It's a Corps truism that no one survives a Coalition POW camp. Jeena Garza is the exception. Freed during a sudden attack by Union forces, she steals a cargo ship and heads home to Earth. But the ship isn't just a cargo ship. It's a smuggling vessel, and Jeena ends up marooned on the desert planet Ararat, far from home and all alone. That is, until she adopts a tiny tigra cub despite her best intentions. Samson keeps her company, although he can be a serious pest. Still, it's better than being alone. Then Samson shocks her by displaying something that has never before been seen in the galaxy--sentience in a non-human species. Is he just an aberration, or is there a darker reason than ridding the planet of a pest why the Judaslam Rosh-dan are conducting an erradication campaign against the tigras. Wanting only to be left in peace, sick of war and all it entails, Jeena is thrust into yet another one as Samsun learns the truth about his people, the race he has despised as savage beasts. When the war is over, the truth about the tigra race will change the galaxy forever. If she survives.
RJ Leahy is a multi-genre author. His first book, the science fiction novel Tigra, was followed by its sequel, Tigra II: for the Sins of Rothra Orr. He also authored Angel of the City, a gritty, dystopian novel about the last city on Earth.
On a lighter note, check out the Hilarious mystery novel, Fat Chance, about a wise-cracking PI forced to solve a missing persons case in small town New Mexico.
Finally, he has begun a middle-grade series about a young girl seeking her mother in an alternate reality. The book is written under the pen Name, E. Racine. Pirates and Vampires and Fairies, oh my! The first of the series is Neverworld, and is available in both paperback and Ebook.
Love-Like-Huh...those were my reactions while reading this. It's about a 3.5* read, rounded up because I'm intrigued to see where it's going.
The beginning was fab! Jeena's a great character - easy to get inside her head and feel comfy, despite the not-at-all-comfy beginning to the story. The Sci-Fi aspects were detailed without being overly so (I know some SF fans probably would like more, but this had the right amount for me). And the same is true of the worldbuild.
I feel I should point out about the Sci-Fi science schtuff...I went with it for the sake of enjoying the story overall, but there were some things that didn't add up and others that I thought should've been utilized more within the story. Also, it's a good deal of tell v show at times, altho' the tell is in the form of longer speech between characters at least. I didn't mind it as it kept the pace going enough for me.
This had the feel of an epic without the length. That's both good and bad IMhO. Good that the story was intriguing with a lot of elements and characters involved, a heavy good v evil theme, a light paranormal quality, big battle scenes, and sweet (taboo) love story. Bad that the length of the tale didn't lend itself to the nature of an epic to reach great highs and lows. All the hi/lo moments were sped through. This kept the pace going, but didn't allow me to get too attached to any of the side characters.
As to the taboo love story... First, lemme be clear - there's no explicit sex scenes in this. I was disappointed about that, but I'm sure some folks would be relieved that it was fade-to-black. It'd be easy enough to add in plenty of scenes as some of the worldbuild involves a hedonistic lifestyle of mostly nude orgy-lovin' community members. I filled in the blanks in my own dirty mind ;) Second, this is a taboo romance for 2 reasons: inter-species and age-gap/pseudo-incest. Samson starts off as an adorable cub, while Jeena is an adult soldier hardened by the ravages of war. Their relationship is cute and funny at times. They progress from human/pet to teacher/student to friends. Their dynamic goes from one of more parent/child to squabbling teen siblings. I loved their interactions in the beginning. And it made sense that Samson was maturing both physically and mentally, but it also made sense that Jeena was recovering from her POW experience both mentally and physically too. Third, the relationship development in the beginning was great. Where it lost me was the point where the MCs were apart for some of the story. I got the start to adult attraction - seeing each other a li'l differently, reacting in a new way - but it didn't evolve anywhere close to the point of 2 peeps getting hot n bothered for each other. I felt the climax of the relationship (well, the implied one anyhoo haha) seemed more assumed, or presumed, then it should've been. I wanted a li'l more of the shy-cute are they/aren't they that happened in the beginning...then a nice climax. Just my wishful thinking on it.
