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After the Storm
Rich Merrill, gene-tweaked supersoldier by birth and AI support technician by vocation, is done fighting. Finally reassigned after four hellish years aboard the Sympatico, a dysfunctional ship with a deadly crew, all he wants is to make the most of his second chance.
The survival skills that got him through his last posting aren't going to help him on the Reliant, though. In among a kinder, gentler crew, Rich's old scars and bad habits are just as much of a problem as vengeful ex-crewmates, or the Sympatico's corrupted AI, which wants him back.
Rich wants to be a better person. He wants to make some friends, finally. He'd especially like to be friends--or more--with Basil Wright, a brilliant teen rival who's grown up captivatingly handsome; or Liam Beaker, a beautiful, mercurial botanist and fellow tweak. Rich wants to reconnect with what's left of his family, pick up some hobbies, get some sun, learn to relax. But if he can't learn how to leave his old life behind, his new life won't be worth living.
Content warnings: past sexual assault, trauma, past abuse, alcohol use, food insecurity, violence, consent issues
The survival skills that got him through his last posting aren't going to help him on the Reliant, though. In among a kinder, gentler crew, Rich's old scars and bad habits are just as much of a problem as vengeful ex-crewmates, or the Sympatico's corrupted AI, which wants him back.
Rich wants to be a better person. He wants to make some friends, finally. He'd especially like to be friends--or more--with Basil Wright, a brilliant teen rival who's grown up captivatingly handsome; or Liam Beaker, a beautiful, mercurial botanist and fellow tweak. Rich wants to reconnect with what's left of his family, pick up some hobbies, get some sun, learn to relax. But if he can't learn how to leave his old life behind, his new life won't be worth living.
Content warnings: past sexual assault, trauma, past abuse, alcohol use, food insecurity, violence, consent issues
552 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 12, 2020
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61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 29, 2024
5 stars
It took me 6 months to read this. Or rather, I spent 6 months savouring this and reading it incrementally instead of devouring it like I usually would. Admittedly, it is also 550 pages long.
I thought the character work was exceptional and the world building was fascinating.
That's essential as there's next to no overarching plot. In fact, plot would be entirely superfluous here, this is about people healing from trauma, and learning about healthy relationships: with work, with friends, with partners, with authority. It's full of hurt/comfort, enthusiastic consent, forced proximity, and second chances.
Somewhat unusually pacing-wise, the first half of this is where the hard stuff lies and where the bulk of the "angst" is, not that this is angsty per se, just far from flat emotionally. Rich has been abused at the hands of many, and it takes him many agonising experiences before he starts to understand this, but his friends are there to support him every step of the way.
This is not really a genre romance, as in there's not exactly an explicit couple/group at the end. It's probably more romantic erotica. Or sci-fi with romantic undertones.
I don't think the idea in this series is to settle into any closed relationship. This is something that all the characters are comfortable with though, so it worked for me too.
Highly recommended for fans of hurt/comfort, healing from trauma, and very detailed & enthusiastic sex.
It took me 6 months to read this. Or rather, I spent 6 months savouring this and reading it incrementally instead of devouring it like I usually would. Admittedly, it is also 550 pages long.
I thought the character work was exceptional and the world building was fascinating.
That's essential as there's next to no overarching plot. In fact, plot would be entirely superfluous here, this is about people healing from trauma, and learning about healthy relationships: with work, with friends, with partners, with authority. It's full of hurt/comfort, enthusiastic consent, forced proximity, and second chances.
Somewhat unusually pacing-wise, the first half of this is where the hard stuff lies and where the bulk of the "angst" is, not that this is angsty per se, just far from flat emotionally. Rich has been abused at the hands of many, and it takes him many agonising experiences before he starts to understand this, but his friends are there to support him every step of the way.
This is not really a genre romance, as in there's not exactly an explicit couple/group at the end. It's probably more romantic erotica. Or sci-fi with romantic undertones.
I don't think the idea in this series is to settle into any closed relationship. This is something that all the characters are comfortable with though, so it worked for me too.
Highly recommended for fans of hurt/comfort, healing from trauma, and very detailed & enthusiastic sex.
