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Galactic Love #2
Love Code
He's cute. He's cranky. His code is sleek as hell.
What's an amnesiac AI doing in a place like this? Helix has no idea. He knows he planned to build a life for himself on Gravas Station, but he has no clue what he's been doing for the last half cycle. Nor does he understand why his ship crashed. A genius Tiralan scientist saved him by copying his code into an organic host, and after meeting her meddling mothers, it seems like his problems have only just begun...
She's clever. She's creative. She claims that he's her mate.
Qalu has no interest in relationships. She'd much rather be working in her lab, innovating instead of socializing. Problem is, the Tiralan believe that one cannot be happy alone. When a solution literally falls from the sky, she leaps at the opportunity to advance her research and teach Helix how to be Tiralan while calming her mothers' fears. It might be unconventional, but she's ready to break all the rules for a little peace.
They agree to pose as each other's mates for the most logical reasons, but love always finds a way.
What's an amnesiac AI doing in a place like this? Helix has no idea. He knows he planned to build a life for himself on Gravas Station, but he has no clue what he's been doing for the last half cycle. Nor does he understand why his ship crashed. A genius Tiralan scientist saved him by copying his code into an organic host, and after meeting her meddling mothers, it seems like his problems have only just begun...
She's clever. She's creative. She claims that he's her mate.
Qalu has no interest in relationships. She'd much rather be working in her lab, innovating instead of socializing. Problem is, the Tiralan believe that one cannot be happy alone. When a solution literally falls from the sky, she leaps at the opportunity to advance her research and teach Helix how to be Tiralan while calming her mothers' fears. It might be unconventional, but she's ready to break all the rules for a little peace.
They agree to pose as each other's mates for the most logical reasons, but love always finds a way.
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First published January 21, 2021
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About the author
Ann Aguirre
81 books7,065 followersNew York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ann Aguirre has been a clown, a clerk, a savior of stray kittens, and a voice actress, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in Mexico with her family. She writes all kinds of genre fiction, but she has an eternal soft spot for a happily ever after.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 266 reviews
August 5, 2021
This was sweet, light, and fun for an alien romance! It's not quite as exciting as the first book but I enjoyed it.
February 18, 2021
2.5 stars
I'm so sad that I didn't like this book as much as the first. All of Aguirre's awesomeness is here - inclusiveness, an alien race that can choose its gender and sex from more than two options, consent, an adorable talking companion that goes beyond a "pet" - but the conflict didn't work for me. Both Helix and Qalu do the 'I'm pushing you away without discussion because it's for your own good' thing, which I can deal with maybe once, definitely not repeatedly. This installment also felt more like a serial, with each two chapter section standing a little separate from the work as a whole.
Something happens with 50-ish pages left that made me lose interest completely so I marked the book as DNF here. I was fine with that until I saw the hero of the next book, had no idea how that would happen, and decided to speed read the rest to see how we get there.
I'm definitely reading the next book, and love what Aguirre does in general, but this didn't live up to my expectations.
I'm so sad that I didn't like this book as much as the first. All of Aguirre's awesomeness is here - inclusiveness, an alien race that can choose its gender and sex from more than two options, consent, an adorable talking companion that goes beyond a "pet" - but the conflict didn't work for me. Both Helix and Qalu do the 'I'm pushing you away without discussion because it's for your own good' thing, which I can deal with maybe once, definitely not repeatedly. This installment also felt more like a serial, with each two chapter section standing a little separate from the work as a whole.
Something happens with 50-ish pages left that made me lose interest completely so I marked the book as DNF here. I was fine with that until I saw the hero of the next book, had no idea how that would happen, and decided to speed read the rest to see how we get there.
I'm definitely reading the next book, and love what Aguirre does in general, but this didn't live up to my expectations.
May 11, 2021
I know I gave this three stars, and it kinda didn't work for me as a whole. But let me first say that I have so much admiration for Ann Aguirre. She does so many things with her characters I appreciate. For one, this series is apparently based on erotic encounters involving aliens with non-human genitalia with precedents in the animal kingdom. I am fascinated and I will definitely read all of them based on that premise alone. I love that she has such overt consent built into her dialogue, and that her couple dynamics are cozily low-conflict. In Love Code, the "dark moment" from a relationship standpoint is the hero trying to send the heroine back to her home planet for her own good. The heroine's adorable pet stamps her feet in protest because she loves the hero too, and the heroine tells the hero she doesn't want him to leave her, upon which he immediately changes his mind. This is cute and fluffy AF, but also so bold, that she dares to be so tender-hearted with her characters, that she refrains from amplifying relationship conflicts for the sake of drama.
BUT. This just didn't have the spark of Strange Love. And I think it's because the relationship is founded on these rapidly changing stakes, where one obstacle is resolved only to be replaced with another impediment? And so is the external conflict, and together it's really a lot going on without clarity? To summarize, we start with Helix the AI from Strange Love waking up in an enfleshed body rather than a mechanically constructed one. He goes through a bit of "gah what even is a body?" (A theme to which we'll return later). But mostly it's like a montage of learning to move in meat space where he just immediately accepts this reality without missing his past AI manifestation - conveniently, he also has a case of amnesia about most of his past which make him come across as rather blank. Then the conflict is that the heroine scientist Qualu who transferred his code to a Tiralian body finds him super hot because she made him that way. But oh no, she can't fall in love with her lab experiment because ethical boundaries and his right to self-determination (which, good for her). Then the conflict is that her four moms have to not find out he's a lab experiment so he's pretending to be her romantic partner. Then it's that municipal authorities are on the hunt for Helix and they have to outwit them. Then a bounty hunter is, and they have to escape to a safer planet.
Then when they're safely on Planet Waterworld, Helix finds out that he's got amnesia because of a partitioned drive which he has because he did some crimes to save a kid from captivity (last book's super dark plot was murder and eugenics; here it's child enslavement, which, eek). Oh no, and then the lab-bred algae-eater some scientists have released to clean up pollution has awoken some kind of kraken monster. Which actually doesn't matter to the plot. Because now Helix is going to leave to save the Heroine from his accidentally criminal past he didn't remember, and because his romantic rival suggested he should fuck off and leave Qualu alone because he doesn't deserve her. Oh, and I didn't even mention the rival AI love interest who Qualu is jealous of. There is a fuckton of stuff going on at all moments, and most of it isn't particularly character-building. I know the plot of Strange Love is "they compete in the Hunger games with 435234534 events because Reasons," which didn't particularly bother me. But that was in tandem with the arc of Beryl and Zylar overcoming their species differences to fall in love with each other - which at least was headed in one direction with escalating Hunger Games and relationship stakes. This was kind of, "I like him, I like her, but we can't cause Reasons, so let's spend most of the plot escaping from various villains and circumstances to avoid dealing with it." There's a very eleventh-hour outing of Helix as nonbinary, which was cool, and I get that gender identity is a process, but I wish the book hadn't been 80% about a male-identified character and then shifted to gender-neutral pronouns in the very last sex scene.
So here my critique of the book as it is ends, and I'm going to TL;DR a bit about AI consciousness and phenomenology. This is more about me and my wishes for the book than what Aguirre actually wrote, which I want to respect as it stands. The pitch for this book is that it's fun, it's imaginative, it's sweet, it doesn't have to be a graduate seminar on haptic phenomena, digital consciousness and embodied experience. But....if if were, I would be so delighted?
The "I wish it did more with this premise" starts out when Helix winds up in a meat body on page 1. There's some mild disorientation he experiences, as one might expect. If I can compare it to anything in pop culture, it's a bit like a reverse Avatar, where instead of the hero being like, "whee 9 ft tall cat body!" it's like, "wow, this lumbering Tiralian body kind of sucks because I have to pee now and I hate that." But in these early chapters, there's no description of past Helix the digital consciousness as he served Zylar, and there's no Helix POV on his past deceit. That was what fascinated me about the previous Helix plot in Strange Love, that he was deceptive but in this rational, even affectionate way, because he was the one who arranged Beryl's kidnapping under false pretenses to give Zylar his mathematically-probable HEA. Back here in Love Code, because amnesiac Helix can't recall much of his past, we're left in the dark about what is it like to experience purely digital consciousness. We do get glimpses of that past experience when Helix, in a flashback to his time hijacking Gravas station's AI, describes the simultaneity of information, knowledge and power he had then. Which sounds, frankly, fascinating. And I wish Helix had been a bit grumpier about the loss of that power, about having to suffer the burdens of a physical body that gets hungry, tired, and feels pain? It's later revealed that he "chose" to give himself to Qualu and adopt a biological body, but even if he wanted this fate, the transition to embodied experience should be more of a thing.