The ending - it's tied up nicely, with plenty of what happens next answers and questions. This could be read as a standalone, but I'm happy there's a second book. And I'm off to read that one now :)
Jeena adopts a tiger-like alien child of a race called, unimaginatively, "Tigras." He develops ridiculously fast, going from essentially toddler-stage to full adult in a couple of years. While she assumes he's an animal at first, he's actually of human level intelligence, learning to speak and read. The rapid development is apparently just a convenience for the author, so that part of the book doesn't take 20 years.
It's worth noting that she's thoroughly unpleasant as an adoptive parent, frequently saying some pretty hurtful stuff.
She eventually develops sexual feelings for him, which is uncomfortable not just because he's basically a tiger, but because she raised him from childhood. It comes across like lusting after a stepchild that you adopted as a 5 year old.
She runs afoul of one of the local human colonies. There are four human factions in the book, and three of them are cartoonish and impossible to take seriously.
There's the evil believers in Judaslam, which is supposedly a reactionary fusion of Judaism and Islam but comes across as straight hard-line Muslim fanatics with no visible Jewish cultural traits. There's the Babylonians, who rather implausibly have decided to re-create the ancient Babylonians, complete with serious worship of gods that no one has really believed in for thousands of years, and who are really into having sex with anything that moves. There's the Intawa, who are stone-age primitives who speak in broken English that makes them sound like idiots.
It's 3rd-rate, unimaginative world-building, with no real attempt at creativity in writing these cultures.
The fourth faction is the inhabitants of Pyros, who are a breakaway faction of the Judaslam group which has rejected religion, and they're only believable because they're so bland.
One of the ongoing things that's hard to fathom for most of the book is why Jeena's Tigra, Samson, is the only apparent intelligent Tigra. There are other Tigras, but they're at the animal level of intelligence. Eventually the book spells it out, and frankly, it's an explanation I don't buy.
Worse, underlying reason for the suppression of Tigra intelligence ends up being based on really bad "science," with an equally stupid "scientific" solution.
Overall, I regret having persisted with reading this book to the end, instead of just setting it aside halfway through. I certainly won't be reading the sequel.
A first book by this author, I thought Leahy did a good job with many aspects of the story and world building.
The plot of a escaped woman soldier ending up on a planet where there’s several other cultures at war , including one that has and continues to systematically obliterate one of planet’s “animals “, the Tigras. Different planetary cultures she comes into contact with approximate earth religions with zealotry and magical rituals associated with them.
Leahy does a excellent job layering each city/tribe with their own individuality, and even with an abundance of characters, it’s not hard to separate out each smaller personality in the supporting role from another one from a different culture.
The battle scenes, the weapons, all well defined and varied. Same for the ship Jeena Garza arrives on.
If you are hearing a “but” here, you are correct.
My main concern or issues are with the two or perhaps, one character here.
🚩Trigger warnings for torture, multiple S.A., child death, which occurs during Jeena Garza’s capture and long imprisonment by the enemy during the prologue.
Jeena has undergone unbearable torture, physically traumatic and emotionally devastating experiences. Ones that are so severe, so damaging that those who have suffered from them along side her didn’t survive. Yet, upon escaping, she’s able to accept touch and have sexual relations months later. She was “hurt, went a little mad “. But she’s fine now.
Absolutely not believable. And establishing the sort of behavior that seems to disavow what happened to Jeena in the prison does an incredible disrespect to the reality of survivors of SA no matter that she’s a fictional character.
Past that, the relationship between Sampson the Tigra and Jeena also felt equally rushed and not well defined. He’s actually absent for a period of time during the story, which leaves a development “hole” for the relationship and plot lines. They are friends until suddenly they aren’t.
Everything works here but the characters themselves. They need better definition and layering.
There’s 2 more books to the series. Read this and those stories if you find it interesting.
