasted either.
The first half of the book is quite the page-turner, as the book sets up the post-nuclear setting using Jess' past experiences. There is politicking, killings, attempted assassinations and whatnot. However, once Jess and Dev (the name of her bio-alt partner) are sent down to earth on a mission, things simmer down quite a bit. The alone-time is a perfect setup for the budding attraction. The author takes her time with this, as it should be. People who like their sci-fi detailed and their romances slow-burning will appreciate the pace at this point. I was mostly bored. I was expecting the author to explore the issue of 'slavery' of bio-alts more but it was just mentioned mostly in passing, as observations by Dev, who, despite being a bio-alt herself, doesn't seem to find anything wrong with the whole system. And neither does Jess. I'd like to think it's not because they didn't care but because they're just too busy exploring their surroundings (and each other, lol). Hopefully, this will be dealt with more in-depth in Book 2.
If you like your sci-fi more fast-paced and action oriented, I highly recommend instead The Girls From Alcyone--Lots of action set pieces plus a sweet romance.
December 2, 2017
3.4 stars. The beginning was great and the ending was somewhat decent if you can get past the cliffhanger and go right to the second book but the middle was a whole lot of nothing.
The book starts of promising, we are introduced to a dystopian future a couple hundreds years from now. It might've been a result of human activity or it might've not but a global catastrophe has destroyed most of the world and with it 90% of the worlds population. I love it already at this point.
Then there are the two main characters - the ultimate badass agent Jess and the nicest tech girl on the whole world Dev who's not really human, she's artificially grown and programmed. Great setup, what can go wrong?
Nothing happens in this book! That's what went wrong. After an action filled intro they just hang out into the grey citadel or do a lot of nothing in their flying ship, there is a mission and they spend most of the book preparing for it or being delayed to go on it sooner. It was necessary to a certain extent, characters need to be developed, the world needs to be built but it goes way beyond that into the zone of repetitiveness where Dev sees a new food/animal/toilet that's not in space (where she grew up) and that is always "interesting". That's basically her default answer to everything and she says that word at least a 100 times in this book, I counted.
And when finally something starts to happen and it's getting exciting again the book ends. A cliffhanger, I got no love for those.
The characters are fine I guess. Jess is kinda one dimensional, she has an interesting back story but besides that she's basically a sociopath without breaks. She steals and kills without remorse innocent or not, doesn't care about anyone and does what she wants. Some of it is kinda explained but it's a bit hard to like her, her feelings and attitude towards Dev redeems her a little bit. Now Dev is a really engaging one, she's made in a test tube and she doesn't have any human rights because technically she's not a human even though she thinks and she feels if not exactly like then similarly to real humans. Her journey from bio alt to becoming fully human through new experiences is done really well.
The world building is good but more backstory was needed. Basically the conflict between the dystopian Europe and America is explained away by humans being humans and conflict is what we do. Some more context could've made it much more believable. The tech side of things are well thought out but the author writes too much about it. I'd rather something actually happened in place of descriptions of characters turning every little knob and lever to fly their airships and use their scanners.
What it comes down to is that the base ingredients are really fresh and high quality but the cook forgot to add salt and spices. The book gets incredibly repetitive and stale in the middle and it was a chore to grind to the end. It also suffers from unbelievable coincidences - if there's a storm they will be caught in it, if there's a volcano it will erupt and so on. I've mixed feelings really, on one hand I want to know what happens next because I already spent a lot of time reading this full length book and Dev is really a great character but on the other it was such a grind that I'm not sure I want to repeat that. I hope a lot more actually happens in the second book.
The book starts of promising, we are introduced to a dystopian future a couple hundreds years from now. It might've been a result of human activity or it might've not but a global catastrophe has destroyed most of the world and with it 90% of the worlds population. I love it already at this point.
Then there are the two main characters - the ultimate badass agent Jess and the nicest tech girl on the whole world Dev who's not really human, she's artificially grown and programmed. Great setup, what can go wrong?
