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Maxim Colonies #2
Farborn
(Book 2 in the Maxim Colonies series. MM, M-preg, sci-fi)
He’s not from around here…
Davies McKellan is a man without a true home. The cocky mining contractor navigator has spent his entire adult life roaming the stars and refusing to be tied down by anyone.
But that doesn’t come without cost. Like loneliness.
When Davies makes his first run to the planet Pfahrn, he meets Olarte, a Pfahrn who intrigues him in ways he never dreamed possible.
Except duplicity and deadly secrets are a killer combo that’ll make any man rethink his past. And if the eight-foot-tall green alien is Davies’ future, he might be down for that. He’s got priorities, though.
Like making sure they uncover the truth first, and don’t die in the process.
He’s not from around here…
Davies McKellan is a man without a true home. The cocky mining contractor navigator has spent his entire adult life roaming the stars and refusing to be tied down by anyone.
But that doesn’t come without cost. Like loneliness.
When Davies makes his first run to the planet Pfahrn, he meets Olarte, a Pfahrn who intrigues him in ways he never dreamed possible.
Except duplicity and deadly secrets are a killer combo that’ll make any man rethink his past. And if the eight-foot-tall green alien is Davies’ future, he might be down for that. He’s got priorities, though.
Like making sure they uncover the truth first, and don’t die in the process.
204 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2019
46 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Lesli Richardson
175 books445 followersLesli Richardson is the writer behind the curtain of her better-known and more prolific USA Today Bestselling Author pen name, Tymber Dalton (her "wild child" side). She lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her spouse and too many pets of various species. When she's not playing D&D with her friends or shooting skeet, she's a part-time Viking shield-maiden in training, among other pursuits. The two-time EPIC award winner is also the author of over two hundred and fifty books and counting.
She lives in her own little world, but it's okay, because they all know her there.
She also loves to hear from readers! Please check out her website for links, and to sign up for updates to keep abreast of the latest news, snarkage, and releases. There you'll also find reading order lists, and more information about her different series.
She lives in her own little world, but it's okay, because they all know her there.
She also loves to hear from readers! Please check out her website for links, and to sign up for updates to keep abreast of the latest news, snarkage, and releases. There you'll also find reading order lists, and more information about her different series.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 8, 2023
Audio - 5 Stars
Story - 2.5 Stars
Story - 2.5 Stars
August 1, 2019
So... I read the first one and was disappointed... super disappointed... but I like had to read this one right because I was so sure it was going to be sci-fi dream I expected the first one to be....
It felt like the exact same book with a different plot line. Davies sounded just like Simon, and Olarte sounded just like Mohrn... There’s even an editing issue where Morhns name is used instead of Olarte... so even the author couldn’t tell their characters apart...
Creating a secure, scrambled message, I add the two images to it and send it to Mohrn with a message to hang onto those for me, as well.
A majority of the story was also told through inner dialogue just as the first one... I mean in the books whole span of like 3-4 years our MCs are maybe in each other’s company for maybe 6 months of that time (and that being generous).
And on top of all that... the manor of speech also irked me. One minute Olarte is speaking very articulated speech patterns and the next he’s saying something like “slippery cock-slut”.... I get he picks up the terms from Davies (just like Morhn did) (including using “slippery” as an endearment) but it’s a little off putting in my opinion.
It felt like the exact same book with a different plot line. Davies sounded just like Simon, and Olarte sounded just like Mohrn... There’s even an editing issue where Morhns name is used instead of Olarte... so even the author couldn’t tell their characters apart...
Creating a secure, scrambled message, I add the two images to it and send it to Mohrn with a message to hang onto those for me, as well.
A majority of the story was also told through inner dialogue just as the first one... I mean in the books whole span of like 3-4 years our MCs are maybe in each other’s company for maybe 6 months of that time (and that being generous).