There's an entire first-act plot about Helix appreciating art, which doesn't even get into the adjustment he must be going through, suddenly having eyes, seeing colours, recognizing representations, understanding their cultural context, or, y'know, tackling what art *is* from an AI perspective vs. an organic lifeform perspective. The book's angle is very much, art is an aesthetic, visual experience that makes you feel a certain way emotionally, when that is a very narrow apprehension of what art is and what it does. Art exists in a cultural space and is about far more than visual aesthetic judgment; "art" means something entirely different in our present vs the past, when artistic craft was used to make ritual objects used for religious worship that weren't conceptually separated from their religious usage. Ie. in 300 BCE, You don't primarily judge the craft and appearance of a statue of Athena in the temple; you worship it as sacred. So what art is to a machine newly become flesh is this potentially huge question. I know this type of discussion is way above the paygrade of an adorable alien romance, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it somewhere, if not here.
There seems to be a tendency, in writing AI plots, for humans to assume that the best AI is the one that is the closest to human or somehow illuminates human virtues instead of machine virtues. Where the AI pines for things like human emotions or even mortality - as in Star Trek's Data - even though from a machine perspective, those human qualities are totally a hindrance, not a benefit necessarily. And lord, do I ever love Data, so I don't hate on these plots at all; they can be moving and illuminating of the human condition. But...what about the machine condition? I found myself a bit frustrated by the extent to which Helix accepted the virtues of his meatspace body while putting down his digital self as not as pleasurable to experience, and therefore not as preferable. His refrain is (and he repeats this a lot) because he understands the emotional experience of intimacy and friendship now, and comes to enjoy sex and touch, meatspace is better. As someone born into meatspace I would probably feel the same, but that's because my entire frame of reference is living in meatspace, perceiving the world with my physical body since day 1 of existence. Of course going fully digital would feel like a loss, like becoming someone else altogether. But shouldn't the reverse be true for a code who's lived an entire digital life with, y'know, godlike computing powers and omniscience which sounds completely amazing?! In some way, doesn't that sound like another form of pleasure, a self-immolating but all-powerful Giordano Bruno-esque Borglike consciousness? I always annoy my Trek friends by arguing that once you're inside the Borg, I don't think it sounds so bad at all. No more individual pain and suffering, just the totality of knowledge of all beings inside it - like the closest thing one can imagine to being a God. Of course the borg is terrible because it does not allow for individualism, but I can't help feeling like such human-centric morality is really an impediment to understanding the potential experience to be had by alternate forms of consciousness. (And I swear I write this sentence in complete sobriety, admittedly wack-a-doo as it sounds).
How can we imagine an intimacy and sexuality that's machine-centric rather than human-centric, a negotiation between flesh and sentient other, if it's not about traditionally carnal longings of the flesh? Is it even possible at all, and if so, how? I would be so fascinated to see this plot, and it was kind of what I was hoping for in secret. If you know of such a book, even if it's not a romance, please give me your recs.
BUT. This just didn't have the spark of Strange Love. And I think it's because the relationship is founded on these rapidly changing stakes, where one obstacle is resolved only to be replaced with another impediment? And so is the external conflict, and together it's really a lot going on without clarity? To summarize, we start with Helix the AI from Strange Love waking up in an enfleshed body rather than a mechanically constructed one. He goes through a bit of "gah what even is a body?" (A theme to which we'll return later). But mostly it's like a montage of learning to move in meat space where he just immediately accepts this reality without missing his past AI manifestation - conveniently, he also has a case of amnesia about most of his past which make him come across as rather blank. Then the conflict is that the heroine scientist Qualu who transferred his code to a Tiralian body finds him super hot because she made him that way. But oh no, she can't fall in love with her lab experiment because ethical boundaries and his right to self-determination (which, good for her). Then the conflict is that her four moms have to not find out he's a lab experiment so he's pretending to be her romantic partner. Then it's that municipal authorities are on the hunt for Helix and they have to outwit them. Then a bounty hunter is, and they have to escape to a safer planet.
Then when they're safely on Planet Waterworld, Helix finds out that he's got amnesia because of a partitioned drive which he has because he did some crimes to save a kid from captivity (last book's super dark plot was murder and eugenics; here it's child enslavement, which, eek). Oh no, and then the lab-bred algae-eater some scientists have released to clean up pollution has awoken some kind of kraken monster. Which actually doesn't matter to the plot. Because now Helix is going to leave to save the Heroine from his accidentally criminal past he didn't remember, and because his romantic rival suggested he should fuck off and leave Qualu alone because he doesn't deserve her. Oh, and I didn't even mention the rival AI love interest who Qualu is jealous of. There is a fuckton of stuff going on at all moments, and most of it isn't particularly character-building. I know the plot of Strange Love is "they compete in the Hunger games with 435234534 events because Reasons," which didn't particularly bother me. But that was in tandem with the arc of Beryl and Zylar overcoming their species differences to fall in love with each other - which at least was headed in one direction with escalating Hunger Games and relationship stakes. This was kind of, "I like him, I like her, but we can't cause Reasons, so let's spend most of the plot escaping from various villains and circumstances to avoid dealing with it." There's a very eleventh-hour outing of Helix as nonbinary, which was cool, and I get that gender identity is a process, but I wish the book hadn't been 80% about a male-identified character and then shifted to gender-neutral pronouns in the very last sex scene.
So here my critique of the book as it is ends, and I'm going to TL;DR a bit about AI consciousness and phenomenology. This is more about me and my wishes for the book than what Aguirre actually wrote, which I want to respect as it stands. The pitch for this book is that it's fun, it's imaginative, it's sweet, it doesn't have to be a graduate seminar on haptic phenomena, digital consciousness and embodied experience. But....if if were, I would be so delighted?
The "I wish it did more with this premise" starts out when Helix winds up in a meat body on page 1. There's some mild disorientation he experiences, as one might expect. If I can compare it to anything in pop culture, it's a bit like a reverse Avatar, where instead of the hero being like, "whee 9 ft tall cat body!" it's like, "wow, this lumbering Tiralian body kind of sucks because I have to pee now and I hate that." But in these early chapters, there's no description of past Helix the digital consciousness as he served Zylar, and there's no Helix POV on his past deceit. That was what fascinated me about the previous Helix plot in Strange Love, that he was deceptive but in this rational, even affectionate way, because he was the one who arranged Beryl's kidnapping under false pretenses to give Zylar his mathematically-probable HEA. Back here in Love Code, because amnesiac Helix can't recall much of his past, we're left in the dark about what is it like to experience purely digital consciousness. We do get glimpses of that past experience when Helix, in a flashback to his time hijacking Gravas station's AI, describes the simultaneity of information, knowledge and power he had then. Which sounds, frankly, fascinating. And I wish Helix had been a bit grumpier about the loss of that power, about having to suffer the burdens of a physical body that gets hungry, tired, and feels pain? It's later revealed that he "chose" to give himself to Qualu and adopt a biological body, but even if he wanted this fate, the transition to embodied experience should be more of a thing.
There's an entire first-act plot about Helix appreciating art, which doesn't even get into the adjustment he must be going through, suddenly having eyes, seeing colours, recognizing representations, understanding their cultural context, or, y'know, tackling what art *is* from an AI perspective vs. an organic lifeform perspective. The book's angle is very much, art is an aesthetic, visual experience that makes you feel a certain way emotionally, when that is a very narrow apprehension of what art is and what it does. Art exists in a cultural space and is about far more than visual aesthetic judgment; "art" means something entirely different in our present vs the past, when artistic craft was used to make ritual objects used for religious worship that weren't conceptually separated from their religious usage. Ie. in 300 BCE, You don't primarily judge the craft and appearance of a statue of Athena in the temple; you worship it as sacred. So what art is to a machine newly become flesh is this potentially huge question. I know this type of discussion is way above the paygrade of an adorable alien romance, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it somewhere, if not here.