Nothing happens in this book! That's what went wrong. After an action filled intro they just hang out into the grey citadel or do a lot of nothing in their flying ship, there is a mission and they spend most of the book preparing for it or being delayed to go on it sooner. It was necessary to a certain extent, characters need to be developed, the world needs to be built but it goes way beyond that into the zone of repetitiveness where Dev sees a new food/animal/toilet that's not in space (where she grew up) and that is always "interesting". That's basically her default answer to everything and she says that word at least a 100 times in this book, I counted.
And when finally something starts to happen and it's getting exciting again the book ends. A cliffhanger, I got no love for those.
The characters are fine I guess. Jess is kinda one dimensional, she has an interesting back story but besides that she's basically a sociopath without breaks. She steals and kills without remorse innocent or not, doesn't care about anyone and does what she wants. Some of it is kinda explained but it's a bit hard to like her, her feelings and attitude towards Dev redeems her a little bit. Now Dev is a really engaging one, she's made in a test tube and she doesn't have any human rights because technically she's not a human even though she thinks and she feels if not exactly like then similarly to real humans. Her journey from bio alt to becoming fully human through new experiences is done really well.
The world building is good but more backstory was needed. Basically the conflict between the dystopian Europe and America is explained away by humans being humans and conflict is what we do. Some more context could've made it much more believable. The tech side of things are well thought out but the author writes too much about it. I'd rather something actually happened in place of descriptions of characters turning every little knob and lever to fly their airships and use their scanners.
What it comes down to is that the base ingredients are really fresh and high quality but the cook forgot to add salt and spices. The book gets incredibly repetitive and stale in the middle and it was a chore to grind to the end. It also suffers from unbelievable coincidences - if there's a storm they will be caught in it, if there's a volcano it will erupt and so on. I've mixed feelings really, on one hand I want to know what happens next because I already spent a lot of time reading this full length book and Dev is really a great character but on the other it was such a grind that I'm not sure I want to repeat that. I hope a lot more actually happens in the second book.
August 11, 2014
Ok, I'm going to honest here.
At the core of it all, it seems to be just another Dar and Kerry novel. It has the same characters, the same setting (only this is in the future) and the same story as Tropical Storm had.
But let's dig in a bit deeper.
The setting is somewhat a mix between the movie Waterworld and the Orchid Volume 1 graphic novels. The world as we know it doesn't exist anymore, and life is a real bitch. Unless you are tested and found good enough to do something important, or you are biologically engineered in a spacestation. Jess is an agent for an organization that deals with security and espionage. Dev is an experiment, and is thrown into the deep end of a life she is barely, or even not, prepared for.
Both are partnered and sent on missions, but something is not as it should be, and it is up to both our intrepid heroines to find out what that is and fix it. So far, it is pretty cliché and could be a dime a dozen story. But there is an undercurrent here, and it has to do with society and the place the so called Biological Alternatives (which Dev is)have. Or rather, the place they don't have. Although being genetically human, they are classified as non citizens, and are looked down upon and just barely tolerated, as their one and only function is to do jobs no one else wants to do.
I have read comments about equalling BA's to slaves, and in a way, they are. They are carefully "grown" and completely controlled, only able to do the things they are programmed for.
And as we learn more about them, through Dev, the BA's don't like it much either, as despite all the genetical engineering and rigid programming, they are able to have feelings and even dreams about wanting to do more than what's expected of them, and, dare we say it, have ambitions.
But downside, as earth is called, don't know that, don't even want to know that. They are just there to do menial work and most natural born simply hate them.
So we get thrown into the story, as Jess is recovering from a mission gone bad, because her partner (called techs) betrays her and she barely escapes with her life. Trust between the Agent and the Tech is vital for mission success, and now there's a lot of friction going on between the other agents and their techs. So much so, it endangers the entire organization.
Then she gets ordered to partner up with, of all things, a new experimental Biological Alternative, which has gotten a crash course in all things operations through a week of heavy programming. Trusting no one, certainly not a lowly BA as a partner, Jess decides to opt out, but at the last moment is brought back by the big boss of it all, and she is convinced to take on Dev and root out the moll inside. Much to the outrage of anyone else.
