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A MODEST PROPOSAL by Felicitas Ivey Reviewed by Ronda C Dreamspinner Press
Shibito is on the run, and Hagar is the guy with the ship … it doesn’t hurt that sparks of lust ignite almost at once, and soon they’re in space, making a fast run away from Dumore Station – with Hagar not knowing what he’s running from, or getting himself into. Sci-Fi is always one of my favorite genres. I’ve read and watched a lot, so I know what I like – and A Modest Proposal was actually an interesting story set against a backdrop of galactic civilization that was cleverly designed – even though the book itself is actually erotica, and someone somewhere called it “cheesy”! It may or may nor be cheesy (confession: I like classic SciFi, so I probably have a very “high cheese threshold”), but it sure is Deep Space Erotica! The Dreamspinner Press blurb puts the scenario in a nutshell: Hagar is the captain of the cargo ship Midgard Serpent. Most of his shipments are legal, but he has a reputation for being an honest smuggler—a reputation that lands him some troublesome cargo. Shibito, an exiled member of the Nipponese imperial family, meets Hagar on Dunmore Station. Keeping his true identity secret, Shibito tells Hagar he'll do anything to get out of there. Never one to turn down an offer like that, Hagar accepts. But Shibito doesn't have just any destination in mind, and Hagar is furious when he discovers that his mysterious passenger has altered their course without telling him. With no way to change course a second time, Hagar has no choice but to trust—and face the temptation of Shibito’s request for some rough handling, a proposal Hagar isn’t sure he can resist. The other thing I adore along with SciFi is Japanese culture (not to mention food), so I had to get this book. I haven’t read anything else by Felicitas Ivey, so was not prepared for how the story would be written. By golly, there’s one heck of lot of sex between the stars! I think there might actually be too much … and “rough handling” puts it a bit mildly. But Shibito really gets off on this kind of sex, and I guess a lot of readers do to! Not my usual, but what the hey? Also, I see this aspect as fantasy, because what Shibito goes through at Hagar’s hands (or other extremities!) would take quite some getting over, but the sex in this book is strictly “no conseqences” – meaning, nobody ever gets sore. Uh ... okay. Fantasy. A Modest Proposal could have been a lot longer, with full (proper) development of a story and universe that had huge potential to be complex and rich and rewarding for a SciFi fan. It’s still a good little book, but it seems to be over rather quickly, after huge amounts of the narrative involved Hagar and Shibito getting it on. The action scene at the end was very well done, showing that Felicitas Ivey can definitely write action as well as build a SciFi universe that I, for one, wanted to see a lot more of! But then again, I reckon she knows her readers – she knows what they want, and what they want is loads of sex, most of it tough, with the fantasy recovery trick. The best parts, for me, were the backgrounding and the Japan-in-Space futuristic society. The weakest parts came around because the sex soon got repetitive, and as I admitted above, this isn’t really my style. So I just speed-read the sex to keep the gist of how the relationship between Hagar and Shibito develops (and it does develop), and past that, I did enjoy the actual plot a lot … which is to say, there’s a lot of plot in a very small space here! The good news is, the writer leaves the book “open ended,” with Hagar and Shibito still together and flying off to more adventures. In such adventures, Felicitas Ivey can develop the universe that caught my attention when I bought this one … I wonder if her usual customers could live with a bit less sex, to make the resulting book better balanced?? Just a thought – and a Rhonda-centric one at that. Sorry, guys. So – If you’re a fan of erotica with the Dom-sub theme, you have to love this, and you’d give it four stars (ish), because it (yep) “wastes time on plot, plot plot” between the bonking scenes. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of old fashioned SciFi and you know how to speed read across sizzly segments that repeat themselves, or aren’t really your cup of green tea, you’ll be giving it three (ish), for obvious reasons. So I’ll have to leave it to you to choose which star shines brightest for you. I do recommend it to both groups, but I know one group will skim over the plot to get to the sex, and the other group will skim over the sex to get to the plot! So … happy skimming! (A big thank you to Jade for posting this for me after I just emailed her the body text. Got PC Probs right now, big time, and my netbook just refuses to display the Bookshelf right. Screen too small, I guess.) |
