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Heat
Earth. A world quarantined since its discovery by the Far-Reachers of Jota's history. And where the fortunes of slavers and chemists have been made ever since.
It was to Earth that Kanetus E'Var, the son of Jota's most ruthless slaver, escaped to make Vahst, a powerful drug manufactured from the human brain. And it was to Earth that Tagen Pahnee, Fourth-ranking officer of the Jotan Off-World Security Fleet, was sent to bring the criminal back to justice. Neither of them could have anticipated that at that moment, E'Var's hunting grounds were experiencing the worst heat wave in years, triggering the Jotan breeding cycle in both males.
Home is not an option for either of them. Both are determined to find a way to work on this hostile planet, surrounded by humans, surrounded by dangers, surrounded by Heat.
Adult readers only, due to graphic gore, violence, and explicit sexual situations.
617 pages, 285,862 words
It was to Earth that Kanetus E'Var, the son of Jota's most ruthless slaver, escaped to make Vahst, a powerful drug manufactured from the human brain. And it was to Earth that Tagen Pahnee, Fourth-ranking officer of the Jotan Off-World Security Fleet, was sent to bring the criminal back to justice. Neither of them could have anticipated that at that moment, E'Var's hunting grounds were experiencing the worst heat wave in years, triggering the Jotan breeding cycle in both males.
Home is not an option for either of them. Both are determined to find a way to work on this hostile planet, surrounded by humans, surrounded by dangers, surrounded by Heat.
Adult readers only, due to graphic gore, violence, and explicit sexual situations.
617 pages, 285,862 words
617 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 21, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 414 reviews
May 17, 2017
OMG!! 5 Abso-fucking-lutely Amazing Stars!!!
This is Horror Erotica at it's Best!!!
Kane (how he looks on the outside)
Kane is from the planet Jota. Yeah, he's a badass motherfucker and he's on his way to Earth in search of humans. Kane is a human slave trader, a thief, a killer, and a rapist.
Kane (how he looks on the inside)
Needless to say, he's also a sadist that enjoys the pain of others. He will leave a trail of bodies a mile long and a river of blood in his wake. Unfortunately for Kane, his spaceship lands on the west coast in the dead heat of summer. And Kane's alien genetics are not prepared for the Heat!!
Heat triggers the mating cycle in Jotan males…
High temperatures send Kane into heat and he must mate in order to survive. A willing mate is not necessary and Raven is just one of Kane's many victims. But Damn if she isn't special. She's a sly, street smart girl, that knows how to survive. Raven's a cute little human and Kane really likes her purple hair. He also enjoys mind fucking her and causing her pain.
Raven
But Kane is unprepared for what he starts to feel for Raven as he spends more time with her. He has never known love, other than the love of his deceased father. Unlike his father, Kane has never owned a human before. Though he enjoys humiliating Raven, he feels quite fond of her and that fondness grows into something Kane can't put into words. He brands Raven as his. He not only tattoos his name on her body, he also has her entire body pierced. Using her body as a canvas to display his ownership to anyone that looks at her.
Raven realizes that she is special to Kane and starts to care for him in return. I felt as if I had stockholm syndrome because I started to care about the sadistic bastard right along with Raven. R. Lee Smith weaves an erotic web that had my emotions on a yoyo. I hated Kane most of the time, but for some reason his violence and sadistic ways left me craving more.
Tagen and Daria
Tagen is a high ranking officer sent to Earth in pursuit of the escaped criminal, Kanetus E'Var. Tagen expects to find an uncivilized planet with no technology. He is not adequately prepared to find Kane once he lands. He takes over a house and a hostage, Daria. He plans on staying with Daria until the Heat passes so he can get on with his mission. He has about ten suppressants left and summer shouldn't last for more than nine days right? That's how long it lasts on his planet. But Daria's air conditioner is broke and when he runs out of meds, the Heat takes over! His body is demanding that he mate, but he is on a mission to save Earth from Kane!!
This book has two stories going on. We follow Tegan and Daria, as they search for Kane. Daria is a godsend and helps Tegan understand how to navigate this planet. The bond that grows between these two is beyond intense.
Damn!! I needed to sit in a bucket of ice water. Sex with Tagen…Freakin Amazing!!
I love that the author allows multiple POV's from all characters. Yes, even from our sadist, Kane. Gah, I couldn't get enough of his evil ways.
I loved the ending!!! It was not what I expected at all…Far better!!