There seems to be a tendency, in writing AI plots, for humans to assume that the best AI is the one that is the closest to human or somehow illuminates human virtues instead of machine virtues. Where the AI pines for things like human emotions or even mortality - as in Star Trek's Data - even though from a machine perspective, those human qualities are totally a hindrance, not a benefit necessarily. And lord, do I ever love Data, so I don't hate on these plots at all; they can be moving and illuminating of the human condition. But...what about the machine condition? I found myself a bit frustrated by the extent to which Helix accepted the virtues of his meatspace body while putting down his digital self as not as pleasurable to experience, and therefore not as preferable. His refrain is (and he repeats this a lot) because he understands the emotional experience of intimacy and friendship now, and comes to enjoy sex and touch, meatspace is better. As someone born into meatspace I would probably feel the same, but that's because my entire frame of reference is living in meatspace, perceiving the world with my physical body since day 1 of existence. Of course going fully digital would feel like a loss, like becoming someone else altogether. But shouldn't the reverse be true for a code who's lived an entire digital life with, y'know, godlike computing powers and omniscience which sounds completely amazing?! In some way, doesn't that sound like another form of pleasure, a self-immolating but all-powerful Giordano Bruno-esque Borglike consciousness? I always annoy my Trek friends by arguing that once you're inside the Borg, I don't think it sounds so bad at all. No more individual pain and suffering, just the totality of knowledge of all beings inside it - like the closest thing one can imagine to being a God. Of course the borg is terrible because it does not allow for individualism, but I can't help feeling like such human-centric morality is really an impediment to understanding the potential experience to be had by alternate forms of consciousness. (And I swear I write this sentence in complete sobriety, admittedly wack-a-doo as it sounds).
How can we imagine an intimacy and sexuality that's machine-centric rather than human-centric, a negotiation between flesh and sentient other, if it's not about traditionally carnal longings of the flesh? Is it even possible at all, and if so, how? I would be so fascinated to see this plot, and it was kind of what I was hoping for in secret. If you know of such a book, even if it's not a romance, please give me your recs.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2021
Un romance REALMENTE alienígena.
•Mi opinión puede contener Spoilers
•Esta destinada a ser un descargo personal no para que alguien más lea pero si lo haces y te ofende, me disculpo porque sé lo que es que te guste un libro y otros lo critiquen
Love Code de Ann Aguirre Serie Galactic love libro 2
Argumento:
Él es lindo, Está de mal humor. Su código es increíblemente elegante.
¿Qué hace una IA amnésica en un lugar como este? Helix no tiene idea. Sabe que planeaba construirse una vida para sí mismo en la estación Gravas, pero no tiene idea de lo que ha estado
haciendo durante la última mitad del ciclo. Tampoco comprende por qué se estrelló su nave. Una genia científica de Tiralan, lo salvó copiando su código en un anfitrión orgánico, y después de conocer a sus madres entrometidas, parece que sus problemas apenas han
comenzado…
Ella es inteligente. Ella es creativa. Ella afirma que es su compañero.
Qalu no tiene ningún interés en las relaciones. Preferiría trabajar en
su laboratorio, innovando en lugar de socializar. El problema es que los Tiralan creen que uno no puede ser feliz solo. Cuando una solución literalmente cae del cielo, aprovecha la oportunidad de avanzar en su investigación y enseñar a Helix cómo ser Tiralan,
mientras calma los temores de sus madres. Puede que sea poco
convencional, pero está lista para romper todas las reglas por un
poco de paz.
Acuerdan hacerse pasar por los compañeros del otro por las razones
más lógicas, pero el amor siempre encuentra un camino.
Mí humilde opinión:
Desde que leí Strange Love estoy impresionada con el mundo creado de Ann Aguirre, es tan fantástico e inesperado con raros y pero encantadores alienígenas.
Love Code es la secuela de Strange Love y cuenta la historia de Helix, la IA de la nave de Zaylar, y Qalu una científica Tiralan.
Cuando la nave se estrella cerca del laboratorio de Qalu, ella salva a Helix colocándolo en un cuerpo orgánico que pertenece a un proyecto en el que esta trabajando. La IA, Helix despierta en un cuerpo y descubre que su memoria está fracturada. No recuerda cómo llegó a estrellarse o qué hizo antes. Helix debe aprender tanto a utilizar su nuevo cuerpo como aprender nuevas costumbres. Pero mientras que la IA se va acomodando a su nuevo cuerpo Tiralan y pasa tiempo con Qalu algo más está aprendiendo, todo tipo de emociones que no comprende entre ellas la amistad y el amor.
Pero aquello que su memoria guarda y no logra recordar totalmente puede ser peligroso porque un implacable cazarecompensas está detrás de él y pondrá en riesgo al ser que no solo lo salvó sino que más ama.
Fue interesante leer cómo interactúa un Tiralan románticamente. No sé si encontré exactamente sexy las escenas de sexy pero puedo decir que tuvieron mucho calor a la manera alien.
La nueva raza que presenta AA, la cultura Tiralan era inusual. Vivían en los que llamaban grupos de amor. Por ejemplo, Qalu tenía varias madres por lo que deduje que no era una raza monógama. Esta especie elegía de qué sexo podía ser al alcanzar la edad madura, o podía escoger quedarse con ambos sexos.
Helix y Qalu fueron dos personajes agradables y tiernos que junto con Aevi,
la Pherzul que actuaba como perro guardián de Qalu, lograron un trio que hizo que disfrutara de esta lectura.
También me gustó que volvieran Beryl la humana, su perro parlante Snaps y Zaylar. Me encantó que Helix viajara y visitara a la pareja para decirles que estaba vivo ya que Zaylar especialmente había lamentado la pérdida de Helix en el libro anterior.
En definitiva esta es una lectura entretenida y divertida, su historia y personajes únicas, sin momentos de gran acción y bastante ligera con un final agradable.
Reto gooleando libros 2021 Por amor a los libros: Portada rara
June 7, 2021
This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart
Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
3.5 hearts
Love Code is the second book in the Galactic Love series, which seems so far to involve strange couplings. Helix was just an AI system, he had to leave his first master, Zylar and home planet after he made some very un-AI choices when he tried to help the Barathian he served find a mate. When he wakes up in a meat suit, it is unexpected and gross. Biological creatures sweat, and defecate and need to sleep. It would be totally awful if not for the woman who put him in that suit.
Qalu is a scientist who has spent her career trying to integrate biologics and AI. She was on the brink of testing when the perfect test subject fell into her lap. He can't remember why his ship crashed or what he is doing on her planet but Qalu makes Helix an offer. She will help him stay under the radar from whatever is chasing him across the galaxy if he will pretend to be a potential mate and get her mothers off her back. Sounds easy, unless the meat suit you are in is opening you up to all kinds of feelings you didn't know you could have.
This is a pretty cute read. Qalu is easy to like, she is just bad at peopling and would rather spend time in her lab doing research. She has the cutest pet that seems like a cross between a cat and ferret, but more poisonous and better at calculus. But Helix in her life is going to change her in some ways she didn't expect. Maybe she is just a girl who loves a guy sporting some sleek code. They are a little awkward as they try to negotiate the desire simmering between them and also go on the run for their lives.
While I enjoyed this story, there isn't anything that made it extra special. Also, the fact that multiple times we had to stop and get everyone's pronouns straight was distracting. I wish it would have blended into the story a little better. Helix and Qalu both are rather unexperienced and sometimes in the sciencing out your feelings some of the emotion of the moment was lost. But I did like the adventure they went on and how Helix came to enjoy being in a meat suit with all of its bodily needs. I was happy to see Zylar and Beryl again to catch up with how their life is going as well as meet a few other humans who have seemed to found their way off earth as well.
Narration:
Sarah Puckett gives a solid performance. I like her voice for the female characters more than the male but she gave a good performance all around. I especially like her voice for the pets in this series. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
3.5 hearts
Love Code is the second book in the Galactic Love series, which seems so far to involve strange couplings. Helix was just an AI system, he had to leave his first master, Zylar and home planet after he made some very un-AI choices when he tried to help the Barathian he served find a mate. When he wakes up in a meat suit, it is unexpected and gross. Biological creatures sweat, and defecate and need to sleep. It would be totally awful if not for the woman who put him in that suit.
Qalu is a scientist who has spent her career trying to integrate biologics and AI. She was on the brink of testing when the perfect test subject fell into her lap. He can't remember why his ship crashed or what he is doing on her planet but Qalu makes Helix an offer. She will help him stay under the radar from whatever is chasing him across the galaxy if he will pretend to be a potential mate and get her mothers off her back. Sounds easy, unless the meat suit you are in is opening you up to all kinds of feelings you didn't know you could have.
This is a pretty cute read. Qalu is easy to like, she is just bad at peopling and would rather spend time in her lab doing research. She has the cutest pet that seems like a cross between a cat and ferret, but more poisonous and better at calculus. But Helix in her life is going to change her in some ways she didn't expect. Maybe she is just a girl who loves a guy sporting some sleek code. They are a little awkward as they try to negotiate the desire simmering between them and also go on the run for their lives.
While I enjoyed this story, there isn't anything that made it extra special. Also, the fact that multiple times we had to stop and get everyone's pronouns straight was distracting. I wish it would have blended into the story a little better. Helix and Qalu both are rather unexperienced and sometimes in the sciencing out your feelings some of the emotion of the moment was lost. But I did like the adventure they went on and how Helix came to enjoy being in a meat suit with all of its bodily needs. I was happy to see Zylar and Beryl again to catch up with how their life is going as well as meet a few other humans who have seemed to found their way off earth as well.