January 7, 2022
ok so cool this book is very long and pretty much 100% character driven; if you have been thirsting for an extremely queer hurt/comfort, trauma recovery, erotic novel, it's here, this is the book for you. Overall really enjoyable and a lot of the kind of content it's really hard to find anywhere else; the characters and worldbuilding are both great, everything is full and complete and lovingly crafted. The one thing I'd wished was different was I'd been hankering for more story instead of more sex scenes, but that's more about knowing what to expect going in.
and TRIMMER is my fave 500% what an awful goblin I love him so much I hope he is in the next books.
and TRIMMER is my fave 500% what an awful goblin I love him so much I hope he is in the next books.
February 20, 2022
Interesting nearish future scifi with cool world building. Main plot is the main character learning how to be a normal functioning person again after spending several years on a fucked up murder boat. That being said, this is a fairly feel-good story about recovery surrounded by people who like you and want you to be happy.
Content warnings include violence, alcoholism, and references to past sexual assault. Contains explicit sex scenes between several male characters and a burgeoning polyamorous relationship.
Content warnings include violence, alcoholism, and references to past sexual assault. Contains explicit sex scenes between several male characters and a burgeoning polyamorous relationship.
June 30, 2021
Let me start by saying that I have been following these authors' careers for many years across different genres and mediums, so going in my expectations were sky-high.
This book blew my expectations out of the water. The post-climate collapse, post-USA world they built in the Michigan Fleet was so original yet so believable. It leaned into the fears of a readership facing a future of rising seas, monster storms, and general scarcity, then flipped the script to showcase our greatest hopes for humanity's ability to adapt and rise to the occasion with cleverness and ingenuity. The characters populating the Fleet are a wild hodgepodge of sci-fi experiments that excite the imagination, while raising questions about the kind of life such genetically engineered people and their descendants might face. This is not a story that shies away from the prejudices of the world, and while some aspects of this future may seem utopian at a glance, it's clear that social progress is very much two steps forward, one step back. Why judge someone by their height or weight or skin color when you could judge them for their very DNA? Why bother calling someone four eyes when people with four hands exist?
Rich, the protagonist of this book, is the child of one such genetically modified people. "Mom was a freighter, dad brought a ladder" he jokes. He faces a world that judges him for his super-soldier capabilities first and his intellect second, a world he's had to fight every step for survival. Actually no, not EVERY step. He had a good childhood with a loving family and an internship that he learned a lot from. But trauma has a way of blotting out the good, and the last few years have deeply traumatized him. We meet Rich in the aftermath of that trauma, as he transitions from the hellship he was stationed on back to his original posting, facing people from his past with a completely different perspective. We learn our way around fleet society as Rich struggles to relearn it, picking up the social norms as Rich meets and befriends the cast.
I could go on. I probably will at some point, but it’s it's late and I have no time to write an essay listing the merits of the story. I enjoyed this book, and I think others will too. The only downside is it doesn’t contain the authors’ chapter illustrations, but you can easily find those on their blogs. (Along with some tantalizingly teasing sketches from future books.)
This book blew my expectations out of the water. The post-climate collapse, post-USA world they built in the Michigan Fleet was so original yet so believable. It leaned into the fears of a readership facing a future of rising seas, monster storms, and general scarcity, then flipped the script to showcase our greatest hopes for humanity's ability to adapt and rise to the occasion with cleverness and ingenuity. The characters populating the Fleet are a wild hodgepodge of sci-fi experiments that excite the imagination, while raising questions about the kind of life such genetically engineered people and their descendants might face. This is not a story that shies away from the prejudices of the world, and while some aspects of this future may seem utopian at a glance, it's clear that social progress is very much two steps forward, one step back. Why judge someone by their height or weight or skin color when you could judge them for their very DNA? Why bother calling someone four eyes when people with four hands exist?