Again, pretty standard scifi, were it not for Dev. Because Dev is an absolute joy to read about. She is a 17 and a half (standard) years old, and knows absolutely nothing about life or operations beyond what with she is programmed for. It's a bit funny though, because we learn they get a thorough education and training, but al she has known for her entire life is the space station she was "born" on. But there is a secret, only known to her maker. She is one of kind so far, and unbeknownst to Dev, she is engineered to learn, and make decisions, and act human. So we have someone that acts as any other other human adult, but everything she encounters is new to her and she has no clue at all what to do or think. The conversations between Jess and Dev are very nice to read. Dev adapts and learns (although she most of the time has to resort to a computer to find out what all these humans talk about), and proves her worth during her first mission, by showing piloting skills no one has ever seen.
It is a slow story though (but I like that) and ends in a ..to be continued. I only read this because I saw the sequel being scheduled for december this year. It is in every way a Melissa Good book. If you didn't like Dar and Kerry, don't bother. But the interaction between Jess and Dev is what makes this a good read. The sci fi ho hum is a bit standard, the world building has holes the size of the Titanic, but Dev really makes this book shine. I can't wait for the sequel.
At the core of it all, it seems to be just another Dar and Kerry novel. It has the same characters, the same setting (only this is in the future) and the same story as Tropical Storm had.
But let's dig in a bit deeper.
The setting is somewhat a mix between the movie Waterworld and the Orchid Volume 1 graphic novels. The world as we know it doesn't exist anymore, and life is a real bitch. Unless you are tested and found good enough to do something important, or you are biologically engineered in a spacestation. Jess is an agent for an organization that deals with security and espionage. Dev is an experiment, and is thrown into the deep end of a life she is barely, or even not, prepared for.
Both are partnered and sent on missions, but something is not as it should be, and it is up to both our intrepid heroines to find out what that is and fix it. So far, it is pretty cliché and could be a dime a dozen story. But there is an undercurrent here, and it has to do with society and the place the so called Biological Alternatives (which Dev is)have. Or rather, the place they don't have. Although being genetically human, they are classified as non citizens, and are looked down upon and just barely tolerated, as their one and only function is to do jobs no one else wants to do.
I have read comments about equalling BA's to slaves, and in a way, they are. They are carefully "grown" and completely controlled, only able to do the things they are programmed for.
And as we learn more about them, through Dev, the BA's don't like it much either, as despite all the genetical engineering and rigid programming, they are able to have feelings and even dreams about wanting to do more than what's expected of them, and, dare we say it, have ambitions.
But downside, as earth is called, don't know that, don't even want to know that. They are just there to do menial work and most natural born simply hate them.
So we get thrown into the story, as Jess is recovering from a mission gone bad, because her partner (called techs) betrays her and she barely escapes with her life. Trust between the Agent and the Tech is vital for mission success, and now there's a lot of friction going on between the other agents and their techs. So much so, it endangers the entire organization.
Then she gets ordered to partner up with, of all things, a new experimental Biological Alternative, which has gotten a crash course in all things operations through a week of heavy programming. Trusting no one, certainly not a lowly BA as a partner, Jess decides to opt out, but at the last moment is brought back by the big boss of it all, and she is convinced to take on Dev and root out the moll inside. Much to the outrage of anyone else.
Again, pretty standard scifi, were it not for Dev. Because Dev is an absolute joy to read about. She is a 17 and a half (standard) years old, and knows absolutely nothing about life or operations beyond what with she is programmed for. It's a bit funny though, because we learn they get a thorough education and training, but al she has known for her entire life is the space station she was "born" on. But there is a secret, only known to her maker. She is one of kind so far, and unbeknownst to Dev, she is engineered to learn, and make decisions, and act human. So we have someone that acts as any other other human adult, but everything she encounters is new to her and she has no clue at all what to do or think. The conversations between Jess and Dev are very nice to read. Dev adapts and learns (although she most of the time has to resort to a computer to find out what all these humans talk about), and proves her worth during her first mission, by showing piloting skills no one has ever seen.
