Upside Down

Lindotian War #2

by Jenna Hilary Sinclair

Decades into the intergalactic Lindotian war, Commander Jeff Langley transports SpaceForce Marines to an isolated planet to put down a rebellion. When he joins the fight, one of his greatest fears comes true. Marine Colonel Rell ta Bakinee is mortally wounded before his eyes, and Jeff stands to lose more than his fellow officer and best friend... he might lose the unacknowledged love of his life. Jeff races to save Rell's life despite the battle's devastation, because even if his love is never returned, the universe won’t be worth saving without Rell beside him.

Genres: M M Romance, Science Fiction, Gay, Futuristic, Romance, Military Fiction, Erotica

81 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 12, 2009

About the author

For years Jenna Hilary Sinclair approached creative writing as if she were looking over the edge of a cliff—the view was terrifying but seductive. She couldn’t comprehend how anyone could compose a complex plot and have the patience to put it on the page. But one day she sat down, picked up a pen, and much to her astonishment, a novel began to take shape.

Since that day, Jenna’s been in an exhilarating free fall. She lives her own life plus the lives of her characters, searches for the answers to the most important questions—What is love? Where is courage? Why is there fear?—and has a wonderful time writing gay romance.

Jenna is fiercely in favor of GLBT rights, kindness, keeping promises, and mountains. She lives in the Great American Southwest with her beloved husband, two cats, and a hundred characters dancing in her head. Some of them dance together. She hopes the music never stops.

Visit Jenna’s blogs at http://jenna-hilary.livejournal.com and http://jenna-smiling.livejournal.com.

Reviews

[Heller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very romantic sci-fi story.

Commander Jeff Langley and Marine Colonel Rell ta Bakinee are best friends. Jeff wants more but is afraid to take the step that may ruin their solid friendship. Rell is seriously injured and Jeff takes as many steps as needed to make sure he's regains his health. Even if he crosses lines into Rell's alien culture that Rell doesn't want him to cross.

There are a lot of flashbacks here and that's nice because Rell and Jeff spend most of the story separated while Rell is recovering.

I haven't read the first in the series but the characters are unrelated to ones here so I was a bit lost as to the whole Lindotian war but this focuses more on Jeff and his feelings for Rell.

There's a lovely reunion but it's very short. I wish we could have spent more time with them as a couple. Still a nice M/M with sci-fi overtones.

[Charly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but it doesn’t stand out in the genre

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 6/10

PROS:
- There are little hints at intriguing plot points very early on that hooked me. At just 4 percent in, for instance, there’s this: “But a head wound like that--for a Caldun…. Especially for a Caldun, and even then, especially for Rell, who was such a different Caldun….” This one short passage made me think of four or five questions, and I had to keep reading to learn the answers.
- Sinclair writes longing well. I believed wholeheartedly that Jeff wants Rell with his entire being. He’s nearly sick with his desire for a man he thinks he’ll never have.

CONS:
- The writing is clunky, especially at the start. (Example: “The barrier must have been used for riot control by the Union of Planets-backed government of the planet of Nobel, for which they were fighting.”) It’s very focused on exposition. I get that it’s a sci-fi/fantasy and the author has to set a scene, but there are smoother ways to do it.
- The timeline is confusing. There are flashbacks to multiple past occurrences, and it’s not always clear a) which past timeline we’re looking at, and b) how those different past incidents fit together chronologically.

Overall comments: This has an interesting story, and it shows a touching level of devotion on Jeff’s part to heal his wounded friend/love. But I couldn’t get entirely behind the romantic element of it because we never see Rell’s perspective on Jeff, and we see only a single triumphant coming-together at the end before the story is over. Up to that point, the two men are separated, both by illness/injury and distance.

[Elisa Rolle]

Jeff as Commander and Rell as Colonel are fighting together to bring peace in a world destroyed by years of war. Probably tired of the war and of the coldness of nights spent alone, Jeff is looking toward Rell with different eyes, but it's not simple; it's not a question of being gay that is a problem, but it's more a multicultural barrier between them: even if Rell looks like a human, he is not entirely that, and his breed approaches in different way a relationship; love is not part of the equation. And so Jeff has always hidden his feelings, even if they are grown nevertheless, and he can only express them being Rell's best friend. And in Rell's detached behavior, Jeff sometime can see a spark of something, something special only for him, or maybe it's what he wants to see.

When Rell is seriously injured in a fight, it's upon Jeff to decide if subject Rell to a therapy that is against Rell's beliefs, but that is the only way to save him. Jeff has to decide if he wants to respect the decision of the man, or if he wants to save the lover he never had.

I like the feeling of this story since I usually find futuristic stories to be a bit cold and detached, and instead this one is more a love story than a futuristic adventure. Sure, the story has also an elegant "tune", it's never really sexy or erotic, if not in the end, when the author launched herself in an erotic encounter that it would not look out of place in a porn movie: it is almost like all the sexual tension that both heroes repressed before blows up suddenly and uncontrolled.

Of the two characters the one who shines is Jeff, probably since it's also the narrative voice; it's not that the story is in first point of view, but it's through his eyes that we follow their story. Rell is a bit in the background, even since he is mostly catatonic (!), but when he acts, well, he is like a lightning in a clear sky, Rell could have few chances to speak, but more than the words, it's his presence that drives all the story, he is like the puppeteer behind the scene. Since Jeff is so clear in love with him, the reader has to like him as Jeff does, we like him even without a direct proof.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001SN7FPQ/?...

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review at Dark Diva Reviews:

Normally, I'm not much into either sci-fi or war stories. Upside Down seems to have just enough of both to qualify for the genres, but not enough to make me uncomfortable. There's enough war to hurt the love interest and enough Sci-fi to complicate the plot, but in the end, it remains a love story....

...I like really good characterizations, especially when it's a matter of showing how the hero will still throw up on his own boots from too much stress. It happens. Real is real, and Jeff is very real.

So, while this story might be billed as romantic Sci-fi, really, in my estimation, it's a touching, character driven, intensely emotional story about a man and his struggle to be true to his heart and honour the man he loves, even if those might be mutually exclusive activities.



There's more of this review here: http://ddrreviews.blogspot.com/2010/0...

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. I really liked it. I was happily surprised by how much the book pack into so few pages. Four stars for Upside Down.