LoveSpell, $5.50, ISBN 0-505-52304-3
Sci-fi Romance, 1999
The deceptive romance-at-Palm-Beach cover aside, Shielder fits my need for a kind of different romance nicely.
A plague is spreading across a colony called the Shielders, and our outcast heroine volunteers to have the virus infected into her body so that she can travel to a distant Shielder colony so that a cure could be found. She must make it there in around three weeks or the plague would kill her. Too bad, her spacecraft thingie goes glug-glug-glug and she ends up hitchhiking with the very own enemy of her people – a bounty hunter under the pay of the Shielders’ enemies. Oops.
Now, chapter one of Shielder has me crying. Really! I am really touched by the author’s portrayal of heroine Nessa dan Ranul, and her suicide mission is seen as a touching final gesture of a young woman who would do anything to be loved and accepted by her people.
But the story falls apart when the author fails to maintain the momentum she has started. Once Nessa and the Shadower hero Chase McKnight (what, no exotic name?) snuggle up in his spacecraft, things get boring and repetitive. Nessa starts to look really stupid. The plot hereon go something like this:
- Nessa escapes.
- Nessa finds some excuse to dally near Chase’s place.
- Nessa gets caught and is escorted back to the ship.
- Repeat the above three steps.
Also, there’s this irritating, sulky, bad-tempered Sabin fellow whose presence seems to serve no function than to drive Nessa into irrationality overdrive. I hear he’s getting his own book next, and I hope he learns to smile by then.
And worst of all? Nessa is carrying a virus. Therefore, reading about she and Chase kissing, worse, boinking like space bunnies left and right… I am aghast, no, shocked, at this negligence to proper healthcare. Touch, transmission of body fluids, sharing same breathing space – and she has a virus outbreak in her body? I really cringe inside at the descriptions of engorged penetrations and pinnacles of love. Let’s hope Chase doesn’t get engorged in all the wrong places after quarantine time’s over for the naughty viruses.
Despite the criminal call of free love over healthcare precautions and the too-soon-for-my-liking breakdown of momentum, Shielder remains a noteworthy read because the author’s style never falters long after her characters had fallen into the one-note trap. She skillfully creates atmosphere and brings life to her fantasy creation. The Shielder versus Controller odyssey has me intrigued, and I find myself looking forward for more.
