Month: November 2022

Warning for SPOILERS.

This volume had less of the graphic nudity (thank goodness) but more violence that happens at unexpected moments. It felt a little slower to me, until the very end when wham, lots of stuff happens. Two main story arcs here. Alana and Marko travel to the planet where their favorite author lives in a lighthouse tower filled with books. It was great. They have family time, play board games, discuss parenting and plans for the future (slim prospects, as they’re both fugitives), and literature with a writer. Such everyday stuff, until someone with vengeance who’s also in need of help for their attacker, breaks into the scene.

Backtrack: Marko’s angry ex is in cahoots with the Will now (bounty hunter on Alana and Marko’s trail) reluctantly at first but then I guess they start to like each other? They have the ex-slave girl in their care and she finally gets a name: Sophie. They end up on a planet that looks beautiful, but eating the food there makes people hallucinate ex-lovers who incite them to do violent things. The Will gets knocked out of the picture. In a terrible way. And then Gwen desperately tries to find Marko- first she wanted to kill him, now she wants him to save Will. Lying Cat is great as always. Two more sidestories- of the TV-head robots whom I still neither like nor care about (nobody else in this book seems to like them either) their prince/soldier is also trying to find our happy couple. And a new set of characters, a team of reporters from some other alien species, who have something in common with Alana/Marko- they’re also a forbidden couple, homosexuality being unacceptable on their home planet. These two are traveling all over trying to get details on Alana/Marko for a tabloid, but nobody wants to talk to them (of course). So there’s all kinds of weirdness and fantastic artwork like before, but really my favorite scenes were those with the Lying Cat, and in the tower of books those philosophical, down-to-earth conversations with the writer. I could have done without some of the rest of it all, but I am curious to see how the threads come together in the end.

Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in this series. Next book.

Eh, this one wasn’t quite as compelling as the first volume, and I’m scratching my head why. Maybe because the parts with giant naked alien monster were just too gross for me. Well, I did appreciate that there’s more backstory here, and setup for some interesting things to happen in upcoming volumes, for sure. Alana and Marko are still in their wooden spaceship, now joined by Marko’s parents- which is super awkward at first. They’re not at all keen on the fact his partner is a winged female. Very abruptly Marko runs off on a rescue mission with his mother- to get back the pink ghost babysitter, who was banished to another planet by magic. So there’s lots of interactions there where Marko and his warrior mum patch things up and discuss, while confronting the grotesque giant alien monster and gathering information. Meanwhile back in the tree spaceship, Alana is having prickly conversations with Marko’s dad, but slowly they grudgingly accept and even start to feel appreciative of each other. It helps to have a cute baby in the picture. Also that Marko’s father turns out to be a brilliant tailor who makes a new wardrobe for Alana on the spot. Flashbacks to Marko’s own childhood. More flashbacks to how Marko and Alana first met. Really interesting subplot about a romance novel Alana is obsessed with reading- something none of the other fighters get at all, ha. Meanwhile, in other parts the headhunter with the lie-detecting cat ends up meeting Gwendolyn- who was once Marko’s fiancée, and together they manage to free the slave girl from the crazy alien brothel- at a price. Then the details about the romance novel became more than just some little interesting tidbit on Alana’s personality- one of the TV head royalty weirdos tracks down the author of said novel because rumors are rife that the book is an underhand commentary on the current war- which nobody in power likes. The scene where TV-head guy confronts the author about his intentions in writing it (of which he had absolutely none) is hilarious. On to the next!

Borrowed from the public library.