The Syndicate: Volume 1

Syndicate #1

by Jules Jones, Alex Woolgrave

What's a computer geek to do when his sys-admin job becomes so boring that not even making life hell for the users on his network seems like fun anymore? Run away to space, of course! Now Allard's stuck on a spaceship with another very hunky man--and he's about to discover that even wise-cracking geeks like him have sex lives. And thanks to a voyeuristic crewmate, so are the rest of their sexy shipmates. Publisher's Note: Contains explicit sexual scenes that may be offensive to some readers.

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

159 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jules Jones is a British author of science fiction and erotic romance, mostly with m/m themes. Much of her work is cross-genre, being science fiction or fantasy with a strong romance element. Her day job is materials science, and it tends to show -- many of her characters are scientists, engineers, and sundry other geeks.

***

I write science fiction, fantasy and romance. I read *lots* of things.

My main library catalogue is over on LibraryThing, because I'm the sort of anal-retentive bibliophile who wants to record the exact print run and page count of my individual copy of a book. This account's always going to be a somewhat out of date and partial mirror. But it lets me put my book reading log up on GoodReads to share with my friends over here. :-)

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

****Reviewed for Prism Book Alliance®****

So The Syndicate: Volume 1 is totally PWP, but it is good PWP; imaginative, kinky, sexy, funny and even adorable at times. I loved Allard. He was the perfect embodiment of a sysadmin. Computer geeks will totally get the jokes and appreciate him to his fullest but anyone who wants some sexy times will enjoy their interactions.

This is now offered for free on the author’s webpage. I highly suggest letting yourself enjoy an afternoon of fun with this novella! The best part? There is more in the series, which I will be sure to check out when I need a pick me up! I will also be checking out more of these authors’ works to see what else they can write.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well. I won't say it's bad because there are no doubt people who like this, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Even if I try to ignore the choppy writing (which was, to tell the truth, terribly distracting) I can't say that I was very impressed with the tone and atmopshere, either. The sci-fi elements were unreliable at best and there were so few descriptions and details that I wasn't really sure what anything looked like. There was a severe lack of world-building, is what I'm trying to say, and it felt like this could just as well have been a contemporary setting. I mean, if you're in space, how come things are still called the same as they are on Earth? And why are there Earth creatures on a random planet they visit? Shouldn't they have their own eco system? That doesn't really make sense.

Or maybe they were on Earth and the book just didn't bother to tell me. That happened a lot, as well. People had a fondness for changing location without finding it necessary to mention that to me.

I quite enjoyed how snarky Allard was and the dynamic between him and Vaughan, but definitely wasn't into the particular fantasy these two wanted to act out on top of that haystack. Overall, the sex scenes were as choppy as the rest of the writing, with several weird stops and starts, and I just couldn't get into it. And, no, I didn't like Harry. Vouyerism isn't something I find entertaining, even if the book tried to frame it as a fun quirk. It's really not, if you ask me. I mean, it's in there in the blurb, sure, but I didn't think it would feature this prominently.

So, I won't be finishing this. It's just not worth it.

[Urbanista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often funny, but I wonder why it had to be science fiction? A lot of the story could have been set in a contemporary setting, because the science wasn't very compelling or futuristic. The Artificial Intelligences were good for a few jokes each. The technology wasn't essential to the story; interstellar space travel did not play a big role, even though most of the story took place on a very generic, non-specific spaceship that could have been any workplace.

[Ayanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've definitely added this entire series, wrote some pittance of a review, and rated it before. Where did they go? They disappeared, all of them.

I went through and reread the series, searching for stuff to say, but I didn't have much to say. I really did rather like this series, for one reason or another. I liked that the two main, main characters have such an equal relationship, for one. The side-ish characters were also crazy, but cool. Yeah, I liked it.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this 3 1/2 stars.

It was better than I expected it to be but it did seem a little repetative at times. I liked the characters, Allard was brilliant! And the space angle. I tend to judge all space/sci-fi books against my favourite sci-fi based series (Sherrilyn Kenyon's League Series) this wasn't as good as those as of yet. I will be reading the next one for sure.

[heardtheowl · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that the writing was bad - it was very good with good world building and character development, I just didn't like it.

Maybe I'll try it again someday. Who knows.

[Bookwatcher]

Freebie, Volume 1 to 3

[Jess Candela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
This review is for the whole series:
Mostly one sex scene after another, but with fantastic geek humour and a clear relationship developing that makes it well worth reading.