Narration:
Sarah Puckett gives a solid performance. I like her voice for the female characters more than the male but she gave a good performance all around. I especially like her voice for the pets in this series. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
January 30, 2021
So this book was recommended to me from TBR (Tailored book recommendations) and.....eh. it wasn't that good.
It's strange. this book is about an AI and an alien romance, so you'd think it would be a love story that hasn't happened 14000 times already but, ironically it's very standard romance fare.
The biggest issues i had with this book are the main characters. They are BORING like really really boring. The AI turned Avatar body main guy's entire personality is "I love this woman so much! i depend on her! but should i put her in danger? I can't do that! she means too much to me! But i'm going to be clingy and possessive!" and the lady alien's is "oh, i loved him immediately! i want him to be mine! but i can't say that because it'll feel like i'm taking advantage! (throws arm over tendrilled face) oh whoa is me!"
So be it to say, there's no romantic conflict in this book and they are in love with each other almost immediately with no other explanation than he likes her because she took care of him and she likes him just because. These two main character's personalities are as interesting as old wet sand paper and equally as useless.
The main "conflict" in this book is that a bounty hunter is after the AI. So i'm thinking "oh, well maybe we'll get a cool action scene where something other than...you know NOTHING will happen. Nope. nope. even with a mandalorian-esc bounty hunter, nothing happened.
I'd say the only good characters in this book were the bird creature that followed the two around (who was fun comic relief) and the human who was in the book for a while on the ship named Bojack. Those two characters actually had some semblance of a personality. It was nice to see someone in this book who didn't act like they were filled up with Ben Stein extract.
The book, while being short (only 210 pages) you felt every one of the pages. and it isn't like i didn't know what i was getting into with romance novels. i've read them before and have liked a few quite a bit, but there was NOTHING in this book that made me care about these two's romance. it was basically instalove and the two just kinda farted around running away from a problem that could have been solved in 2 seconds, but of course it couldn't because main guy had "partial amnesia".
I have to admit, i zoned out a lot during this one. i didn't really care about the locations, or really anything the main characters did because even if i zoned out for 3 pages at a time, upon reading the next paragraph i realized i missed absolutely nothing.
I see what the author was trying to do, but sadly, it just didn't work. If the author could have just given them SOMETHING of a personality i would have liked it more, but everything came off so dry and dull, that even their emotional outbursts came off like a half broken speak n'spell.
All in all, i kept reading in the hope it would get better, but sadly, it didn't, as every other side character had more personality than the main characters. hell, i would have rather hung out with the bounty hunter instead. But no, i was stuck with these two dorks. Hopefully they'll go off and have an extremely boring life together. oh hell, i don't have to hope. i know they will. 2/5.
It's strange. this book is about an AI and an alien romance, so you'd think it would be a love story that hasn't happened 14000 times already but, ironically it's very standard romance fare.
The biggest issues i had with this book are the main characters. They are BORING like really really boring. The AI turned Avatar body main guy's entire personality is "I love this woman so much! i depend on her! but should i put her in danger? I can't do that! she means too much to me! But i'm going to be clingy and possessive!" and the lady alien's is "oh, i loved him immediately! i want him to be mine! but i can't say that because it'll feel like i'm taking advantage! (throws arm over tendrilled face) oh whoa is me!"
So be it to say, there's no romantic conflict in this book and they are in love with each other almost immediately with no other explanation than he likes her because she took care of him and she likes him just because. These two main character's personalities are as interesting as old wet sand paper and equally as useless.
The main "conflict" in this book is that a bounty hunter is after the AI. So i'm thinking "oh, well maybe we'll get a cool action scene where something other than...you know NOTHING will happen. Nope. nope. even with a mandalorian-esc bounty hunter, nothing happened.
I'd say the only good characters in this book were the bird creature that followed the two around (who was fun comic relief) and the human who was in the book for a while on the ship named Bojack. Those two characters actually had some semblance of a personality. It was nice to see someone in this book who didn't act like they were filled up with Ben Stein extract.
The book, while being short (only 210 pages) you felt every one of the pages. and it isn't like i didn't know what i was getting into with romance novels. i've read them before and have liked a few quite a bit, but there was NOTHING in this book that made me care about these two's romance. it was basically instalove and the two just kinda farted around running away from a problem that could have been solved in 2 seconds, but of course it couldn't because main guy had "partial amnesia".
I have to admit, i zoned out a lot during this one. i didn't really care about the locations, or really anything the main characters did because even if i zoned out for 3 pages at a time, upon reading the next paragraph i realized i missed absolutely nothing.
I see what the author was trying to do, but sadly, it just didn't work. If the author could have just given them SOMETHING of a personality i would have liked it more, but everything came off so dry and dull, that even their emotional outbursts came off like a half broken speak n'spell.
All in all, i kept reading in the hope it would get better, but sadly, it didn't, as every other side character had more personality than the main characters. hell, i would have rather hung out with the bounty hunter instead. But no, i was stuck with these two dorks. Hopefully they'll go off and have an extremely boring life together. oh hell, i don't have to hope. i know they will. 2/5.
January 25, 2021
Oh my heart! This was such an utterly delightful and satisfying story. I felt so happy after I finished it. It had humor, steam, and incredibly thoughtful consent. Truly, how does Ann Aguirre making head tendrils touching so hot?? Plus, A+ queer rep. (Saying this as a cishet reader but confirmed by two bi friends with whom I buddy read and discussed.) Qalu has four mothers and she’s either bi or pan. Asking about pronouns is common. Tiralan choose their gender when they reach maturity, although they can choose to remain in their neutral state. Helix initially decides to use “he” but by the end, decides the neutral state is a better fit and opts as “they” for their pronoun. This does mean “he/him” is used for the bulk of the book but everyone adapts quickly to the switch. I’m curious to know what nonbinary readers make of the representation.
Helix and Qalu were the aliens of my dreams and I loved watching how their relationship grew from scientist-prototype to friends to lovers. (OK yes technically Helix is an AI but they were given a biosynthetic body that looks Tiralan and so they are therefore also an alien.)
Aevi really stole the show for me, much like Snaps in Strange Love. She’s basically a cat-bird hybrid and wants to murder anyone who would hurt Helix. Same here, Aevi. Zylar and Beryl also make an appearance and it was fun to see how they’re doing, as well as see Zylar and Helix reconnect. Very much looking forward to the next book featuring bounty hunter Toth Krag! The moment he appeared on page, I was all in.
Character notes: Helix is an AI who is given a biosynthetic Tiralan body after their spaceship crashes. They are an artist. Qalu is a femme Tiralan scientist and she is bi or pan. Aevi is a Pherzul (species native to Tiralan that is cat-like but with feathers instead of fur) with implanted technology that allows her to talk.
CW: spaceship crash (off-page but Qalu reflects on finding it and rescuing Helix’s data), heroine is kidnapped and rescued, xenophobia toward AI, human kept in cage as part of menagerie exhibit, reference to family who was sold into servitude for gambling debt, reference to fatal virus that wiped out most of Tiralan centuries ago
Helix and Qalu were the aliens of my dreams and I loved watching how their relationship grew from scientist-prototype to friends to lovers. (OK yes technically Helix is an AI but they were given a biosynthetic body that looks Tiralan and so they are therefore also an alien.)
Aevi really stole the show for me, much like Snaps in Strange Love. She’s basically a cat-bird hybrid and wants to murder anyone who would hurt Helix. Same here, Aevi. Zylar and Beryl also make an appearance and it was fun to see how they’re doing, as well as see Zylar and Helix reconnect. Very much looking forward to the next book featuring bounty hunter Toth Krag! The moment he appeared on page, I was all in.
Character notes: Helix is an AI who is given a biosynthetic Tiralan body after their spaceship crashes. They are an artist. Qalu is a femme Tiralan scientist and she is bi or pan. Aevi is a Pherzul (species native to Tiralan that is cat-like but with feathers instead of fur) with implanted technology that allows her to talk.
CW: spaceship crash (off-page but Qalu reflects on finding it and rescuing Helix’s data), heroine is kidnapped and rescued, xenophobia toward AI, human kept in cage as part of menagerie exhibit, reference to family who was sold into servitude for gambling debt, reference to fatal virus that wiped out most of Tiralan centuries ago
May 14, 2024
4.5 stars
This was such a fun and unique love story between an understandably socially impaired AI adjusting to a semi organic body and the hermit-like scientist who saved them. Helix was adorable and I appreciated how much thought the author put into what sorts of issues the MCs would run into while adjusting to a previously unheard of dynamic. Qalu was the queen of consent and such an utter sweetheart, if a bit blind to some of the issues in universe.
Spice: 3.5/5
Triggers: explosions, imprisonment, kidnapping, threat of death, stalking by bounty hunter, mention of imprisonment of child, claustrophobia, time in deep ocean, space battle, mention of abduction
This was such a fun and unique love story between an understandably socially impaired AI adjusting to a semi organic body and the hermit-like scientist who saved them. Helix was adorable and I appreciated how much thought the author put into what sorts of issues the MCs would run into while adjusting to a previously unheard of dynamic. Qalu was the queen of consent and such an utter sweetheart, if a bit blind to some of the issues in universe.
Spice: 3.5/5
Triggers: explosions, imprisonment, kidnapping, threat of death, stalking by bounty hunter, mention of imprisonment of child, claustrophobia, time in deep ocean, space battle, mention of abduction
June 20, 2021
I don't have anything I didn't particularly like with this audiobook but still I couldn't get as invested in the story as I would have liked. It might because I jumped head first in book two without reading the first one. But I'm not very tempted to read the first one at the moment.
May 27, 2021
I’m rounding this up from ~ 3.5 stars. I wanted to love this book as much as I loved Strange Love, but there were parts of Love Code I really had to push myself through, and it took me a while to complete it. It was well written but something was missing for me.
I really appreciate what Aguirre did here, with her thoughtfulness around gender, power dynamics, consent, and just thinking outside the box. I think it made an interesting science fiction love story; however, I had a hard time seeing it as a romance because I couldn’t connect with it in that way as a reader. I think that having both the main characters be “other”—one an alien female and one an AI—made it hard for me to do so. And while I could relate to a lot of the feelings and emotions they felt, I think there was too big of a gap for me to fully relate to them and be invested in their pairing in the way I typically would. It made me realize how much I prefer alien romance books in which the female character is human, which is something I will definitely take into consideration going forward.
Still, I have to give Aguirre kudos for doing something so different. I look forward to the next book in the series.
I really appreciate what Aguirre did here, with her thoughtfulness around gender, power dynamics, consent, and just thinking outside the box. I think it made an interesting science fiction love story; however, I had a hard time seeing it as a romance because I couldn’t connect with it in that way as a reader. I think that having both the main characters be “other”—one an alien female and one an AI—made it hard for me to do so. And while I could relate to a lot of the feelings and emotions they felt, I think there was too big of a gap for me to fully relate to them and be invested in their pairing in the way I typically would. It made me realize how much I prefer alien romance books in which the female character is human, which is something I will definitely take into consideration going forward.
Still, I have to give Aguirre kudos for doing something so different. I look forward to the next book in the series.
February 20, 2021
Such a disappointment. I loved Strange Love. It was fun and exciting and romantic, and I basically laughed my head off all the way through, right till the moments of strong emotions, which really affected me.
Unfortunately, Love Code was nothing like that. The characters were superficially drawn, and their relationship was a mix of instalove and each trying to make decisions for the other in order to protect them. The action felt disjointed and episodic. It's basically "this happens, then this happens, then this other thing happens". And what was going on just wasn't too interesting.
Also, zero humour. Even the cute pet felt irritating, and I have a high tolerance for that stuff.
There were some interesting ideas there, but they didn't help much.
Unfortunately, Love Code was nothing like that. The characters were superficially drawn, and their relationship was a mix of instalove and each trying to make decisions for the other in order to protect them. The action felt disjointed and episodic. It's basically "this happens, then this happens, then this other thing happens". And what was going on just wasn't too interesting.
Also, zero humour. Even the cute pet felt irritating, and I have a high tolerance for that stuff.
There were some interesting ideas there, but they didn't help much.
January 25, 2021
Gentler and slower than Strange Love, but just as generous, respectful of boundaries, and attentive to the representation of sexualities and gender. Ann Aguirre keeps surprising me from book to book.
February 24, 2021
3.5
This was nice! And tender! And existential!
I love Ann Aguire's concepts for books, she really just takes alien romance to a whole new level and I really really vibe with that!
The only thing I didn't like was how convenient certain plot points were, they got resolved pretty quickly and without much trouble, the stakes were high but they never felt like so.
Can't wait for Renegade Love, my man deserves some affection!!!
This was nice! And tender! And existential!
I love Ann Aguire's concepts for books, she really just takes alien romance to a whole new level and I really really vibe with that!
The only thing I didn't like was how convenient certain plot points were, they got resolved pretty quickly and without much trouble, the stakes were high but they never felt like so.
Can't wait for Renegade Love, my man deserves some affection!!!
August 25, 2021
Oh, I just love the AIs! LOL
This is a story that reminded me of Asimov's Bicentenial Man! But here we don't have a man, but an alien! LOL
This is a story that reminded me of Asimov's Bicentenial Man! But here we don't have a man, but an alien! LOL
July 12, 2021
A scientist puts a dying AI's code into a biological body designed in the form of her race and ends up on the galactic adventure of a life time. A recluse and a new inorganic-organic being must negotiate the ways of love. I spotted this one in a blog review and it tickled my fancy so I dove right in for a delightful first encounter with author and series.
Love Code is the second in a series and, while I picked this one up out of order and enjoyed it, I will be the first to admit that it would have been so much easier and a better experience to get the series in order which does include at least one more book.
Once in a while, I come across a sci-fi alien romance that deeply imparts the alien-ness of the characters who might have certain anthropomorphic resemblance or needs that a human might, but there the resemblance ends. I have entered a fascinating alien world that captivates me equally as the characters and plot. In fact, Love Code is one such. An alien and an AI match showing all the awkwardness and misunderstandings, the fumbling attempts even while friendship, trust and love grow quickly against a dangerous race to discover Helix's missing memories and what light that will shed on their dangerous pursuers.
Love Code is not action-packed and full of thrills. It trundles along, actually, and spends time in passive voice at times though is not lacking for excitement, but it worked for me.
I enjoyed Qalu and how careful she was with Helix and even when she was working so hard to protect her heart by pushing him away. She's quiet and reflective, hesitant, and ever the curious scientist while Helix is bold and colorful not lacking in confidence and personality once he gets his feet under him. Qalu is his vulnerable spot because he knows she is this brilliant scientist who saved his life and he has brought her nothing but trouble on their tail. They were great together and I enjoyed the build of attraction and the suspense in the end.
Like most good sci-fi, Love Code explores complex elements beyond the sci-fi plot- what constitutes personhood? family nucleus? gender? But, these melded with all the rest and didn't devolve into monologues only added extra layers to the story.
So, it was a fab introduction to a new to me author and I have made note of when the next book is coming because I am oh so curious after my brief encounter with the characters who will now get their own book. Definitely recommend especially to those who want a bit more alien in their alien sci-fi romances.
Love Code is the second in a series and, while I picked this one up out of order and enjoyed it, I will be the first to admit that it would have been so much easier and a better experience to get the series in order which does include at least one more book.
Once in a while, I come across a sci-fi alien romance that deeply imparts the alien-ness of the characters who might have certain anthropomorphic resemblance or needs that a human might, but there the resemblance ends. I have entered a fascinating alien world that captivates me equally as the characters and plot. In fact, Love Code is one such. An alien and an AI match showing all the awkwardness and misunderstandings, the fumbling attempts even while friendship, trust and love grow quickly against a dangerous race to discover Helix's missing memories and what light that will shed on their dangerous pursuers.
Love Code is not action-packed and full of thrills. It trundles along, actually, and spends time in passive voice at times though is not lacking for excitement, but it worked for me.
I enjoyed Qalu and how careful she was with Helix and even when she was working so hard to protect her heart by pushing him away. She's quiet and reflective, hesitant, and ever the curious scientist while Helix is bold and colorful not lacking in confidence and personality once he gets his feet under him. Qalu is his vulnerable spot because he knows she is this brilliant scientist who saved his life and he has brought her nothing but trouble on their tail. They were great together and I enjoyed the build of attraction and the suspense in the end.
Like most good sci-fi, Love Code explores complex elements beyond the sci-fi plot- what constitutes personhood? family nucleus? gender? But, these melded with all the rest and didn't devolve into monologues only added extra layers to the story.
So, it was a fab introduction to a new to me author and I have made note of when the next book is coming because I am oh so curious after my brief encounter with the characters who will now get their own book. Definitely recommend especially to those who want a bit more alien in their alien sci-fi romances.
November 22, 2021
Another enjoyable and quirky story. I’m not a fan of the constant “I’m not worthy” internal dialogue. Also, the ending includes the Hallmark “and I’m actually very wealthy” revelation.