It is a slow story though (but I like that) and ends in a ..to be continued. I only read this because I saw the sequel being scheduled for december this year. It is in every way a Melissa Good book. If you didn't like Dar and Kerry, don't bother. But the interaction between Jess and Dev is what makes this a good read. The sci fi ho hum is a bit standard, the world building has holes the size of the Titanic, but Dev really makes this book shine. I can't wait for the sequel.
October 10, 2013
Lesbian Sci-fi romance. Light on the eroticism, most sex scenes are fade to black. Let's start with the beginning. I love the author. This is the fifth work of fiction I've read by her, and while I generally want erotica/romantica over pure romance, I love her work anyway.
This book is sci-fi with minimal info dumps. Its almost all show, and little tell. The plot is twisty, but it intertwines seamlessly with the character development, and as usual with Melissa Good, the characters are strong, and interesting to read about. The plot never bogs down, and overall, I really liked the story.
The characters are great. Senior Agent Jesslyn Drake is, I'd guess, modelled on Xena, like Dar is, from Dar & Kelly's series. She's not Xena, but she's an alpha female, dangerous, straight forward, and uniquely feminine. I really liked her. She kicked ass when she needed to, showed her badassery without ever feeling like a cartoony cliche, and the romance between her and Dev was so genuine and sweet, I loved it.
Biological Alternative, set 0202164812, instance NMDev1, aka Dev, is a biological alternative unit, a specially designed and bred test tube concoction, which is basically a human, except with a specially designed genome, selecting for qualities that are wanted, and without unwanted qualities, then schooled and trained to do jobs for "real humans" When the book starts, almost all Bio Alts have been used as janitors, waiters and other menial jobs, and are thought of as mentally deficient, and basically just drones. They have no rights, and belong to whoever purchased their contract, I'd say as a slave, but slaves usually have some sort of rights. Dev is contracted to Interforce, the agency Jess works for to be her partner, and given special training in technical and pilot skills, so she can help Jess do her job. Her growth from start to finish is such a joy to watch, and her and Jess are a lot of fun together.
I loved the world building, I loved the characters, Dev especially, though Jess too, and the plot was pretty good, even considering this is a romance. I really enjoyed this book, and my only complaint is I want more graphic sex. =) Still, its awesome, I loved it.
This book is sci-fi with minimal info dumps. Its almost all show, and little tell. The plot is twisty, but it intertwines seamlessly with the character development, and as usual with Melissa Good, the characters are strong, and interesting to read about. The plot never bogs down, and overall, I really liked the story.
The characters are great. Senior Agent Jesslyn Drake is, I'd guess, modelled on Xena, like Dar is, from Dar & Kelly's series. She's not Xena, but she's an alpha female, dangerous, straight forward, and uniquely feminine. I really liked her. She kicked ass when she needed to, showed her badassery without ever feeling like a cartoony cliche, and the romance between her and Dev was so genuine and sweet, I loved it.
Biological Alternative, set 0202164812, instance NMDev1, aka Dev, is a biological alternative unit, a specially designed and bred test tube concoction, which is basically a human, except with a specially designed genome, selecting for qualities that are wanted, and without unwanted qualities, then schooled and trained to do jobs for "real humans" When the book starts, almost all Bio Alts have been used as janitors, waiters and other menial jobs, and are thought of as mentally deficient, and basically just drones. They have no rights, and belong to whoever purchased their contract, I'd say as a slave, but slaves usually have some sort of rights. Dev is contracted to Interforce, the agency Jess works for to be her partner, and given special training in technical and pilot skills, so she can help Jess do her job. Her growth from start to finish is such a joy to watch, and her and Jess are a lot of fun together.
I loved the world building, I loved the characters, Dev especially, though Jess too, and the plot was pretty good, even considering this is a romance. I really enjoyed this book, and my only complaint is I want more graphic sex. =) Still, its awesome, I loved it.
September 4, 2019
What an interesting story line!