Rich, the protagonist of this book, is the child of one such genetically modified people. "Mom was a freighter, dad brought a ladder" he jokes. He faces a world that judges him for his super-soldier capabilities first and his intellect second, a world he's had to fight every step for survival. Actually no, not EVERY step. He had a good childhood with a loving family and an internship that he learned a lot from. But trauma has a way of blotting out the good, and the last few years have deeply traumatized him. We meet Rich in the aftermath of that trauma, as he transitions from the hellship he was stationed on back to his original posting, facing people from his past with a completely different perspective. We learn our way around fleet society as Rich struggles to relearn it, picking up the social norms as Rich meets and befriends the cast.
Rich's new crewmates on the Reliant will know where he's from as soon as they access his work history, if they haven’t already been warned in advance. They’ll know what he was part of. Even if he was some fresh-faced know-nothing intern on the Reliant once, Rich seriously doubts he’s going to get a kid’s leeway now that he’s coming back a full-grown man with a record so full of black marks they’re basically just one dark, shameful blur.
I could go on. I probably will at some point, but it’s it's late and I have no time to write an essay listing the merits of the story. I enjoyed this book, and I think others will too. The only downside is it doesn’t contain the authors’ chapter illustrations, but you can easily find those on their blogs. (Along with some tantalizingly teasing sketches from future books.)
May 14, 2024
(I will update the review as soon as I finish this, I am 67% in)
This book has a pretty interesting world-building, some great characters and I have to say the narration on Rich's PTSD is quite well done. I could almost feel the anxious way Rich had to re-adapt to a world/society where he did not need to be hypervigilant all the time. I also did not mind that the book just follows Rich's character and his development instead of a plot, as I love characters' studies. The relationships were also pretty good, not only between Rich and Basil but also between all the other characters, it is great to see a book that has such a big focus on friendship (especially a book that is technically an erotica novel).
Now, why 3 stars instead of more - I mainly had three problems with the novel. The first one was the constant repetition of how big Rich was and how tiny pocket-size all the other characters he had/has relationships are. It particularly irked me with Liam. Look, I get this is clearly some size difference kink, but I do not need to hear every ten seconds about how little Liam is, how small Trimmer used to be, how baby-boy Basil is. It felt repetitive and uncomfortable.
My second problem is the sex. SA was dealt so well (and PTSD in general) that I got whiplash from how Rich acted during sex. I am not talking about his confidence, I thought that was amazing, but he suddenly turns into a "standard big top character who is exactly the fantasy of bottom character" - I don't know, maybe I am just picky but I ended up skipping all the sex scenes and skim reading them after a while.
And my third problem is basically connected to the second one: the characters acted differently to get to the sex scenes, or at least Liam did, that first time.
This book has a pretty interesting world-building, some great characters and I have to say the narration on Rich's PTSD is quite well done. I could almost feel the anxious way Rich had to re-adapt to a world/society where he did not need to be hypervigilant all the time. I also did not mind that the book just follows Rich's character and his development instead of a plot, as I love characters' studies. The relationships were also pretty good, not only between Rich and Basil but also between all the other characters, it is great to see a book that has such a big focus on friendship (especially a book that is technically an erotica novel).
Now, why 3 stars instead of more - I mainly had three problems with the novel. The first one was the constant repetition of how big Rich was and how tiny pocket-size all the other characters he had/has relationships are. It particularly irked me with Liam. Look, I get this is clearly some size difference kink, but I do not need to hear every ten seconds about how little Liam is, how small Trimmer used to be, how baby-boy Basil is. It felt repetitive and uncomfortable.
My second problem is the sex. SA was dealt so well (and PTSD in general) that I got whiplash from how Rich acted during sex. I am not talking about his confidence, I thought that was amazing, but he suddenly turns into a "standard big top character who is exactly the fantasy of bottom character" - I don't know, maybe I am just picky but I ended up skipping all the sex scenes and skim reading them after a while.
And my third problem is basically connected to the second one: the characters acted differently to get to the sex scenes, or at least Liam did, that first time.
October 8, 2024
While sci fi-ish stuff isn’t generally my thing, Sad Boy TMs are, and this delivers on that. Rich has Trauma with a capital ‘T’. Trimmer, too (plus I love a smol, stabby Sad Boy TM).
The plot is plotting. The smut is smutting. The hurt is hurting.
I’m really interested in how all these relationships are going to play out.. Rich, Joey, Liam, Mitch, Basil… who knows who else? Romantic, sexual, platonic… I’m here for all of it.
While this book has a hefty word count, it didn’t feel long. Or at least, it only felt long in a good way, like when I would realize I still had lots to read and wouldn’t have to worry about it ending too soon.
There were a few things that bothered me, mainly about the , but that mostly gets addressed. Also, I generally like older characters, but seeing how this is an ongoing series, having Rich start out as 21 gives him plenty of space to grow — physically, emotionally, mentally. Bro has some shit to work through, after all.
The only other thing that I am annoyed about is the whole Angela thing and how quickly that is just resolved. We can’t all be forgiving cinnamon rolls like Rich, after all. Make her earn it.
The plot is plotting. The smut is smutting. The hurt is hurting.
I’m really interested in how all these relationships are going to play out.. Rich, Joey, Liam, Mitch, Basil… who knows who else? Romantic, sexual, platonic… I’m here for all of it.
While this book has a hefty word count, it didn’t feel long. Or at least, it only felt long in a good way, like when I would realize I still had lots to read and wouldn’t have to worry about it ending too soon.
There were a few things that bothered me, mainly about the , but that mostly gets addressed. Also, I generally like older characters, but seeing how this is an ongoing series, having Rich start out as 21 gives him plenty of space to grow — physically, emotionally, mentally. Bro has some shit to work through, after all.
The only other thing that I am annoyed about is the whole Angela thing and how quickly that is just resolved. We can’t all be forgiving cinnamon rolls like Rich, after all. Make her earn it.
March 8, 2020
Worth a read
This is heartbreaking and hot by turns. Hard to put down once started. Definitely kept me up late on a work night more than once.
Rich starting to come to terms with his own worth is perhaps my favorite thing about the whole book.
I really hope there ends up being another book or two I want to learn more about the characters and the world they inhabit.
This is heartbreaking and hot by turns. Hard to put down once started. Definitely kept me up late on a work night more than once.
Rich starting to come to terms with his own worth is perhaps my favorite thing about the whole book.
I really hope there ends up being another book or two I want to learn more about the characters and the world they inhabit.
April 4, 2022
See my web site for a complete review of “After the Storm”.
July 31, 2025
love it!
October 14, 2025
Loved this.
January 1, 2025
4.5 stars
I can’t believe it took me almost two weeks to review this book! It makes no sense because I loved it so much that it would have been a breeze to review it a few days after having finished it. Regardless, I find that this book and the emotions it inspired in me are memorable even after having finished it a bit ago! This is a surprise as books lately have left me with not very long lasting impressions.
First and foremost, it was such a delight to read a book that was chunky and truly deeply concerned with the reader fully understanding the protagonist. I felt like I really got to know Rich and how his mind worked. However, the very thing I loved about how Rich’s character was established was also the reason I took off a .5 from my star rating.
I absolutely adored that the main focus of this novel was Rich living with his trauma and slowly working through it, but by the end of the novel he still hadn’t even truly acknowledged enough of his trauma for it to be satisfying. Let me clarify. We spend a lot of the novel seeing how Rich was traumatized by the events of his life in the ship the Simpático. He has severe anxiety—he doesn’t trust people easily. He’s terrified people want to fight him. He’s terrified people want sexual favors from him. He doesn’t understand consensual sexual and/or romantic relationships. He doesn’t get why it’s a bad thing that he can barely function if he doesn’t have at least one drink a day. It’s a lot. Now, it’s not like I feel all of this could have been magically resolved by the end of the novel, but I would have preferred if this five hundred page book at least had him acknowledge all his trauma. He didn’t have to be “over” it. I just wanted him to accept that he had trauma.
Regardless, the book more than made up for my frustrations with the relationships in the book. The interactions between Rich, Basil, Liam, and Trimmer truly made this novel. So many of their interactions were so fun to read!
When it comes to Liam, I loved that Liam took the time to talk to Rich about healthy relationships. I loved that Liam was immediately doing his best to help Rich and made sure he was being fed properly! I also loved that Liam was allowed to be a lil hoe without anyone thinking poorly of him for it. And that he always made sure he was having safe sex! Having clear conversations about STI status in a romance novel? Who would have thought?!