An interesting look at life and the advantages and disadvantages of having a body and the impact of the physical on emotions. And of course, consent is a big part of this.
It’s nice to see Beryl, Snaps, and Zylar. Also, we get to meet the couple that will be in the next book.
An interesting look at life and the advantages and disadvantages of having a body and the impact of the physical on emotions. And of course, consent is a big part of this.
It’s nice to see Beryl, Snaps, and Zylar. Also, we get to meet the couple that will be in the next book.
January 22, 2021
Ann Aguirre rly is that bitch and I love it
January 10, 2021
I really liked the first book in this series. This one is good as well, but has a much quieter tone, which I like too and makes sense. Helix is learning so much about his new body and what even having a body means. There is eating, keeping clean and then the whole horror of voiding yourself. lol It seems like with each new skill he learns he is either amused or alarmed. Then there are all the feelings he is suddenly experiencing and having to learn about those. Qalu is the perfect person to help him, she is endlessly patient and often surprised herself when she has to explain things that just are, like how do you know you are hungry, how do you know you need to go to the bathroom, how do you go to sleep, things people just know as they grow up.
Things got a bit wacky when they realize someone his looking for Helix and there is a bounty on his head. The two of them do what they need to to protect Helix, which is run. They get some help along the way, discover and underground settlement for other AI's. It was here that Helix finally remembered what was blocked in his mind and that changed everything. It put them on the run again, but this time without their helpers. Helix was able to come up with a great plan, one that seemed like it would work and then he would be free to live his life.
Things worked out, always a good thing, but in this case it was even better because before going home Helix and Qalu decided to visit Zylar and Beryl. Their visit was great, nice to see things settled and a new relationship being built between the two couples. But the best was when Helix and Qalu went home to start their new life, ready to life happy and free.
Things got a bit wacky when they realize someone his looking for Helix and there is a bounty on his head. The two of them do what they need to to protect Helix, which is run. They get some help along the way, discover and underground settlement for other AI's. It was here that Helix finally remembered what was blocked in his mind and that changed everything. It put them on the run again, but this time without their helpers. Helix was able to come up with a great plan, one that seemed like it would work and then he would be free to live his life.
Things worked out, always a good thing, but in this case it was even better because before going home Helix and Qalu decided to visit Zylar and Beryl. Their visit was great, nice to see things settled and a new relationship being built between the two couples. But the best was when Helix and Qalu went home to start their new life, ready to life happy and free.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2021
When Helix wakes from a crash on a distant planet, not only are his memories from the past half cycle missing, but he’s been changed. Once a bodiless A.I. who lived on a ship, Helix is now an organic being. Qalu, a brilliant Tiralan scientist saved him by putting his code into a host she grew in her lab. Qalu lives a solitary life, working to advance her field in secrecy. When Helix crashed so close to her lab, she makes the split decision to save him, hoping he will survive the transition.
Love Code is the second story in the non-traditional sci-fi Galactic Love romance series. Loosely connected to the first title by main character Helix, it can be enjoyed as a standalone story. The book is filled with high adventure, close calls, and tender love. While Love Code is a romantic adventure, the story addresses issues such as bigotry and gender fluidity through entertaining storytelling.
Ms. Aguirre creates main characters who are strong, kind, and compassionate, striving to better themselves and to become better partners. I enjoyed watching both learn and grow of the course of the story. A scientist at heart, Qalu is excited about her technological break through, yet quickly she realizes her discovery would mean a life of experiments for Helix. She is attracted to Helix, but refuses to cross any lines since she is his maker and he relies on her to survive (at first).
I also enjoyed seeing Helix evolve. The author did a very good job of showing him go from a robotic A.I. to fully functioning organic being. There are some humorous scenes when Qalu must explain bodily functions and proper etiquette. Helix and Qalu learn that open and honest communication allows for a closer, stronger bond, something rarely seen in most relationships. They are an example of all that is good.
Narration: The story is shared via the third person POV of both Qalu and Helix. The narrator speaks in a soft, somewhat breathy female voice which remains the same for both POVs. She adjusts her voice for dialogue, deepening it slightly for male characters. Each being has a unique voice suited to the character’s species, gender, and age. My only (small) issue was the the assassin’s voice is described as very deep like rocks being dragged across the ocean floor; however, it wasn’t very deep.
Love Code is entertaining alien adventure romance that defies the norm, bringing together two souls so different yet so similar.
Story: B
Narration: B+
Review copy provided by Tantor Audio
Originally posted at That's What I'm Talking About
Love Code is the second story in the non-traditional sci-fi Galactic Love romance series. Loosely connected to the first title by main character Helix, it can be enjoyed as a standalone story. The book is filled with high adventure, close calls, and tender love. While Love Code is a romantic adventure, the story addresses issues such as bigotry and gender fluidity through entertaining storytelling.
Ms. Aguirre creates main characters who are strong, kind, and compassionate, striving to better themselves and to become better partners. I enjoyed watching both learn and grow of the course of the story. A scientist at heart, Qalu is excited about her technological break through, yet quickly she realizes her discovery would mean a life of experiments for Helix. She is attracted to Helix, but refuses to cross any lines since she is his maker and he relies on her to survive (at first).
I also enjoyed seeing Helix evolve. The author did a very good job of showing him go from a robotic A.I. to fully functioning organic being. There are some humorous scenes when Qalu must explain bodily functions and proper etiquette. Helix and Qalu learn that open and honest communication allows for a closer, stronger bond, something rarely seen in most relationships. They are an example of all that is good.
Narration: The story is shared via the third person POV of both Qalu and Helix. The narrator speaks in a soft, somewhat breathy female voice which remains the same for both POVs. She adjusts her voice for dialogue, deepening it slightly for male characters. Each being has a unique voice suited to the character’s species, gender, and age. My only (small) issue was the the assassin’s voice is described as very deep like rocks being dragged across the ocean floor; however, it wasn’t very deep.
Love Code is entertaining alien adventure romance that defies the norm, bringing together two souls so different yet so similar.
Story: B
Narration: B+
Review copy provided by Tantor Audio
Originally posted at That's What I'm Talking About
February 23, 2021
I adored Strange Love so I was really excited to read this book. This one started off strong and for people who love sweet, cinnamon roll characters and consent porn this book is a dream. However, for me, it started to lose momentum as the story jumped into lots of space opera, sci fi action, escaping from bounty hunters etc. Which is weird because I usually love that stuff, but I felt like this book was at it's strongest in the quiet moments when the two MC's were getting to know each other. Also, I feel terrible saying this, but I got a little tired of these two tip toeing around each other. It was adorable at first, but it started to wear thin. I love when character's talk about and respect boundaries, but it got to the point where I felt that without the authors finagling these characters would never get together because they were far more focused on not upsetting the other or hurting their feelings? Maybe a me problem. Still it was a solid read.
October 10, 2022
This is another exploration of the boundaries of scifi romance and smut. An AI is downloaded into a "meat-suit" and asked to fake like a person of the species of his "creator". Lots of discussion of the oddities of interpersonal, and inter-species, relationships. Late in the book, we learn that this is the AI who ran the ship from the first story, and at the end everyone reconnects.
There is some sexual tension and some short scenes of creative activities that are definitely non-human, but still appealing.
There is a third book in this series, which I will read.
There is some sexual tension and some short scenes of creative activities that are definitely non-human, but still appealing.
There is a third book in this series, which I will read.
August 26, 2023
We met Helix in book 1. Helis is an AI.
This was an interesting romance between an alien and an AI. Helix was given a body after his ship crashed. Qalu is a Tiralan scientist whose prototype became Helix's body. It was interesting reading how Helix grew into his "meat" body (and how he had to be taught elimination/eating). The Tiralan have scales, tendrils on their head, and walk on 2 legs. They also chose their gender at maturity and most have various (think polyamorous) family units.
Add in amnesia, a bounty hunter, and an underground network that tries to save AIs and you've got an interesting, unique story.
RBSB: Outer Space square
This was an interesting romance between an alien and an AI. Helix was given a body after his ship crashed. Qalu is a Tiralan scientist whose prototype became Helix's body. It was interesting reading how Helix grew into his "meat" body (and how he had to be taught elimination/eating). The Tiralan have scales, tendrils on their head, and walk on 2 legs. They also chose their gender at maturity and most have various (think polyamorous) family units.
Add in amnesia, a bounty hunter, and an underground network that tries to save AIs and you've got an interesting, unique story.
RBSB: Outer Space square
February 25, 2022
The love story between Qalu and Helix was cute but it was a miss for me. I need some kind of human in the story and this book has one side human character. Cute tho and glad I read it.