And on top of all that... the manor of speech also irked me. One minute Olarte is speaking very articulated speech patterns and the next he’s saying something like “slippery cock-slut”.... I get he picks up the terms from Davies (just like Morhn did) (including using “slippery” as an endearment) but it’s a little off putting in my opinion.
July 31, 2019
Love the story but seem to be missing the end. Really abrupt ending.
I have a chapter heading but nothing under it. After the first book and getting everything wrapped up this seemed off to me. I love the series up until the ending of this book.
I have a chapter heading but nothing under it. After the first book and getting everything wrapped up this seemed off to me. I love the series up until the ending of this book.
August 1, 2019
Love as much as the first one!
Oh my gosh this is a great book. I love that the Pfarn are non-binary. That as aliens they are truly different from humans. I love the science of the augmentations and the space travel. Great world building. Good editing. Wonderful characters. I really enjoyed how it tied into the previous book and we got to see those characters again. You don't absolutely have to read the first one if you can pick up easily on clues about it, but it is much more enjoyable if you read them both.
Oh my gosh this is a great book. I love that the Pfarn are non-binary. That as aliens they are truly different from humans. I love the science of the augmentations and the space travel. Great world building. Good editing. Wonderful characters. I really enjoyed how it tied into the previous book and we got to see those characters again. You don't absolutely have to read the first one if you can pick up easily on clues about it, but it is much more enjoyable if you read them both.
December 29, 2024
Same with Jailmates, I kept skipping over these audiobooks because the covers, WOOF. And as shallow as that may be, and as much as I loved the first two, there's basically no way I can read book 3. But this story was amazing. I am currently binging Richardson's/Dalton's work because of it. She's a very capable and diverse author
November 30, 2022
I love SciFi and this one ticked the boxes. It started out a little slow but when they got into sex with other species I was hooked. Davies and Olarte are definitely an interesting pair. I think I will have to look into the other books in this series!
July 31, 2019
Love this series
I can hardly wait for the next adventure coming up in this intriguing storyline. I was amazed that we got to see the two human mates give birth to the eggs. I am hoping Dr. H' Loot can find a way to make genetically possible for the mates to lay and fertilize pheir own eggs I don't see why it wouldn't be possible when the human males have been bioengineered to have pheir mates DNA joined to theirs. Would like to see these come out in audible to give one a true sense of each persona.
I can hardly wait for the next adventure coming up in this intriguing storyline. I was amazed that we got to see the two human mates give birth to the eggs. I am hoping Dr. H' Loot can find a way to make genetically possible for the mates to lay and fertilize pheir own eggs I don't see why it wouldn't be possible when the human males have been bioengineered to have pheir mates DNA joined to theirs. Would like to see these come out in audible to give one a true sense of each persona.
November 4, 2021
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book*
This book seemed to end rather abruptly. In fact, the page after the last chapter given was Chapter 25, then nothing. If this story ends at that stage and the next book does not continue with these characters, I'll have to downgrade this rating to a one star. So much conflict was left until the last few chapters with so many questions raised and unresolved. The story was left so abruptly, I honestly first thought I received an incomplete book. I even double checked the word count.
*After I received update/complete book*
I took to heart the comment left on this review concerning the abrupt ending, advising me the author HAD made an error and I was missing a few chapters. I attempted to update, no success. I removed it from my device, then re-uploaded it, no success. I finally contacted Amazon directly.
They attempted to update, no success. Finally they refunded me so I could repurchase the full book.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book*
I looked up the author online to see if anything was being discussed on this book and found no author pages. She supposedly has a Twitter account since 2010, but has never tweeted anything. No other online presence that I could find. An author of so many published books really should have SOME sort of presence online, yet no website, Facebook page, or active Twitter account could be found.
*After I received update/complete book*
I did notice, after the comment concerning the error the author DOES in fact have social media/websites. The information is available at the end of the book. My fault for skipping over the information.