And then Basil was a sweetheart. All his blushing and nervousness around Rich gave me life. Truly felt blessed by him. Even when he wasn’t any good at communicating, I just wanted to give him a hug and say, “You tried your best, dear! Love you anyway!” And he had a prosthetic hand! Loved that rep. And also he was a huge fucking nerd. Just adorable. Would risk it all for him.
Finally, Trimmer was great because he drove Liam and Basil up the wall. Because Rich and Trimmer both went through the traumatic experience of the Simpático, they basically trauma bonded. They have some questionable coping mechanisms, but only because they didn’t know any better and wanted to make sure the other was safe. Thus, Trimmer’s very aggressive when he first meets Basil and Liam, but it’s all because he loves Rich. It made for both hilarious content but also sad content because of how truly depressing the shit Trimmer and Rich went through was to make them behave the way they do.
Apart from the characters, I also adored that this book wasn’t at all concerned with monogamy. It didn’t trash on monogamy at all, but it made it presented it as perfectly natural for Rich, Liam, Basil, and Trimmer to have complicated sexual and romantic feelings for one another. By the end of the novel there’s no “winning” relationship. There’s no OTP to root for. The whole point is that these men have very strong feelings for one another and especially for Rich. I didn’t mind at all that there was no “resolution” because it felt very natural based on how the novel had progressed.
All in all, I’m so fucking happy I bought this book on a whim. It was so very good! I need to check everything else these three authors have written by themselves or with others.
P.S. The only other major complaint I have about this book is that I wasn’t super into how the first two sexual encounters between Rich and Basil went. Although it gets addressed later in the novel, it made me uncomfortable that the first two times they were together in any sexual way at least one of them was considerably drunk. They both have enough awareness they remember everything and don’t regret it, but it still made me uncomfortable.
I can’t believe it took me almost two weeks to review this book! It makes no sense because I loved it so much that it would have been a breeze to review it a few days after having finished it. Regardless, I find that this book and the emotions it inspired in me are memorable even after having finished it a bit ago! This is a surprise as books lately have left me with not very long lasting impressions.
First and foremost, it was such a delight to read a book that was chunky and truly deeply concerned with the reader fully understanding the protagonist. I felt like I really got to know Rich and how his mind worked. However, the very thing I loved about how Rich’s character was established was also the reason I took off a .5 from my star rating.
I absolutely adored that the main focus of this novel was Rich living with his trauma and slowly working through it, but by the end of the novel he still hadn’t even truly acknowledged enough of his trauma for it to be satisfying. Let me clarify. We spend a lot of the novel seeing how Rich was traumatized by the events of his life in the ship the Simpático. He has severe anxiety—he doesn’t trust people easily. He’s terrified people want to fight him. He’s terrified people want sexual favors from him. He doesn’t understand consensual sexual and/or romantic relationships. He doesn’t get why it’s a bad thing that he can barely function if he doesn’t have at least one drink a day. It’s a lot. Now, it’s not like I feel all of this could have been magically resolved by the end of the novel, but I would have preferred if this five hundred page book at least had him acknowledge all his trauma. He didn’t have to be “over” it. I just wanted him to accept that he had trauma.
Regardless, the book more than made up for my frustrations with the relationships in the book. The interactions between Rich, Basil, Liam, and Trimmer truly made this novel. So many of their interactions were so fun to read!
When it comes to Liam, I loved that Liam took the time to talk to Rich about healthy relationships. I loved that Liam was immediately doing his best to help Rich and made sure he was being fed properly! I also loved that Liam was allowed to be a lil hoe without anyone thinking poorly of him for it. And that he always made sure he was having safe sex! Having clear conversations about STI status in a romance novel? Who would have thought?!
And then Basil was a sweetheart. All his blushing and nervousness around Rich gave me life. Truly felt blessed by him. Even when he wasn’t any good at communicating, I just wanted to give him a hug and say, “You tried your best, dear! Love you anyway!” And he had a prosthetic hand! Loved that rep. And also he was a huge fucking nerd. Just adorable. Would risk it all for him.