March 23, 2021
3 Stars
March 3, 2022
2 1/2 maybe 3
This was obviously a serial as it was disjointed plots. That aside it was an interesting take on an A.I. put into a “meat bag” living body that was grown and developed for an A.I. download. Helix wakes not knowing that it has happened or what has happened as part of his memory is missing. He also doesn’t have the ability to interface with the electronics in Qalu’s home. Qalu is a A.I. scientist that doesn’t quite fit into her society; she is solitary while her society live in family groups. She has 4 mothers all giving a little of the genetic code that makes up her genome. This is not further developed so not sure how that happens. So there are several jumps in plot line.
1. Helix wakes and learns his body and the new society- This was mostly fun seeing how he deals with the bathroom and feelings. Meeting the family and the mothers trying to set Qalu up and questioning him.
And from here it is spoileryish
The romance was slow but good at first, especially before they return to settle down. At this point they both do the “I’m taking advantage. I need to let them go for their own good.” Multiple time and this got tedious. The description of the Tiralans are intersex human creatures being able to preform both with a slit opening and protuberance. Instead of having a neutral pronoun in their culture, they do the political dance of asking for pronouns. For me this was out of place and jarring and perhaps was trying to be inclusive but instead didn’t make sense. A culture that doesn’t have multiple sexes might have mother and father but not two-sexual species pronouns. OK, so two times the introduction and pronouns are discussed and Helix goes by he, until the end then he decides on they. Well then the last sex scene just caused me confusion as it was a jarring change. For me they is plural and I actually though that their family unit had increased to three, and quickly thought the sentient pet as they considered it family. But then I caught on. I thought the idea of the single sex with multiple sexual abilities was interesting up to putting the gender pronoun choice. Just as this is my review it is my feeling and hating me will not change that. I’m wildly liberal/progressive. This is my feeling on the book and I almost didn’t write the review after going over in my head for over a day. My review my opinion. So the midway and end part of the romance was stilted. Most of this was because of the “I cannot bring her into my problem” and then don’t talk about it, and her saying it was unethical to have a relationship with Helix because she created him and he didn’t have a choice, even though he had made a decision. It works out in the end and was nice but the path was a lot of pushing away from each other and jealousy. This is another thing that didn’t work for me, she comes from a society of multiple partners in a family unit, although I could see her wanting Helix to be hers as a solitary person, I could not see her having the learned jealous reaction as she would have learned the opposite.
Well some of this could be just the nature of the serial book. The pushing away the plot point for one of the installments, and the the other doing it in a different way for another, to give it that angst. Still they was mostly low angst other than this and it was short lived each time it came up which unluckily was more than once on each side.
I really like the first book in the series, this one not so much though it was interesting and entertaining. It starts off better than it ends.
This was obviously a serial as it was disjointed plots. That aside it was an interesting take on an A.I. put into a “meat bag” living body that was grown and developed for an A.I. download. Helix wakes not knowing that it has happened or what has happened as part of his memory is missing. He also doesn’t have the ability to interface with the electronics in Qalu’s home. Qalu is a A.I. scientist that doesn’t quite fit into her society; she is solitary while her society live in family groups. She has 4 mothers all giving a little of the genetic code that makes up her genome. This is not further developed so not sure how that happens. So there are several jumps in plot line.
1. Helix wakes and learns his body and the new society- This was mostly fun seeing how he deals with the bathroom and feelings. Meeting the family and the mothers trying to set Qalu up and questioning him.
And from here it is spoileryish
The romance was slow but good at first, especially before they return to settle down. At this point they both do the “I’m taking advantage. I need to let them go for their own good.” Multiple time and this got tedious. The description of the Tiralans are intersex human creatures being able to preform both with a slit opening and protuberance. Instead of having a neutral pronoun in their culture, they do the political dance of asking for pronouns. For me this was out of place and jarring and perhaps was trying to be inclusive but instead didn’t make sense. A culture that doesn’t have multiple sexes might have mother and father but not two-sexual species pronouns. OK, so two times the introduction and pronouns are discussed and Helix goes by he, until the end then he decides on they. Well then the last sex scene just caused me confusion as it was a jarring change. For me they is plural and I actually though that their family unit had increased to three, and quickly thought the sentient pet as they considered it family. But then I caught on. I thought the idea of the single sex with multiple sexual abilities was interesting up to putting the gender pronoun choice. Just as this is my review it is my feeling and hating me will not change that. I’m wildly liberal/progressive. This is my feeling on the book and I almost didn’t write the review after going over in my head for over a day. My review my opinion. So the midway and end part of the romance was stilted. Most of this was because of the “I cannot bring her into my problem” and then don’t talk about it, and her saying it was unethical to have a relationship with Helix because she created him and he didn’t have a choice, even though he had made a decision. It works out in the end and was nice but the path was a lot of pushing away from each other and jealousy. This is another thing that didn’t work for me, she comes from a society of multiple partners in a family unit, although I could see her wanting Helix to be hers as a solitary person, I could not see her having the learned jealous reaction as she would have learned the opposite.
Well some of this could be just the nature of the serial book. The pushing away the plot point for one of the installments, and the the other doing it in a different way for another, to give it that angst. Still they was mostly low angst other than this and it was short lived each time it came up which unluckily was more than once on each side.
I really like the first book in the series, this one not so much though it was interesting and entertaining. It starts off better than it ends.
February 11, 2022
Originally published at Reading Reality
Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy. Data wanted to experience what it meant to be human. Howsomever, Helix, the self-aware, self-willed and occasionally downright deceptive AI of Strange Love had no desire to experience “meat space”.
So of course he gets what he absolutely did not wish for. The chance to experience “life” in a mostly organic body. And in a case of karma being a bitch galaxy-wide, his program has been deposited into an organic construct on Tiralan. He knows plenty about Tiralan history, customs and behavior because he fabricated a Tiralan identity in order to lure his friend Zylar off of Baranth, through an equally fabricated data glitch so that he could get the shy, self-effacing Baranthi to Earth where his friend had the best chance of meeting someone who would be willing to go through his planet’s Mating Trials with him.
That was the story in the first book in this series, Strange Love. And it’s absolutely marvelous, so if you like science fiction romance or alien romance at all – read it before picking up Love Code.
By the end of Strange Love, Helix the rather conniving AI had become self-aware, sentient and even sapient – making him too much AI to get around the laws of Baranth. So Zylar set Helix free and on his way to a place where he might be safe to explore his own destiny, while untethering the AI from the shit that is just about to hit Zylar’s personal fan.
The best laid plans and all that meant that Helix crash landed on Tiralan instead, to be rescued by Qalu, a femme Tiralan cybernetic engineer who was experimenting with placing AI consciousness into mostly organic constructed bodies. Who just so happens to have the perfect body all ready for her to transplant Helix’ code into.
Well, it’s perfect from her perspective. The body she designed is ready in an engineering sense, as well as fully functional and perfectly designed to trip every single one of her triggers. After all, even in the ancient Greek myth about Pygmalion, that long ago sculptor didn’t design nor fall in love with an ugly statue.
When Helix recovers from the surgery/transplant/metamorphosis, he has a difficult time adjusting to his new circumstances. He’s never experienced ANYTHING to do with having a meat space body made of real meat. The scene where Qalu has to explain hunger, eating, and the inevitable result of the latter is a marvel of cringing hilarity.
The story here is initially about the dovetailing – you might almost call it fated – of Qalu’s needs with Helix’. Helix needs a safe place to learn and recover – both his newly physical self and the puzzling gaps in his memory. Qalu needs to evaluate the results of her experiment – which is after all her life’s work.
More immediately, she also needs a fake potential mate to fend off the well-meaning interference of her four mothers, all of whom want Qalu to find a nice partner or two or three (love groups are the usual form of family on Tiralan), stop spending so much time alone in her laboratory or with her pet Pherzul Aevi (think intelligent, talking cat – which may not be strictly correct but works anyway).
So Helix and Qalu – with Aevi’s agreement – choose to tell a bit of a white lie. But just as their fake relationship tilts towards a actual one, reality rears its ugly head. A bounty hunter has come to Tiralan, chasing Helix. Possibly just for existing as a self-aware AI, but more likely for something Helix did before he crashed on Qalu’s doorstep.
It’s time for them to run, in the hopes of escaping whatever is dogging Helix’ heels. It’s already too late for them to run from each other – no matter how much Helix believes that they should.
Escape Rating B+: While Love Code wasn’t quite as much fun as the first book in the trilogy, Strange Love, it was still an awful lot of fun. Which is exactly what I was looking for as yesterday’s book wasn’t quite up to its series and the book I planned to review today just wasn’t working for me. It happens.
I loved Strange Love so much that I was reasonably sure that I’d have a good reading time with Qalu and Helix – and I was NOT disappointed.