However, only 2 out of the 5 links provided (I'm not including the 6th link into this conversation as it's to her newsletter) give you information on this error AND they are under her OTHER pseudonym NOT the name on the actual book. So...the information was still not readily available. Too much digging for information on this error, when other avenues where available to let the reader know, just complicated the situation.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book
Frustrating to not be able to get a satisfying read nor information on the future of this series. The only information on this series can be found at the bottom of the Amazon page stating, yes there is a third book in this installment, but the title makes no sense in relation to this book. So it makes me think it's not tied in, to continue this story.
*After I received update/complete book*
There IS information on her website as to who the third book is going to be about. All questions that I thought were left unanswered, were in fact answered.
I did read the book through a second time to verify nothing major had changed from the first incomplete copy I read to the correct final updated book. My rating stays the same at 3 stars though. I felt that the relationship between the main characters, while being built over a 2 plus year time frame, was lacking. The skips between visits seemed slightly jarring and the ending rushed. Way more inner dialogue than conversation between most characters and a few errors, in the editing.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book
I honestly would wait for the third book to be available before reading this story. Hopefully it IS a continuation of the story, which would make reading this and the next much more enjoyable.
*After I received update/complete book*
The first book in this series was better in the storyline and details. After reading the synopsis for the third and the lack of development in the second, I'm honestly hesitant to grab the final book in this series.
This book seemed to end rather abruptly. In fact, the page after the last chapter given was Chapter 25, then nothing. If this story ends at that stage and the next book does not continue with these characters, I'll have to downgrade this rating to a one star. So much conflict was left until the last few chapters with so many questions raised and unresolved. The story was left so abruptly, I honestly first thought I received an incomplete book. I even double checked the word count.
*After I received update/complete book*
I took to heart the comment left on this review concerning the abrupt ending, advising me the author HAD made an error and I was missing a few chapters. I attempted to update, no success. I removed it from my device, then re-uploaded it, no success. I finally contacted Amazon directly.
They attempted to update, no success. Finally they refunded me so I could repurchase the full book.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book*
I looked up the author online to see if anything was being discussed on this book and found no author pages. She supposedly has a Twitter account since 2010, but has never tweeted anything. No other online presence that I could find. An author of so many published books really should have SOME sort of presence online, yet no website, Facebook page, or active Twitter account could be found.
*After I received update/complete book*
I did notice, after the comment concerning the error the author DOES in fact have social media/websites. The information is available at the end of the book. My fault for skipping over the information.
However, only 2 out of the 5 links provided (I'm not including the 6th link into this conversation as it's to her newsletter) give you information on this error AND they are under her OTHER pseudonym NOT the name on the actual book. So...the information was still not readily available. Too much digging for information on this error, when other avenues where available to let the reader know, just complicated the situation.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book
Frustrating to not be able to get a satisfying read nor information on the future of this series. The only information on this series can be found at the bottom of the Amazon page stating, yes there is a third book in this installment, but the title makes no sense in relation to this book. So it makes me think it's not tied in, to continue this story.
*After I received update/complete book*
There IS information on her website as to who the third book is going to be about. All questions that I thought were left unanswered, were in fact answered.
I did read the book through a second time to verify nothing major had changed from the first incomplete copy I read to the correct final updated book. My rating stays the same at 3 stars though. I felt that the relationship between the main characters, while being built over a 2 plus year time frame, was lacking. The skips between visits seemed slightly jarring and the ending rushed. Way more inner dialogue than conversation between most characters and a few errors, in the editing.
*First impression, before complete/corrected/updated book
I honestly would wait for the third book to be available before reading this story. Hopefully it IS a continuation of the story, which would make reading this and the next much more enjoyable.
*After I received update/complete book*
The first book in this series was better in the storyline and details. After reading the synopsis for the third and the lack of development in the second, I'm honestly hesitant to grab the final book in this series.
