Star Crash

by Elysa Hendricks

When she crash lands on a tropical alien planet where she becomes a prisoner of the Flock, a strange race of birdlike humanoids, Cora Daniels is forced to mate with a pit-fighter who happens to resemble her lost love who disappeared long ago into deep space. Original.

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Romance, Aliens, Futuristic

310 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2007

Reviews

[Celestine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was, in the end, an interesting and odd book that portrays the evolution of a man from beta to beast to partner. Simultaneously, a woman needs to learn what freedom means to her.

Pilot Cora Daniels crash lands on an uncharted planet, and is quickly captured by a bird-like society that is organized and intelligent. Several reviewers liken it to an avian version of Planet of the Apes, which is entirely accurate. Taken to a compound that is purposed for breeding humans to be used as arena fighters and slaves, Cora is placed with a man who is eerily similar to her fiancee who was lost in space six years prior.

Zan is an arena fighter and stud, used for profit by the Verians. He has been reduced to instinct and base human needs and functions in order to survive. He has even lost his capacity for compassion. He eats, sleeps, fights and breeds. Cora is just the next in a long line, but there is something about her that triggers memories. The first 40% of this book is occupied with Cora and Zan in the breeder compound, having lots of sex. This preoccupation with sex very nearly derails the book. My advice is to wade through it because the book becomes much better at the point Zan starts remembering he is Alex. Humanity comes creeping back to Zan in the form of remorse for teaching young boys in the compound, some of whom are clearly his sons, to fight and kill. Cora is the reason he reconnects to his empathy and a new desire to fight for freedom. This is when the book finally gets interesting.

What follows is a plan to escape imprisonment through the treacherous wilds of the planet. Cora and Alex are hampered by the challenge of getting to her ship, pursuit by the Verians and the question of what to do about the breeder women and children. Through all of this, Alex/Zan struggles with expectations of Cora and her memories of his previous mild and scholarly manner, his habit of approaching obstacles with killing force and aggression fostered by long-term behavioral modification, and his new emerging self that blends those two men into a worthy leader and partner. "No longer the sweet, quiet lover from her past, nor the Flock's bold, confident prize stud, this Alex confused her."

Elysa Hendricks offers a commentary on the roles of women and men in two different patriarchal societies - one that has many men and few women and the other that has many women and few men. Coming from Earth, Cora is flummoxed and an aberration in both societies. Control, freedom and equal rights are all themes.

[Dena · Rating 2 out of 5]

complicated unrealistic

Ok having relationship issues in a prison type setting is ridiculous. They should be worried about escaping and finding out why he doesn't have any memories. The way they communicate is unrealistic and it seems that life and death decisions are put on hold because of sex. This story had a really good premise and I was very interested in the characters but in the end they annoyed me and it seemed like the story was in the background.

[Karen Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Crash is pretty fun, if you don't over think it. If you like sic-fi and you like steamy romance, then give it a shot! It stretched my ability to suspend disbelief a little too much, and there were some other things about the story structure, etc., that caused me to over think it and which hampered my enjoyment, however.

I wasn't expecting such a steamy read, thought it would be more of a sic-fi read with romantic overtones. Not so. Get ready for a LOT of steamy love scenes with a couple that are pretty much insatiable (almost eye-rollingly so). In fact, I should have figured it out pretty quickly when the opening scene has our captured heroine going through what is basically a clinical gynecological exam conducted by her alien captors. Heh, heh. Anyway, I was thinking to myself how cliche' the alien anal probe scene is and I almost stopped reading, but I gave it a chance.

[Get ready for some discussion of the novel which includes some spoilers...]

I had more hang-ups besides that first jarring cliche'. First, the alien species. I just couldn't wrap my head around these ostrich/chicken things, despite having a social structure that fit their bird-like resemblance. It was original, I guess, but I just couldn't give them credence for some reason. It stretched my suspension-of-disbelief to the breaking point. Also, the time frame for the human colony on the planet was too short for what we see taking place. In the span of 400 years we are seeing technologically advanced humans that flew out into deep space to colonize another planet devolve into a culture that considers their Earth origins a myth and which have retained no evidence of their past besides some "ancient" texts? And which also seemed to forget that women have brains of their own? And it didn't take long to inbreed a subset of these humans into cattle, either. Hmm. (I thought we were going to get an explanation of this phenomenon--they got the tables turned on them when the native species took control of their technology and/or the planet has some kind of deleterious effect on humans, see my note below.) Next, we have C.O.I.L. law, which I found to be a very interesting concept, but which also just provided a neat little way for Cora and Alex to endure their captivity without trying to communicate with their captors, not to mention get them in lots of tight situations which would not exist otherwise. I also found the fact that Alex was used as a stud to breed in this captive human population abhorrent. I'm glad it was eventually used to develop Alex's character, but at first, I was really freaked out by the insensitivity of the hero and heroine to what I saw as a herd of Alex's children. I was especially disturbed by the baby getting killed early on. Even some species of fish and amphibians defend their young. Come on. These humans can't be that devolved yet!

Another thing that made my brain hurt was trying to make sense of the timelines involved in space travel. Despite not being bothered by planet-hopping and hyperspace travel in Star Wars, I found myself wondering how Cora could find Alex six years later, on the edge of chartered space, and still have them be the same ages they were relative to each other on Earth, how she could have known what happened to his ship six years earlier pretty much as it happened, but if she sent a message now from this planet to help the Erathians it would take four years to get there (but earlier she had been worried about the seemingly immediate consequences of sending her report after her plan to flee and the consequences of C.O.I.L. law on her, etc.) Oh, and her preflight birth control procedure only lasts three months but her travels were going to last months to years. What? Huh? None of it matched up. Again, I'm guilty of overthinking things.