Finally, Trimmer was great because he drove Liam and Basil up the wall. Because Rich and Trimmer both went through the traumatic experience of the Simpático, they basically trauma bonded. They have some questionable coping mechanisms, but only because they didn’t know any better and wanted to make sure the other was safe. Thus, Trimmer’s very aggressive when he first meets Basil and Liam, but it’s all because he loves Rich. It made for both hilarious content but also sad content because of how truly depressing the shit Trimmer and Rich went through was to make them behave the way they do.
Apart from the characters, I also adored that this book wasn’t at all concerned with monogamy. It didn’t trash on monogamy at all, but it made it presented it as perfectly natural for Rich, Liam, Basil, and Trimmer to have complicated sexual and romantic feelings for one another. By the end of the novel there’s no “winning” relationship. There’s no OTP to root for. The whole point is that these men have very strong feelings for one another and especially for Rich. I didn’t mind at all that there was no “resolution” because it felt very natural based on how the novel had progressed.
All in all, I’m so fucking happy I bought this book on a whim. It was so very good! I need to check everything else these three authors have written by themselves or with others.
P.S. The only other major complaint I have about this book is that I wasn’t super into how the first two sexual encounters between Rich and Basil went. Although it gets addressed later in the novel, it made me uncomfortable that the first two times they were together in any sexual way at least one of them was considerably drunk. They both have enough awareness they remember everything and don’t regret it, but it still made me uncomfortable.
May 14, 2023
After the Storm is a post-apocalyptic sf novel by Hannah Birchwood, Key Dyson, and Raymond Roach. In this setting, the US has broken up into a bunch of smaller countries a hundred or so years after a civil war an environmental collapse, and an implied nuclear exchange. Possibly. There's a few references to "nuke worshipping cannibals from Detroit" causing problems.
One of those smaller countries is a Fleet of ships in the middle of Lake Michigan, and this is where our story is set. Basically, what happened is a US admiral snitched a bunch of ships and made a refugee flotilla out in the middle of the Lake. Considering the Great Lakes including Lake Michigan have horrible seasonal storms, it kind of illustrates how completely hellish the collapse was. ("Oh yes, I'm going to put a refugee camp in the middle of a lake that is full of deadly seasonal storms and also dead bodies and shipwrecks. So much safer than what's going on offshore!")
Our Protagonist is a "military genemod" named Rich who is employed in IT. Because sometimes super soldiers are just very large computer geeks with absolutely no interest in supersoldiering. After barely surviving the toxic and criminal environment of his previous ship he's sent back to the ship where he previously interned, and he has to learn how to get along with people who are not horribly abusive criminals.
This involves lots of therapy and watching Future Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. No, I am not kidding. The show is called "Family Fleet," and is used to teach "pro-social" behavior to both little kids and adults. Pity Our Protagonist, he not only has to watch puppets sing about cooperation, but he also has to do homework about it.
After the Storm is a sweet (and kind of steamy in later chapters) story about recovery from trauma. It is also about romance; Our Protagonist makes connections with both a co-worker named Basil and a cute bioengineer named Liam. I enjoyed the developing relations between Rich, Basil, and Liam and how Rich slowly opens up as he recovers from his experiences on the previous ship.
After the Storm has some fascinating world-building, from a social perspective. A lot of the time writers or creators will drop you in the middle of the worldbuilding in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian setting and you have no idea how the setting got from point A all the way to point C. With After the Storm, it's really easy to see the origin point and the result. We learn about how the Fleet was founded, and about the cultural mores and customs of its citizens. The writers are good at dropping little details of worldbuilding and backstory, and their character interaction and banter is top-notch.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes science fiction romance with a lot of plot and excellent worldbuilding.
One of those smaller countries is a Fleet of ships in the middle of Lake Michigan, and this is where our story is set. Basically, what happened is a US admiral snitched a bunch of ships and made a refugee flotilla out in the middle of the Lake. Considering the Great Lakes including Lake Michigan have horrible seasonal storms, it kind of illustrates how completely hellish the collapse was. ("Oh yes, I'm going to put a refugee camp in the middle of a lake that is full of deadly seasonal storms and also dead bodies and shipwrecks. So much safer than what's going on offshore!")
Our Protagonist is a "military genemod" named Rich who is employed in IT. Because sometimes super soldiers are just very large computer geeks with absolutely no interest in supersoldiering. After barely surviving the toxic and criminal environment of his previous ship he's sent back to the ship where he previously interned, and he has to learn how to get along with people who are not horribly abusive criminals.
This involves lots of therapy and watching Future Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. No, I am not kidding. The show is called "Family Fleet," and is used to teach "pro-social" behavior to both little kids and adults. Pity Our Protagonist, he not only has to watch puppets sing about cooperation, but he also has to do homework about it.
After the Storm is a sweet (and kind of steamy in later chapters) story about recovery from trauma. It is also about romance; Our Protagonist makes connections with both a co-worker named Basil and a cute bioengineer named Liam. I enjoyed the developing relations between Rich, Basil, and Liam and how Rich slowly opens up as he recovers from his experiences on the previous ship.
After the Storm has some fascinating world-building, from a social perspective. A lot of the time writers or creators will drop you in the middle of the worldbuilding in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian setting and you have no idea how the setting got from point A all the way to point C. With After the Storm, it's really easy to see the origin point and the result. We learn about how the Fleet was founded, and about the cultural mores and customs of its citizens. The writers are good at dropping little details of worldbuilding and backstory, and their character interaction and banter is top-notch.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes science fiction romance with a lot of plot and excellent worldbuilding.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2020
Okay. So I tried to come up with a review that did not include the phrase "I didn't even mind how much sex there was," because this is EROTICA, it SAYS SO right there on the Smashwords page I bought it from, and I don't want to come off as judgemental or like, someone who thinks they're super cool for not generally reading about sex. But I am usually neutral-to-'no thanks' on reading about sex, so it is an important factor in expressing how much I enjoyed this book to say that I didn't even mind how much sex there was. I loved the worldbuilding and the characters and the worldbuilding, again, it's also very important to mention that, because this is set in a postapocalyptic patchwork flotilla on Lake Michigan, and it is so lovingly and incredibly conceptualized and all I want to read is another three or four books about the Fleet and then like, at least ten more about the various other places mentioned in passing. I love reading about trauma recovery, and I love the way that people deal with the expectations and stereotypes associated with being genetically modified in specific ways, and I love how that parallels people dealing with the expectations and stereotypes of their upbringings and life experiences. Also I'm still thinking about describing a kitten launching from a great height as a "kamikaze potato" and I don't think I will ever stop thinking about that until I die. That is a perfect sequence of words.
February 16, 2020
Be warned - this is long book, and the pace of the plot is pretty slow and ponderous. However, I was caught by the complex plot and endearing main characters. It's hard to realize this is an erotica book at first since the plot and background are actually pretty complex and the post-apocalyptic and futuristic elements so detailed and well planned. The first sex scene is way toward the middle of the book. Nevertheless, seeing the length and focus on the sex scenes and their importance in the plot - Rich is dealing with PTSD with sexual abuse aspects - one may conclude this is not really a romance book, but erotica of the rare kind, with an incredibly detailed and complex plot and positive messages about healing and overcoming past traumas.
I've felt the context for polyamory in the book was missing. All the characters seem pretty blase about it, with the exception of small pangs of jealousy. While this is (maybe?) the more mature altitude, it is not clear how this social change came to be. This is certainly not the case today.
I've felt the context for polyamory in the book was missing. All the characters seem pretty blase about it, with the exception of small pangs of jealousy. While this is (maybe?) the more mature altitude, it is not clear how this social change came to be. This is certainly not the case today.
March 9, 2020
An absolute delight of a book- if you're looking for something cozy, with just the right bite of angst to make the comfort feel all the more soothing, dig into this book.
Merged review:
An absolute delight of a book- if you're looking for something cozy, with just the right bite of angst to make the comfort feel all the more soothing, dig into this book.
Merged review:
An absolute delight of a book- if you're looking for something cozy, with just the right bite of angst to make the comfort feel all the more soothing, dig into this book.
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