Jess takes a lot of getting used to. She was very hard to like at the start of this book but when you hear more about her experiences as a child with her training and the harsh words from her family, it's understandable for her to behave and think the way she does.
I loved Dev from the get go... she was endearing and personally, very much a normal born like Jess. She thinks and feels like any other normal born but she's kind without question. I love that about her.
I can't wait to see what's next in store for the both of them in the next book.
Jess takes a lot of getting used to. She was very hard to like at the start of this book but when you hear more about her experiences as a child with her training and the harsh words from her family, it's understandable for her to behave and think the way she does.
I loved Dev from the get go... she was endearing and personally, very much a normal born like Jess. She thinks and feels like any other normal born but she's kind without question. I love that about her.
I can't wait to see what's next in store for the both of them in the next book.
March 22, 2023
Lots of fun! Go into it like it's fan and not an edited book. There are loads and loads and loads of grammar/editing issues so if you can ignore them, I highly recommend it.
November 17, 2017
I'm not going to review this book in any detail. The other reviewers have done a great job already. I just wanted to highly recommend each of the Partners novels. Partner is such a perfect title. Dev and Jesslyn Drake are both life and battle partners. They are superheroes who are not afraid to fight any enemy. Their love for each other is unmatched in the cold and heartless world which they inhabit.
I have read and collected more lesfic in the last 40+ years than I can enumerate. At first, the uber fan fiction coming out of the Xenaverse drove me crazy. I hated the whole insipid blue eye/green eye genre. I have mellowed out and accept it as one more literary device. Melissa Good writes about fated lovers who live for action, adventure and kisses.
Pick up a copy of these books. Give yourself ample time to read them. I hope you that enjoy them as much as I did.
I have read and collected more lesfic in the last 40+ years than I can enumerate. At first, the uber fan fiction coming out of the Xenaverse drove me crazy. I hated the whole insipid blue eye/green eye genre. I have mellowed out and accept it as one more literary device. Melissa Good writes about fated lovers who live for action, adventure and kisses.
Pick up a copy of these books. Give yourself ample time to read them. I hope you that enjoy them as much as I did.
November 21, 2013
**Small spoiler in this review**
Good Story with recognisable characters, but and yes there is a but, did we have to have the cliffhanger at the end and the .... to be continued. Is this going to be continued? As with the Dar and Kerry series, you grow attached to the characters and want to know what's going to happen to them...
Good Story with recognisable characters, but and yes there is a but, did we have to have the cliffhanger at the end and the .... to be continued. Is this going to be continued? As with the Dar and Kerry series, you grow attached to the characters and want to know what's going to happen to them...
October 12, 2018
Such a fun read! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 just because I'm really enjoying the two main characters and their adventure. The storytelling is a bit fanfic-y, in both good and bad ways. On the good side, I'm totally shipping* Jess and Dev and really enjoying their sweet romance against the gritty backdrop of the post-apocalyptic, heavily masculine, and highly militaristic sci-fi setting. (~We found love in a hopeless place...~) Lots of GREAT sci-fi tropes in the mix, and I'm excited to see where the story goes in the following installments! As for the bad, although the story itself is lots of fun, the quality of the writing is a bit lacking, with rampant (but fairly consistent) POV head-hopping, minor continuity issues (such as characters having lightly repetitive conversations or "realizing" something you thought they knew chapters ago), and quite a few typos. All that said, if you're looking for an F/F sci-fi/action that is pure entertainment and easy reading, this one is absolutely worthwhile.
*I'm truly shipping them in the sense of actively imagining new scenarios and trying to guess what will happen later on to bring them even closer!! However, as a disclaimer on that, a few things about their relationship haven't totally landed well for me, including their age difference and some comments Jess has made about Dev being a bio alt. HOWEVER again, I can see how these things fit the world/characters, and they're fairly minor details in the midst of two awesome ladies falling head-over-heels for each other. So, I'm happy to stay along for the ride.