The author also introduced details that I considered set-ups for events or explanations later in the story, but which were not addressed at all. For instance, why did the author mention Cora's nav system going all wonky and causing her crash, and Cora surmising from what she knew of Alex's crash that the same thing happened, but never mention it again as Cora prepared to leave the planet? I thought it was going to come to mind as a worrisome obstacle to her escape plan or just straight up prevent escape from the planet's atmosphere, or even make it unlikely that others could answer their call for help, or be mentioned as part of what happened to the original human colonists. Also, the headaches associated with trying to access her translator chip, and Alex's severe amnesia and headaches when accessing his memories. I thought, okay, this planet is going to cause these humans to regress into this herd mentality and they will have to realize it and fight it. But no. Also, the later use of chips in the Erathians...no worries about that later, either. Okay. So, they just got headaches. No real explanation of why Alex devolved so much, either. I also kept thinking from things mentioned that the Palia/Flock had "borrowed" technology that was the reason for their advanced society and was wondering if there was going to be some explanation by way of the original human colony getting the tables turned on them. But there never was any development of those thoughts. There are more examples of this un-followed-throughness I could mention, but I won't.

The resolution of this novel included a lot of neat clean-up to some serious mess. I mean, come on, we got a treaty in a day? The Flock compound that got dismantled didn't rebel and go to war on the Erathians despite the treaty? The Herd humans were just going to integrate into Erathian society with no problems? Not to mention how handy-dandy that MAT device in Cora's ship is. Geez.

Anyway, I could go on, but it is so easy to pick apart a novel that I find falls short of awesome, even if I enjoyed it. That's not really fair, I guess, so I'll quit now and just say again that I enjoyed it!

[Allynn Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was interesting and I wish the author had done more with it. Though set on other planets with space travel and aliens this had a large number of fairly graphic sex scenes and, because of that, I had the sense that this could have been better placed in the romance genre. A little bit goes a long way but with some scenes running more than five pages I struggled to understand why so much was apparently needed by the author to get the point across - again, what was the point? Star Crash reminds me a bit of Planet of the Apes where the humans are treated as zoo animals and trainable slaves.

The ending could have been much better - it was rushed and considering the previous material somewhat improbable especially when the "escaped" slaves were recognized but their new status was not questioned. I truly wish Hendricks had lightened up on the sex and delved more into the society of the flock rather than having Zan just tell us about it. Not really sure any scientist, no matter how well trained, could come up with such detailed knowledge of how a society worked by flying a plane over a village. And that's another point, why didn't the flock see the ship that was a mere couple of hundred feet above them? And why didn't Zan remember more earlier? All his training seemed to have been conveniently forgotten until just before the ending. What caused his headaches? Had his memories been deliberately messed with by the flock? Why didn't he resent it? The ending was just too convenient, unsatisfying.

If you are looking for hot and heavy sex and a dissertation on an alien society, albeit an interesting one with lots of potential that was never explored, Star Crash may be the book for you.

[Erinaceina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tried to beat you round the head with the 'the way the Flock treat humans is like humans treat apes/dolphins' thing. It was neither subtle nor cleverly done, and the confrontation in which the Flock realise that humans are intelligent was almost glossed over, which made what had gone before doubly irritating.

Once Alex/Zan and Cora leave the Flock compound, the plot seemed to be ad hoc rather than a steady progression. Too much of the technology and world-building felt like it had been invented to eke out the plot rather than being an organic part of the world. For instance, the C.O.I.L. regulations governing first contact didn't feel particularly plausible, and I felt like they had been invented simply to make sure the story had to go on for another 200 pages.

Also... a colony ship from Earth managed to reach this planet 400 years ago, but in the present it will take a ship from a civilisation that spans many galaxies several months to get back even to the edges of civilisation? And a message several years? If there was a plausible scenario behind this apparent warping of distances, it was never given. Similarly, some of the things the Flock say make it seem as if they are not natives of the planet, and yet at other times it seems that they are. The world was not clearly defined and planned out, and the secondary characters never felt like more than props for Alex/Zan and Cora.

[Krystal Shannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing concept for an alien world. I don't usually read Scifi romance, but I have to say this one was quite enjoyable. I loved Cora's independent and dominant personality, even in the face of being captured and kept as livestock. The romance between her and her lost love was fantastic. It kinda reminded me of the TV show STAR GATE, which I love. Human colony on far away planet, rediscovered hundreds or thousands of years later.
~Krystal Shannan

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unusual world with a unique alien race. After getting past the Flock's physical appearance (and the similarities to a chicken farm when describing the compound), I found that the world as a whole was very developed and fit my tastes. Yes, it is a romance novel. But it was a fun, different read.

[Deanna Wadsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book that opens up with an alien anal probe must be read by everyone...I'm just sayin'
But in all seriousness this book had a very well developed sci-fi world, not something easy to find coupled with blazing hot sex.

[marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Crash

Overall a good read, although I found that somethings were rehashed a bit to many times and tended to drag the story a bit here and there.
Who new that someone sat and thought about what could be if chickens ruled a world....
-zittern

[Susan Macatee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read! If you like a sexy, hot read full of adventure, this is for you.

[marjorie · Rating 1 out of 5]

ew ew ew I really did try to read this i made to about the halfway mark and thought i might puke if i had to read one more line. I guess i am just not into star trek type books. hehehe

[TINNGG · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was adequate. Between the oversized chickens, the human breeding farm, and our H/h and their issues...

[Karen Desmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

2

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a unique story! Imagine you land on a planet and put into a zoo....VERY interesting look at what constitutes intelligence:)