Tigra (3 book series) Tigra #1 Tigra II: The Sins of Rothra Orr TIGRA III: The Light of God
Well written with reservations, but still five stars
Like many reviewers, once I started I could not put it down. I had to know more. Intelligently written and beautifully executed considering the description is somewhat underwhelming. The beginning is typical sci-fi fashion; civil war between factions. One side has the numbers while the other side has the technology. Cool - I like it. But hold up, it goes sideways from there. POW, torture, escape and then marooned on a desolate planet. Cool - all good and I'm hanging with there with all the possibilities. I did not expect the story to evolve around a relationship with a feline-line species. At first I saw where this was going and hated it. (Nope, that's gross - don't go there) But like I said, I couldn't put it down. And you just keep reading and fall in love with these characters. They're complex and tortured to some degree. You want them to win. You want them to find peace among the wreckage that is their life. And thankfully, they do. In a creative depth of character you grow with them and endure the emotional roller coaster. My only wish is a bit more time was spent on editing and proof reading prior to release. There are a few errors throughout the book but nothing horribly annoying. It's not a huge distraction for the reader. I enjoyed the story and will read more by this author. Well done.
About the worst thing that a critic can say about something is that it was predictable, and sure, as the themes are delineated and story elements are erected, things become predictable; however, the main characters are interesting and plot devices unique enough to create an intriguing and speculative science fiction novel that works on various levels. The slow build enhanced the surprise factor making all less predictable and more fascinating.
Tigra by R.J. Leahy is a nice mix of buddy comedic and war epic action story. From Jeena's initial capture and torture to her escape and shipwreck, those opening chapters serve to focus attention on an intriguing main character. Then, when she unwillingly befriends a pet, the reader still doesn't know where Leahy is taking us.
The worldbuilding struck me as subtle and yet descriptive of some panoramic vistas. The pseudo religious, geopolitical issues are immediately evident in the Judaslamic collective but augmented by the racial superiority of human over Tigra. Brilliant nuance to what might otherwise be considered a given. There are so many things to like here that relating too much of the story elements feels like one is revealing too much.
Suffice it to say: exceptional read, great characters, superior worldbuilding, twisty plot elements, perfect science to fiction ratio, blended with political intrigue, bias, and just a touch of muah.
The narrative resembles too much, contemporary events, and depicts the usual religious nuts bent on world domination to impose their brand version of righteousness, its almost like reading about ISIS but on far off planet. The story falls together rather nicely, I have to admit but I don't like any religion therefore when I reached the point where the author introduced the not so futuristic form of Islamic nutjobs, even speaking in the old archaic biblical English, it stopped me on my tracks, I was disappointed in the direction the story was going all of a sudden, I did not expect that. I don't see a future where mankind takes to colonize the galaxy using sectarian organizations to spearhead such endeavor, no I don't. I hope that millennia from now religions are nothing but cautionary tales of horror and madness.
R. J. Leahy has crafted a phenomenal work of fiction that transcends the genre of science fiction to touch on themes of exploration and a thirst for knowledge. The two main characters grow and become more than they ever thought they would on their adventures. On the way they will face religious fundamentalism, intolerance, compassion and love. Please read this series, instead of rip-offs and copies, these books stand out as original and wonderful.
I was torn between giving this book a three or four star rating. The story is well constructed and paced, deserving of a solid four stars. The editing is lacking in many places where words are just missing. Sometimes it is a noun that is missing (i.e. no direct object), often it is the verb that is missing. Poor editing is what made me consider a three star rating. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars, so I rounded my rating to four stars by adding a bit of grace to my evaluation.
I will be looking for more from this author! What a tale!! This was an emotional roller coaster in the very best sense. Parts were funny to the point of tears while others told of pain and hardship to the point of tears. Excellent. A bit racy at times but by no means gratuitously graphic. I suddenly have an urge to reread Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.
This book will grab your interest from the first chapter. It has interesting characters and an intriguing storyline. You have to keep reading it because you need the answers to the questions it brings up. If nothing else the suspense will keep you reading.
I didn't think I would like this book initially and was surprised how entertaining it became. There are a number of errors in the text which should have been caught by a proof reader, dropped words, run on words, quote marks missing even wrong pronoun causing me to read the sentence several times over. However the breth of the work is truly impressive.
"Tigra" is one of the best stories I have read in a long time. The characters are believable and the pace is not too slow. Sexuality is implied without being tawdry. The punctuation, typos and sentence structure need help but the story is good. At this point in 2nd book I favorably compare it to "Foreigner" by CJ Cherryh.
Not bad. Leahy is literate about ancient myth, and Bible--which he brings to bear (or should I say Tigra) on his novel to good effect. Nice story. Some interesting social-political commentary on sex, religion, race. The battle scene was a bit too long and too predictable.