*I'm truly shipping them in the sense of actively imagining new scenarios and trying to guess what will happen later on to bring them even closer!! However, as a disclaimer on that, a few things about their relationship haven't totally landed well for me, including their age difference and some comments Jess has made about Dev being a bio alt. HOWEVER again, I can see how these things fit the world/characters, and they're fairly minor details in the midst of two awesome ladies falling head-over-heels for each other. So, I'm happy to stay along for the ride.
May 7, 2021
This is the first book I've read by Melissa Good, but I do remember reading some of her Xena fanfic way back in the day and this reminded me a lot of that. I loved the world (well, I didn't love the world; let's hope this isn't our future) and the characters. Dev is very easy to like and an enjoyable character to learn about this world through. Jess is a little harder to like, but she reminded me a lot of the Xena character from Melissa Good's old fanfic, so it didn't take long for her to grow on me. I enjoyed the story overall and look forward to reading the other books in the series.
December 28, 2022
excellent world building!
As with all of Melissa Good’s books, this is a very well told story. I like that Ms. Good steps out of her usual contemporary genre into a future world devastated by ecological disaster. What would happen if…. Good stretches her imagination into a story that is plausible and characters that are compelling. I look forward to rejoining these characters on their journey.
As with all of Melissa Good’s books, this is a very well told story. I like that Ms. Good steps out of her usual contemporary genre into a future world devastated by ecological disaster. What would happen if…. Good stretches her imagination into a story that is plausible and characters that are compelling. I look forward to rejoining these characters on their journey.
March 19, 2021
I loved the main characters and their slowly developing relationship very much! The worldbuilding was quite fascinating and the plot kept me interested, even when the pacing was on the slightly slower side. I had an extremely good time reading this book and I'm glad that I've already bought the second one.
March 26, 2018
Es un muy ben libro,un poco extenso, quizás alguna parte podría haberse omitido. Más allá de eso se disfruta mucho.
September 7, 2023
Partners
by
Melissa Good
I have just watched 'The Tomorrow War' and have been binging the show 'The Expanse' both on Amazon Prime video and was still in the mood for more science fiction. I wanted to read some of this genre this time and looked at my selections, deciding that I didn't want to read any by male authors because I would have male leads and heroes. So I decided to read a lesbian sci-fi novel and also made the decision that I wanted to read a new story although there are some like Gun Brooke's Supreme Constellations series, and Fletcher DeLancey's 'Chronicles of Alsea' 10 book series and her excellent 5 book fan fiction of the Star Trek Voyager TV show. All three are amazing series if you have not read them yet.
I have known the name Melissa Good, I've been on her fan fiction web sites. I have downloaded her stories from these web sites. And I've bought Partners books 1 and 2 several years ago. I don't know why I've never read any of her writings before but I've just recently finished Partners book 1. I am so glad I finally got around to reading this series. It is different than many. There are no aliens, at least not in this first book. It takes place many years from now although the author does not specify exactly how much time in the future we are, again I'm only talking about the first book. For all I know details about when this is taking place, exactly what happened to create this future, all that kind of stuff is not known at this time though I do hope Ms. Good fills us in on more of these facts in the next 2 books.
There is action, there are space crafts, although they are flying relatively close to the earth most of the time. There are no aliens to fight. The fighting is between the factions that have survived from the two continents-North America and Europe after most of the land masses have been swallowed by the sea. The largest part of the book is the development of the two main characters, Jess and Dev. Melissa Good wrote this story back when she had those fan fiction sites and few publishers publishing lesbian fiction so the characters follow the mold of Xena Warrior Princess. Jess is dark haired, blue eyed, tall and has an alpha type personality while Dev looks like Gabrielle with blond hair and green eyes with more a beta or omega type personality. I really liked both characters although when Jess was in “mission mode” she would come off as a much colder person than when she was back at their base. Dev was the shining light, I don't usually use the word delightful but that is the word that comes to mind when I think of Dev. I don't want to say more and go into the story and ruin it for others I'll just say that I really liked it and am looking forward to the next book. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes this genre. Melissa Good is a fine author and I look forward to reading more books by her. I give this novel 4 1/2 stars.
by
Melissa Good
I have just watched 'The Tomorrow War' and have been binging the show 'The Expanse' both on Amazon Prime video and was still in the mood for more science fiction. I wanted to read some of this genre this time and looked at my selections, deciding that I didn't want to read any by male authors because I would have male leads and heroes. So I decided to read a lesbian sci-fi novel and also made the decision that I wanted to read a new story although there are some like Gun Brooke's Supreme Constellations series, and Fletcher DeLancey's 'Chronicles of Alsea' 10 book series and her excellent 5 book fan fiction of the Star Trek Voyager TV show. All three are amazing series if you have not read them yet.