But remember, I would categorize this book as horror erotica. This is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart. There is rape, murder, torture, psychological and physical abuse. But in the midst of all that horror, there was soul wrenching love, panty soaking lust, and emotional turmoil. I can't recommend this book to everyone, but if you love horror erotica, Read This Book!!!
This is Horror Erotica at it's Best!!!
Kane (how he looks on the outside)
Kane is from the planet Jota. Yeah, he's a badass motherfucker and he's on his way to Earth in search of humans. Kane is a human slave trader, a thief, a killer, and a rapist.
Kane (how he looks on the inside)
Needless to say, he's also a sadist that enjoys the pain of others. He will leave a trail of bodies a mile long and a river of blood in his wake. Unfortunately for Kane, his spaceship lands on the west coast in the dead heat of summer. And Kane's alien genetics are not prepared for the Heat!!
Heat triggers the mating cycle in Jotan males…
High temperatures send Kane into heat and he must mate in order to survive. A willing mate is not necessary and Raven is just one of Kane's many victims. But Damn if she isn't special. She's a sly, street smart girl, that knows how to survive. Raven's a cute little human and Kane really likes her purple hair. He also enjoys mind fucking her and causing her pain.
Raven
But Kane is unprepared for what he starts to feel for Raven as he spends more time with her. He has never known love, other than the love of his deceased father. Unlike his father, Kane has never owned a human before. Though he enjoys humiliating Raven, he feels quite fond of her and that fondness grows into something Kane can't put into words. He brands Raven as his. He not only tattoos his name on her body, he also has her entire body pierced. Using her body as a canvas to display his ownership to anyone that looks at her.
Raven realizes that she is special to Kane and starts to care for him in return. I felt as if I had stockholm syndrome because I started to care about the sadistic bastard right along with Raven. R. Lee Smith weaves an erotic web that had my emotions on a yoyo. I hated Kane most of the time, but for some reason his violence and sadistic ways left me craving more.
Tagen and Daria
Tagen is a high ranking officer sent to Earth in pursuit of the escaped criminal, Kanetus E'Var. Tagen expects to find an uncivilized planet with no technology. He is not adequately prepared to find Kane once he lands. He takes over a house and a hostage, Daria. He plans on staying with Daria until the Heat passes so he can get on with his mission. He has about ten suppressants left and summer shouldn't last for more than nine days right? That's how long it lasts on his planet. But Daria's air conditioner is broke and when he runs out of meds, the Heat takes over! His body is demanding that he mate, but he is on a mission to save Earth from Kane!!
This book has two stories going on. We follow Tegan and Daria, as they search for Kane. Daria is a godsend and helps Tegan understand how to navigate this planet. The bond that grows between these two is beyond intense.
Damn!! I needed to sit in a bucket of ice water. Sex with Tagen…Freakin Amazing!!
I love that the author allows multiple POV's from all characters. Yes, even from our sadist, Kane. Gah, I couldn't get enough of his evil ways.
I loved the ending!!! It was not what I expected at all…Far better!!
But remember, I would categorize this book as horror erotica. This is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart. There is rape, murder, torture, psychological and physical abuse. But in the midst of all that horror, there was soul wrenching love, panty soaking lust, and emotional turmoil. I can't recommend this book to everyone, but if you love horror erotica, Read This Book!!!
February 7, 2017
I liked the bad guy. I would have never wanted to meet him in person of course, but he is the most interesting out of the two main male/alien characters.
Because Kanetus E'Va aka Kane is a mean sonofthebitch. Let’s count his attributes:
• Brilliant mind
• He prefers to use his talons and his claws to kill
• He carries his Chemist bag and he is an awesome Chemist
• He likes to f@ck
• Drug dealer
• Son of the most notorious slaver and a slaver himself
• Sadist. A predator who plays with his food.
The other male character, Tagen Pahnee aka Tagen is your typical cop who runs after Kane in order to arrest him. Let’s count his attributes:
• Not such a brilliant mind. He is searching Kane on foot without realizing the magnitude of planet Earth, without knowing that there are cars he could use.
• He knows how to shoot
• He carries horrid weapons
• He likes to watch TV
• Man of law
• Man of honor and duty who goes by the book
• Good in bed
This book consists of two stories that run in parallel, but the result is the same for both. Two alien men will fall in love with two earth women.