November 14, 2025
It’s difficult finding my favorite genre, science fiction, plus MM romance. Audible/Amazon’s algorithm should have put this author and this book in particular on my radar but that did not happen. I discovered this book on a different website and after much searching. I’m very disappointed that the curated recommendations showing up on Audible are failing. Hopefully that failure isn’t purposeful but simply inadequate. Enough complaint! This is a wonderful book, creative and well written, and well narrated. Awesome space science that works well with the alien-human relationship. This book happily checks so many of my boxes!
I won’t go into story details because the book description is sufficient to tempt you to read/listen if this is your genre joy.
I’ve bought another couple of Lesli Richardson’s books in the basis of this one.
I won’t go into story details because the book description is sufficient to tempt you to read/listen if this is your genre joy.
I’ve bought another couple of Lesli Richardson’s books in the basis of this one.
May 2, 2021
Hm. I didn't love it. Probably would have DNF'd it if I hadn't read it IMMEDIATELY after reading Book One, because the weird pacing etc would have been unsatisfying without knowing, and actively remembering, what happened in the first book. As it was, it was still unsatisfying to me as a love story, so much show-not-tell, not a lot of emotions to get swept in, Olarte was... not a satisfying MC, for me, there was a TON of repetitive shit, annnnndddddd yeah. I don't need to bash it, but like I said, I didn't love it and definitely could have skipped it and been just fine... but I'm *still* going on to Book Three, even though I'm not much of an m/f reader anymore, just because I'm super curious to read how the author handles the Dr. H and the new type of alien... intimacy 😈🤣🤷♀️
August 15, 2019
Spoiler
This book has some glaringly obvious grammatical errors. It even at one piont says Morhn instead of Orlate. It is kind of to the piont and i wish it had a little more fluff, like Orlate confronting Davies about his reputation. Also the ending is a little lacking. I wanted to know why the engineer dies when he was suposed to be in his cabin. I also wanted to know if the ending was before or after the egg implant, and that is another thing i don't get. Is the human just the carier of the egg or is he contributing dna to the child. I also wanted to know what Orlates family thought of Davies. It shows no scene with his parents and siblings interacting with Davies.
This book has some glaringly obvious grammatical errors. It even at one piont says Morhn instead of Orlate. It is kind of to the piont and i wish it had a little more fluff, like Orlate confronting Davies about his reputation. Also the ending is a little lacking. I wanted to know why the engineer dies when he was suposed to be in his cabin. I also wanted to know if the ending was before or after the egg implant, and that is another thing i don't get. Is the human just the carier of the egg or is he contributing dna to the child. I also wanted to know what Orlates family thought of Davies. It shows no scene with his parents and siblings interacting with Davies.
Read
January 31, 2024When Davies makes his first run to the planet Pfahrn, he meets Olarte, a Pfahrn who intrigues him in ways he never dreamed possible. This one has the same pacing as the first book but in this case Davies is gay and has no trouble remembering Olarte's non-binary "Pfey-Pfem" pronouns. The patience these two have as their relationship develops over time is so sweet. There is still a lot on inner monologue - so if that is not your thing - maybe find something else. There seemed to be an equal amount of this from both main characters this time. Very enjoyable listen. Would like to see more in the Maxim Colonies world.
May 9, 2024
2.5 stars
I enjoyed this one more than the first book in the (loosely connected) series.
Mainly because there was no misgendering (a human character respecting alien's pronouns?! Groundbreaking!) and because I like the main characters a but more (mainly they didn't use "buddy" as a pet name for the love interest).
The plot was also interesting, and I enjoyed reading about both characters jobs.
I still did not vibe with the very slow writing style, however, which is probably my biggest problem with this series.
To the author's credit, there also were not as many grammar mistakes as in the first one.
I enjoyed this one more than the first book in the (loosely connected) series.
Mainly because there was no misgendering (a human character respecting alien's pronouns?! Groundbreaking!) and because I like the main characters a but more (mainly they didn't use "buddy" as a pet name for the love interest).
The plot was also interesting, and I enjoyed reading about both characters jobs.