Howsomever, the planet Tiralan turned out to be a surprising place for a meet-cute and a fake relationship type of romance – especially with the fascinating issues of power dynamics and informed vs. forced consent in all their permutations.
Helix is very much in the experimental stage with his new and initially unwelcome body and all of its many sensations – not all of which are pleasurable or even seemly from his perspective. He’s learning, he’s trying, he’s adapting and he’s confused more often than not. He also doesn’t know what either attraction or love feel like. So he doesn’t recognize those feelings when they start happening to him.
Qalu knows what she wants, and also knows that it would be unethical for her to reach for it. Or rather, reach for Helix, the way that she wants to. She recognizes that he’s dependent on her on Tiralan.
But when they go on the run, the situation changes. Helix has traveled the stars. He may be in a meat space body now, but he knows how to act and react and has lots of information to help them on their clandestine journey.
Now Qalu is lost. She’s always stuck close to home, not just the planet but her own homespaces. She’s scared, she feels inadequate and useless, and she’s homesick. So is Aevi. Qalu doesn’t know how to help and fears she’s an actual hindrance that Helix will eventually leave behind. (She kind of regrets that she made him so very handsome for their species!)
What makes this story work so well is the way that their power dynamics shift, and the way that they both adapt in spite of so many things standing – sometimes literally – in their way.
The story in Love Code ended up being a bit more of a straightforward romance than Strange Love, which is probably why I liked Strange Love a bit more. I enjoyed the journey of exploration of this new universe as much as I did the romance. But I definitely had a good reading time with Helix and Qalu so I’m glad I was able to follow up with this series so quickly.
The final book in the series, Renegade Love, is set up in this book, just as this one turned out to be set up in the first book. And I am so looking forward to reading it!
Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy. Data wanted to experience what it meant to be human. Howsomever, Helix, the self-aware, self-willed and occasionally downright deceptive AI of Strange Love had no desire to experience “meat space”.
So of course he gets what he absolutely did not wish for. The chance to experience “life” in a mostly organic body. And in a case of karma being a bitch galaxy-wide, his program has been deposited into an organic construct on Tiralan. He knows plenty about Tiralan history, customs and behavior because he fabricated a Tiralan identity in order to lure his friend Zylar off of Baranth, through an equally fabricated data glitch so that he could get the shy, self-effacing Baranthi to Earth where his friend had the best chance of meeting someone who would be willing to go through his planet’s Mating Trials with him.
That was the story in the first book in this series, Strange Love. And it’s absolutely marvelous, so if you like science fiction romance or alien romance at all – read it before picking up Love Code.
By the end of Strange Love, Helix the rather conniving AI had become self-aware, sentient and even sapient – making him too much AI to get around the laws of Baranth. So Zylar set Helix free and on his way to a place where he might be safe to explore his own destiny, while untethering the AI from the shit that is just about to hit Zylar’s personal fan.
The best laid plans and all that meant that Helix crash landed on Tiralan instead, to be rescued by Qalu, a femme Tiralan cybernetic engineer who was experimenting with placing AI consciousness into mostly organic constructed bodies. Who just so happens to have the perfect body all ready for her to transplant Helix’ code into.
Well, it’s perfect from her perspective. The body she designed is ready in an engineering sense, as well as fully functional and perfectly designed to trip every single one of her triggers. After all, even in the ancient Greek myth about Pygmalion, that long ago sculptor didn’t design nor fall in love with an ugly statue.
When Helix recovers from the surgery/transplant/metamorphosis, he has a difficult time adjusting to his new circumstances. He’s never experienced ANYTHING to do with having a meat space body made of real meat. The scene where Qalu has to explain hunger, eating, and the inevitable result of the latter is a marvel of cringing hilarity.
The story here is initially about the dovetailing – you might almost call it fated – of Qalu’s needs with Helix’. Helix needs a safe place to learn and recover – both his newly physical self and the puzzling gaps in his memory. Qalu needs to evaluate the results of her experiment – which is after all her life’s work.
More immediately, she also needs a fake potential mate to fend off the well-meaning interference of her four mothers, all of whom want Qalu to find a nice partner or two or three (love groups are the usual form of family on Tiralan), stop spending so much time alone in her laboratory or with her pet Pherzul Aevi (think intelligent, talking cat – which may not be strictly correct but works anyway).
So Helix and Qalu – with Aevi’s agreement – choose to tell a bit of a white lie. But just as their fake relationship tilts towards a actual one, reality rears its ugly head. A bounty hunter has come to Tiralan, chasing Helix. Possibly just for existing as a self-aware AI, but more likely for something Helix did before he crashed on Qalu’s doorstep.
It’s time for them to run, in the hopes of escaping whatever is dogging Helix’ heels. It’s already too late for them to run from each other – no matter how much Helix believes that they should.
Escape Rating B+: While Love Code wasn’t quite as much fun as the first book in the trilogy, Strange Love, it was still an awful lot of fun. Which is exactly what I was looking for as yesterday’s book wasn’t quite up to its series and the book I planned to review today just wasn’t working for me. It happens.
I loved Strange Love so much that I was reasonably sure that I’d have a good reading time with Qalu and Helix – and I was NOT disappointed.
Howsomever, the planet Tiralan turned out to be a surprising place for a meet-cute and a fake relationship type of romance – especially with the fascinating issues of power dynamics and informed vs. forced consent in all their permutations.
Helix is very much in the experimental stage with his new and initially unwelcome body and all of its many sensations – not all of which are pleasurable or even seemly from his perspective. He’s learning, he’s trying, he’s adapting and he’s confused more often than not. He also doesn’t know what either attraction or love feel like. So he doesn’t recognize those feelings when they start happening to him.
Qalu knows what she wants, and also knows that it would be unethical for her to reach for it. Or rather, reach for Helix, the way that she wants to. She recognizes that he’s dependent on her on Tiralan.
But when they go on the run, the situation changes. Helix has traveled the stars. He may be in a meat space body now, but he knows how to act and react and has lots of information to help them on their clandestine journey.
Now Qalu is lost. She’s always stuck close to home, not just the planet but her own homespaces. She’s scared, she feels inadequate and useless, and she’s homesick. So is Aevi. Qalu doesn’t know how to help and fears she’s an actual hindrance that Helix will eventually leave behind. (She kind of regrets that she made him so very handsome for their species!)
What makes this story work so well is the way that their power dynamics shift, and the way that they both adapt in spite of so many things standing – sometimes literally – in their way.
The story in Love Code ended up being a bit more of a straightforward romance than Strange Love, which is probably why I liked Strange Love a bit more. I enjoyed the journey of exploration of this new universe as much as I did the romance. But I definitely had a good reading time with Helix and Qalu so I’m glad I was able to follow up with this series so quickly.
The final book in the series, Renegade Love, is set up in this book, just as this one turned out to be set up in the first book. And I am so looking forward to reading it!
January 8, 2022
3.5
AI Helix crashlands into the life of Tiralan scientist Qalu.
AI Helix crashlands into the life of Tiralan scientist Qalu.
January 25, 2021
I enjoyed the beginning, middle, and to the almost end but then Helix suddenly decides that his pronoun will change from he to “they”. What does this have to do with the story? Why would an alien society have issues with what pronoun someone uses?
Also, in the last few pages Helix decides “they” are interested in finding more mates after spending the majority of the book expressing jealousy and an inability to share or maybe that was Qalu that felt that way. I’m not sure what the author was trying to do or prove with the last few pages of the book but I wasn’t impressed. The first book in the series was fabulous but the sudden changes at the very end of this book were jarring.
Also, in the last few pages Helix decides “they” are interested in finding more mates after spending the majority of the book expressing jealousy and an inability to share or maybe that was Qalu that felt that way. I’m not sure what the author was trying to do or prove with the last few pages of the book but I wasn’t impressed. The first book in the series was fabulous but the sudden changes at the very end of this book were jarring.
June 7, 2021
I am a sucker for the exploration of the humanity of AI, and while this book does not focus too closely on that question I did love Helix's surprise at being made of meat. I guess these books are compiled after being serialized, and I think this one could have used a little more attention to the flow, but it is so precious. The tenderness and humor that Aguirre employs in her exploration of gender and sexuality just makes it so sweet.
June 12, 2021
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Helix, the AI who was a side character in the first book gets a 'meat suit', and his own HEA in this book. I like this awakening to emotion trope and didn't have the same issues as I did with the first book (the 'sex' scenes between biologically incompatible species in the first book were uncomfortable - the ones here weren't)
So I am glad I gave the series another try and I look forward to the final book next year.
So I am glad I gave the series another try and I look forward to the final book next year.
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