Kane has just lost his drug dealer/slaver (but still beloved) father, his ship and his money and he is about to be transferred to the prison where he will spend the rest of his life. He will escape and he will cross the gate in order to get to Earth. Earth is a very friendly planet full of potential slaves. It is also good for hunting. Humans’ brains can be used to develop a Vahst, a powerful drug. If he kills enough people and get their juice, he may be able to buy a new ship and continue his father heritage.
Tagen has no clue the revolution that Earth has had the last few hundred years. All the people from Earth that he has met are previous slaves who have been saved and they live isolated close to his planet, Jotan. Not very friendly neighbors, not very advanced and not very cooperative. They usually die when they become 20 something after all this suffering at the slavers’ hands. So, when he follows Kane through the gate and lands on the Earth, he will be surprised. Humans from Earth are very highly developed. They have cars, computers and TV. They have visited space. According to him, in about 50 years they may even discover Jotan.
Kane knows his way around; he can speak the language since he has visited the planet many times mainly for business and not pleasure. Tagen knows absolutely nothing.
The extra parameter that will make our favorite aliens’ life a living hell is the HEAT. They will land on Earth in the middle of the summer. As a consequence, Jotan breeding cycle will be initiated in both males. And they will have to find females to seize the fire inside.
Kane will try several females (not very willing I have to say), but then he will choose Raven as a more permanent solution. His Raven after a while.
“You’ll do as I say, Raven. You have no idea the things I can do to you.”
Tagen will use Daria, because she is the first female he met and she is kind to him and understandable.
“You burn in my blood, Daria Cleavon. I will be ashes when I return. I will never be able to feel again.”
So, pick your favorite alien. Most probably, both will kill you. Kane because he enjoys killing, Tagen because he will have one more of his oops/what-have-I-done/sorry-my-mistake moments.
Every time I open a book by R. Lee Smith, I know that I am in for a few surprises. I know her fascinating worlds will blow my mind and I know I will think differently when I finish the book. The author does not hesitate to use raw violence and graphic rape scenes while the ethical boundaries are not most of the times clear.
Because Kanetus E'Va aka Kane is a mean sonofthebitch. Let’s count his attributes:
• Brilliant mind
• He prefers to use his talons and his claws to kill
• He carries his Chemist bag and he is an awesome Chemist
• He likes to f@ck
• Drug dealer
• Son of the most notorious slaver and a slaver himself
• Sadist. A predator who plays with his food.
The other male character, Tagen Pahnee aka Tagen is your typical cop who runs after Kane in order to arrest him. Let’s count his attributes:
• Not such a brilliant mind. He is searching Kane on foot without realizing the magnitude of planet Earth, without knowing that there are cars he could use.
• He knows how to shoot
• He carries horrid weapons
• He likes to watch TV
• Man of law
• Man of honor and duty who goes by the book
• Good in bed
This book consists of two stories that run in parallel, but the result is the same for both. Two alien men will fall in love with two earth women.
Kane has just lost his drug dealer/slaver (but still beloved) father, his ship and his money and he is about to be transferred to the prison where he will spend the rest of his life. He will escape and he will cross the gate in order to get to Earth. Earth is a very friendly planet full of potential slaves. It is also good for hunting. Humans’ brains can be used to develop a Vahst, a powerful drug. If he kills enough people and get their juice, he may be able to buy a new ship and continue his father heritage.
Tagen has no clue the revolution that Earth has had the last few hundred years. All the people from Earth that he has met are previous slaves who have been saved and they live isolated close to his planet, Jotan. Not very friendly neighbors, not very advanced and not very cooperative. They usually die when they become 20 something after all this suffering at the slavers’ hands. So, when he follows Kane through the gate and lands on the Earth, he will be surprised. Humans from Earth are very highly developed. They have cars, computers and TV. They have visited space. According to him, in about 50 years they may even discover Jotan.
Kane knows his way around; he can speak the language since he has visited the planet many times mainly for business and not pleasure. Tagen knows absolutely nothing.
The extra parameter that will make our favorite aliens’ life a living hell is the HEAT. They will land on Earth in the middle of the summer. As a consequence, Jotan breeding cycle will be initiated in both males. And they will have to find females to seize the fire inside.
Kane will try several females (not very willing I have to say), but then he will choose Raven as a more permanent solution. His Raven after a while.
“You’ll do as I say, Raven. You have no idea the things I can do to you.”
Tagen will use Daria, because she is the first female he met and she is kind to him and understandable.
“You burn in my blood, Daria Cleavon. I will be ashes when I return. I will never be able to feel again.”