I still did not vibe with the very slow writing style, however, which is probably my biggest problem with this series.
To the author's credit, there also were not as many grammar mistakes as in the first one.
September 10, 2023
Olarte and Davies… what an I say other than I fell for this weird and wonderful couple. Emphasis on the weird.
The pacing was odd…long stretches of info dumps then suddenly the timeline jumps ahead a couple years. Truth be told, not a lot happens,other than than the two MCs dating then having lots of sex, until the end. Then suddenly a smuggling plot appears out of nowhere and there is some action.
Why 4 stars? The audiobook narration is great and the MCs were well drawn. I was never bored and actually want to listen to book 1 now!
The pacing was odd…long stretches of info dumps then suddenly the timeline jumps ahead a couple years. Truth be told, not a lot happens,other than than the two MCs dating then having lots of sex, until the end. Then suddenly a smuggling plot appears out of nowhere and there is some action.
Why 4 stars? The audiobook narration is great and the MCs were well drawn. I was never bored and actually want to listen to book 1 now!
September 8, 2019
This is the sequel to Jailmates, sci-fi m/m alien romance. I loved Davies and Olarte. This romance was a slow burn, not insta love and just about perfect. Their romance is shy and tender. This was a much more sweet romance the author brought the level of external conflict and emotional angst way way down for this story. I enjoyed it very much, I don't know if the author is planning any more sequels in this world, but I hope so. I will definitely be on board to read them.
August 16, 2023
It wasn't awful, it just wasn't as good as Simon and Mohrn's story. I really liked theirs and this isn't bad either. Apart from comparing the two, I can't say there is anything to criticise as such.
It wasn't as much of an enthusiastic read is all. I'm defs not going anywhere near the third book. It looks too odd AND knowing simon's mothers bedroom habits isn't really appealing to me in all honesty.
It was nice.
It wasn't as much of an enthusiastic read is all. I'm defs not going anywhere near the third book. It looks too odd AND knowing simon's mothers bedroom habits isn't really appealing to me in all honesty.
It was nice.
December 16, 2023
I love this world building and was glad to see another story in this universe. After the end of book one, I had to read book two to learn about the other couple that helped Simon/Mohrn. I agree with the reviews that mention there was a lot of information given, but I didn't mind it. I thought the audio was great.
November 24, 2022
This was a much slower book than the previous one, but still enjoyable. It was an interesting expansion of the universe, getting to know how ships work and how some species interact. I like that there's no misgendering in this one.
December 29, 2023
3 stars
I enjoyed this a bit more than Jailmates, but I still struggled to connect with the story. I appreciated being able to see more relationship and emotional development in this one. The world of the story is interesting, I just wish for a slightly better execution.
I enjoyed this a bit more than Jailmates, but I still struggled to connect with the story. I appreciated being able to see more relationship and emotional development in this one. The world of the story is interesting, I just wish for a slightly better execution.
March 5, 2024
This series is playing out in a very rushed, jump forward on the timeline sort of way. The transitions are nonexistant even though it says they've known each other for 2 years now. I never really connected to the characters enough to care that much.
August 2, 2019
Good Read
Just as good as book one however I found it a little bit difficult to get into the first couple of chapters but then found it to be a good read.
Just as good as book one however I found it a little bit difficult to get into the first couple of chapters but then found it to be a good read.
August 25, 2019
You can read my full review of “Farborn” at my web site.
September 18, 2020
I loved Davies and Olarte grew on me...though he did make Davies wait an awfully long time.
September 17, 2021
Made my laugh , get angry, and cry all in one book. Well done.
May 6, 2022
2.75 stars
June 9, 2022
3.5, I really enjoyed this series. I would love to revisit it.
did-not-finish
August 10, 2024DNF arounf 50%. Nothing outrageously bad, but I found it dull after awhile. The world was interesting, but for me it didn't added much to the story that was basically two guys meeting and dating each other.
July 27, 2025
Excellent!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews