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Xen: A Sci-Fi Romance
Leader of her people. Their savior, who brought them back from the brink of destruction and helped them thrive. Honored above all others. Practically worshiped. It's lonely up on Aavi's pedestal. The leader of the Izothians has few friends, and even fewer lovers. But when one of those longtime friends, her science advisor, Xen, guesses what his Queen has been craving, he's more than up to the task of providing her with every pleasure, and punishment, she could ever desire. And when a new arrival on their planet captures the Queen's interest, Xen makes sure she's able to sate that craving, as well. But Aavi knows that the life of a ruler is full of false friends and that true loyalty is hard to come by. It's possible that opening her heart to anyone, even her dearest friend, will spell her demise. Xen is a science fiction romance featuring a lonely Queen getting to live her fantasies in a M/M/F relationship and creating the life she's always dreamed of.
83 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 24, 2020
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 25, 2021
That was... different from the other 3
Aavi may be wondrous healer, beloved of the goddess and her people alike, but she's also a woman. Her people treat her with reverence, but not where she needs it.
Xen has loved his queen since they were both just reaching adulthood. Both barely grown, both doing their best to keep their people and civilization alive. Millenia have passed, and now things are becoming more stable. With the addition of new citizens, things are actually looking really good. And, with the aide of the most recent citizen addition, he's ready to change the dynamic of his relationship with Aavi. They've both denied parts of themselves for too long.
Spoilers ahead.
Ok, so, first off-
*I skipped certain scenes because, geez, they didn't fit the narrative and were really awkward. I don't kink shame, everyone's boat floats differently, but it was like reading Moby Dick. One chapter is the story, the next is odd and skipped over whaling info and other info dumps that took away from the story. This time it was really interesting unbefore told info on the state of the planet, her friendship with Xen that we didn't realize was as close as it was, then boom, really uncomfortable boudoir talk followed by fade to black bedroom scenes glossed over.
*We still haven't "met" the Pythians.
*Leah and Viv are still background characters, but no clue why.
*The inner monologue the rescue has does not match his actual behavior with Aavi.
*BDSM, D/s, or any subset of these relationships are hard for authors to portray. I get that. Especially when the female submissive is powerful elsewhere in life. But, to hand over that kind of trust is hard and takes serious consideration. Xen made sense. She's known him for centuries. Her attraction to (no huge spoilers) made sense. Handing over the power of her body to someone she doesn't know- had maybe 2 interactions with him, one he was barely aware of- before topping from the bottom? There's a difference between going after what you want and being ridiculously naive. While he wound up being the better male at communicating, the early interactions seemed rushed and insincere.
*Where is the war with the Sa'tar going? They were sending ships to the outposts frequently then silence. They were kidnapping humans, then nothing.
*Janaa was mentioned as dead, when she was rescued the last book.
*Mylaa, Malaa, Mailaa had frequent name changes.
*If humans are being kidnapped, some who disappeared, then reappeared some time later without memories...or their ship, is going to involve a lot of investigation. If the chips can wipe memory, can they be used to control harmful behaviors? Seems a better use than chips being discovered and hastening humans looking for them.
*Is this the last book? It felt kind of like goodbye but there's still so much unresolved. Have they scanned for more likely planets to settle on? How long can they be sustained? What defenses do these life ships have? The Sa'tar may want the planet, but they'll kill and take from the Izothians, too. And what about the Aluvians? They're being used by the Sa'tar, too. No rescue for them? No trying to find Earth and seeing if more humans want away from dictators and extreme poverty and pollution? I'm probably over scrutinizing what was intended as fluff reading. But how this series started, and where it currently ends, feels almost like 2 different authors wrote it.
*The editing was much worse in this book. Misspellings, tense changes mid sentence, preposition errors, incorrectly used adverbs, all things that I hadn't seen in the previous books. Name issues were the biggest oopsies before Aavi's story.
Aavi may be wondrous healer, beloved of the goddess and her people alike, but she's also a woman. Her people treat her with reverence, but not where she needs it.
Xen has loved his queen since they were both just reaching adulthood. Both barely grown, both doing their best to keep their people and civilization alive. Millenia have passed, and now things are becoming more stable. With the addition of new citizens, things are actually looking really good. And, with the aide of the most recent citizen addition, he's ready to change the dynamic of his relationship with Aavi. They've both denied parts of themselves for too long.
Spoilers ahead.
Ok, so, first off-
*I skipped certain scenes because, geez, they didn't fit the narrative and were really awkward. I don't kink shame, everyone's boat floats differently, but it was like reading Moby Dick. One chapter is the story, the next is odd and skipped over whaling info and other info dumps that took away from the story. This time it was really interesting unbefore told info on the state of the planet, her friendship with Xen that we didn't realize was as close as it was, then boom, really uncomfortable boudoir talk followed by fade to black bedroom scenes glossed over.
*We still haven't "met" the Pythians.
*Leah and Viv are still background characters, but no clue why.
*The inner monologue the rescue has does not match his actual behavior with Aavi.
*BDSM, D/s, or any subset of these relationships are hard for authors to portray. I get that. Especially when the female submissive is powerful elsewhere in life. But, to hand over that kind of trust is hard and takes serious consideration. Xen made sense. She's known him for centuries. Her attraction to (no huge spoilers) made sense. Handing over the power of her body to someone she doesn't know- had maybe 2 interactions with him, one he was barely aware of- before topping from the bottom? There's a difference between going after what you want and being ridiculously naive. While he wound up being the better male at communicating, the early interactions seemed rushed and insincere.
*Where is the war with the Sa'tar going? They were sending ships to the outposts frequently then silence. They were kidnapping humans, then nothing.
*Janaa was mentioned as dead, when she was rescued the last book.
*Mylaa, Malaa, Mailaa had frequent name changes.
*If humans are being kidnapped, some who disappeared, then reappeared some time later without memories...or their ship, is going to involve a lot of investigation. If the chips can wipe memory, can they be used to control harmful behaviors? Seems a better use than chips being discovered and hastening humans looking for them.
*Is this the last book? It felt kind of like goodbye but there's still so much unresolved. Have they scanned for more likely planets to settle on? How long can they be sustained? What defenses do these life ships have? The Sa'tar may want the planet, but they'll kill and take from the Izothians, too. And what about the Aluvians? They're being used by the Sa'tar, too. No rescue for them? No trying to find Earth and seeing if more humans want away from dictators and extreme poverty and pollution? I'm probably over scrutinizing what was intended as fluff reading. But how this series started, and where it currently ends, feels almost like 2 different authors wrote it.
*The editing was much worse in this book. Misspellings, tense changes mid sentence, preposition errors, incorrectly used adverbs, all things that I hadn't seen in the previous books. Name issues were the biggest oopsies before Aavi's story.
September 10, 2022
This kind of relationship would not work for me, but works in this story. However, too many typos.
Want to read
March 22, 2024Purch Amz 2/23/2021
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews