The Star King by Susan Grant
Sep. 2nd, 2008 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyFirst, let's talk about the cover of this book. I think I have to. This is the front cover of the book, which did not show up on amazon.com when I was looking at it:
Here are the perfect ingredients for a romantic lead: big weapon, great abs, no face. It's hard to tell, but it says "Perfect Heroes" on the right.
The back cover is similarly florid, although in prose rather than graphic format.
I am so smart that I know exactly what you're thinking right now. "LadyA, why are you even reading this book?" Funny story, that.
So, a few months ago I went on that library spree. You remember, right? I thought you would. :) I found this book, with a perfectly respectable cover, called The Star Prince which was supposed to be the best thing in romantic sci fi since, well, ever. I like romantic sci fi sometimes, so I picked it up. I was very annoyed to discover that it was a sequel. I do not like to read the sequel first, so I thought I should get the first book and read that and decide if I liked it. Normally, I would have just taken one look at that book and tossed it back, but then something happened. The new branch librarian, who is a young guy, looked at the cover and snickered under his breath. Well! At that point I was bound and determined that I was going to Read That Book no matter how lurid the cover was.
This book is nowhere near as bad as the cover implies. That's good, right? Yeah, I thought so too. There are a few small problems - namely, why the "alien race" seems identical to humans in every way other than culture, but they've never encountered each other before, and the fact that the hero of the story is not a Star King at all, but rather the disinherited estranged scion of the actual king. So, "Outlaw Star Prince" would have been a more accurate title - although, granted, if that had been the title I probably wouldn't have read the book at all. Also, the mix of action and romance is a little bit off - the action was all pretty predictable and I would have liked to have more of it. Still, it was funny in places and moving in others. I recommend it to fans of romantic sf, though you may want to get a brown paper wrapper for it. Three stars.
Here are the perfect ingredients for a romantic lead: big weapon, great abs, no face. It's hard to tell, but it says "Perfect Heroes" on the right.
The back cover is similarly florid, although in prose rather than graphic format.
I am so smart that I know exactly what you're thinking right now. "LadyA, why are you even reading this book?" Funny story, that.
So, a few months ago I went on that library spree. You remember, right? I thought you would. :) I found this book, with a perfectly respectable cover, called The Star Prince which was supposed to be the best thing in romantic sci fi since, well, ever. I like romantic sci fi sometimes, so I picked it up. I was very annoyed to discover that it was a sequel. I do not like to read the sequel first, so I thought I should get the first book and read that and decide if I liked it. Normally, I would have just taken one look at that book and tossed it back, but then something happened. The new branch librarian, who is a young guy, looked at the cover and snickered under his breath. Well! At that point I was bound and determined that I was going to Read That Book no matter how lurid the cover was.
This book is nowhere near as bad as the cover implies. That's good, right? Yeah, I thought so too. There are a few small problems - namely, why the "alien race" seems identical to humans in every way other than culture, but they've never encountered each other before, and the fact that the hero of the story is not a Star King at all, but rather the disinherited estranged scion of the actual king. So, "Outlaw Star Prince" would have been a more accurate title - although, granted, if that had been the title I probably wouldn't have read the book at all. Also, the mix of action and romance is a little bit off - the action was all pretty predictable and I would have liked to have more of it. Still, it was funny in places and moving in others. I recommend it to fans of romantic sf, though you may want to get a brown paper wrapper for it. Three stars.