I have known the name Melissa Good, I've been on her fan fiction web sites. I have downloaded her stories from these web sites. And I've bought Partners books 1 and 2 several years ago. I don't know why I've never read any of her writings before but I've just recently finished Partners book 1. I am so glad I finally got around to reading this series. It is different than many. There are no aliens, at least not in this first book. It takes place many years from now although the author does not specify exactly how much time in the future we are, again I'm only talking about the first book. For all I know details about when this is taking place, exactly what happened to create this future, all that kind of stuff is not known at this time though I do hope Ms. Good fills us in on more of these facts in the next 2 books.
There is action, there are space crafts, although they are flying relatively close to the earth most of the time. There are no aliens to fight. The fighting is between the factions that have survived from the two continents-North America and Europe after most of the land masses have been swallowed by the sea. The largest part of the book is the development of the two main characters, Jess and Dev. Melissa Good wrote this story back when she had those fan fiction sites and few publishers publishing lesbian fiction so the characters follow the mold of Xena Warrior Princess. Jess is dark haired, blue eyed, tall and has an alpha type personality while Dev looks like Gabrielle with blond hair and green eyes with more a beta or omega type personality. I really liked both characters although when Jess was in “mission mode” she would come off as a much colder person than when she was back at their base. Dev was the shining light, I don't usually use the word delightful but that is the word that comes to mind when I think of Dev. I don't want to say more and go into the story and ruin it for others I'll just say that I really liked it and am looking forward to the next book. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes this genre. Melissa Good is a fine author and I look forward to reading more books by her. I give this novel 4 1/2 stars.
May 9, 2020
This is an Uber-Xena Series written by my favorite fan fiction writer, Melissa Good. This book and series is set far in the future. And a future that I hope will not come to pass. Yet, I love these characters and these stories. I re-read them at least once a year. If you like science fiction and you like Xena and Gabrielle fan fiction, you will like this “reincarnation “ of them in a world far different from theirs and ours. There are currently 3 books in the series. I am hoping for a fourth one.
December 22, 2021
I actually had a memory pop up on Facebook, from like 5 years ago, I was reading the series in the picture. I decided it was time for a re-read.
I was definitely not disappointed. I love the series and Jess and Dev. It’s so interesting experiencing new things, like a pool and swimming or a kiss, through Dev’s eyes. The world has definitely changes and Good does a fantastic job of bringing this new earth to life. Jess is one tough cookie and I love how Dev brings out her softer side. I’m already started on book 2 and can’t wait to get the full experience of the series again.
I was definitely not disappointed. I love the series and Jess and Dev. It’s so interesting experiencing new things, like a pool and swimming or a kiss, through Dev’s eyes. The world has definitely changes and Good does a fantastic job of bringing this new earth to life. Jess is one tough cookie and I love how Dev brings out her softer side. I’m already started on book 2 and can’t wait to get the full experience of the series again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2017
Totally Excellent!
I like Missy's characters more than just about any one else I like to read .
It like I'm not just reading Missy...I'm freaking DEVOURING it!!
I like Missy's characters more than just about any one else I like to read .
It like I'm not just reading Missy...I'm freaking DEVOURING it!!
March 30, 2025
Love this series
I have read this numerous times and never get tired of it. Off to read book 2 now.
I'm not a huge fan of science fiction, except for this.
I have read this numerous times and never get tired of it. Off to read book 2 now.
I'm not a huge fan of science fiction, except for this.
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