LoveSpell, $5.99, ISBN 0-505-52457-0
Sci-fi Romance, 2001
Loosely connected to The Star King, The Star Prince is about an Earthling, Ian Hamilton, who is about to inherit a galaxy. His stepfather is the hero of The Star King and now some super monarch who wants Ian to inherit the throne one day. Ian, however, has to contend with ministers and heirs-wannabe who claim that his Earth blood is inferior. Now, Ian is undercover in some Super Secret Mission of Utmost Importance, but he is stranded in backwater space colony called Donovan’s Blunder, thanks to a pilot who drank himself to death. Damn, there goes his image as a reliable heir to the throne, unless…
Princess Tee’ah is a royal princess who has stolen away on a spacecraft. She wants to fly, but she can’t do that if she’s a good princess and soon queen in some faraway planet, and in a moment of weakness, she breaks down and steals a spacecraft. By some lousy luck, she ends up stranded in Donovan’s Blunder needing a spacecraft to get out.
See? He has a spacecraft, but no pilot. She’s a pilot, but has no spacecraft. Now all they need is to know that each other is royalty, and we can send out the invitation cards, holograms, or whatever it is they use in the future. But they don’t tell each other, of course, so they don’t even know that they are distant cousins.
They embark on adventures. Whee! Stars, villains, politics, space whoopee, wow. Ian is nice, a really nice guy who knows ten ways to kill a bad guy – just what every Mr Right should be. Tee’ah… well, she has her reckless moments, but hey, so did Princess Leia, so that’s okay. A girl on the run has the right to do stupid things. Okay, so I like her a lot. Bite me.
At the same time, I must say though there’s a curious sense of disconnection I get from Tee’ah and Ian. Yes, they are great characters, but their love thing seems to lack heat or passion. The chemistry is there, but it’s a simmering kind rather than one that explodes in my face. The great story and all those external plot things more than make up for the rather going-through-the-motions romance, but this missing sizzle is what keeps this book from getting a keeper status.
Still, what an adventure. It has been really fun, and I hope the morons at LoveSpell will please, please, please get that gerbil out of their, uh, mouths and get the next Susan Grant book out in a timely manner. Please.