So, pick your favorite alien. Most probably, both will kill you. Kane because he enjoys killing, Tagen because he will have one more of his oops/what-have-I-done/sorry-my-mistake moments.
Every time I open a book by R. Lee Smith, I know that I am in for a few surprises. I know her fascinating worlds will blow my mind and I know I will think differently when I finish the book. The author does not hesitate to use raw violence and graphic rape scenes while the ethical boundaries are not most of the times clear.
September 18, 2021
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Usually when I really enjoy a book, I want allllll my friends to read it, too. But R. Lee Smith is not an author I would actually recommend to most people. All of her books are quite long, usually 400+ pages (sometimes close to 1,000), which is a deal-breaker for some. And then there's the content: vicious, brutal, violent, and often filled with gross sex and dub- or non-con. I don't personally find many of the sex scenes in her books erotic but they are haunting and fascinating. She has a keen insight into the human mind and what makes people do what they do, and her ability to build and craft inhuman worlds with believable details and a rich tapestry of culture inspires awe and envy.
So, you know, if that's something you think you'd be into, check her work out. But if not, abandon all hope ye who enter.
I buddy-read this book with my friend, Caro, who shares my love for this author. I would say that this book isn't quite as brutal or frustrating as SCHOLOMANCE or GANN for the most part, although there were a few scenes peppered in that exceeded the aforementioned in terms of blood splatter and gore. The interesting thing about HEAT is that it is basically two very different books crammed into one. On the one hand, you have the story about Kane: prisoner, chemist, and slaver, who has come to the Earth to make street drugs out of human brains, while helping himself to the local flavor. The local flavor being Raven, his punk, purple-haired love slave, and Sue-Eye, a blonde biker chick he picked up at a bar to be his #2. On the other hand, you have Tagen and Daria's story. Tagen is the police officer who is tasked with hauling Kane in, and Daria is the human he ends up crashing with while trying to get his bearings.
The twist is that, for Tagen at least, Earth isn't what either of them expected. Jotan aliens hadn't been to Earth since the Bronze age, and were expecting spears and not-- well, handguns and automobiles. Also, it's hot because global warming sucks, and when they go to the normally cool PNW, it's hotter than Hades. And unfortunately for Tagen and Kane and every female human who ends up in contact with them, hot temperatures put Jotans into violent, mind-blistering heat. So, there's that.
Kane is probably one of the most fun characters I've read about in a while. He's just so evil, but the author does a good job kind of humanizing him a little, and his relationship with Raven definitely comes across as having a Joker/Harley Quinn dynamic where you tell yourself, yes, it's abuse, but if he has a human side to him at all, she's probably the one person who ever receives the benefit of it. Their romance is infinitely more interesting and fascinating than Daria and Tagen's, which is cute but bland. Their sex scenes end up feeling pretty repetitive, and I found myself skimming over some of their interactions because I wanted to see what Kane, Raven, and Sue-Eye were getting up to.
Overall, I would say that this is an excellent work but it probably needed to be shaved down a little. Some of those Daria/Tagen scenes could have been cut. The Kane chapters, on the other hand, were perfect, with Smith building up an atmosphere of dread that could put even Stephen King to shame. I kept thinking what a great TV mini-series this book would be because it has a little bit of everything: action, romance, horror, shoot-em-ups, adventure, sex-- the whole nine yards. It's dark and it's violent and sometimes it's cruel, but the author's trademark dark humor and incredibly deep insights into humanity and the world totally make it worth it, imo.
Now, all I need is a spin-off sequel about Kane.
4 to 4.5 stars
July 20, 2012
If you're a ninny (or even vaguely resemble one), move along. This meaty, perverse, one-of-a-kind story would bring whimpers from mainstream minds. Beneath the nondescript cover and flashback-deluged first chapter, awaits a festering boil. The kind of boil that infects your bloodstream, swells into a knot under your skin, and throbs to be scratched. The journey is disturbing and brutal, but written with a kind of casualness to it. You know you should look away, but the itch is demanding. Soon you are studying it from all angles, digging at it with mom's kitchen cutlery, becoming jaded to it. But, even that is fleeting because it becomes inflamed, an angry red pus-fed thing. You know it's going to blow, but you don't know how far the shit will fly, how bad it will hurt, or how many new boils will bubble up in its place. This kind of simmering tension and unexpected horror--sweet mother, the biker bar scene--alone makes this a recommended read. And interlaced throughout the panic, is romance. Yep. Not one, but two romantic plots, playing out in parallel, destined to collide. The less-conventional of the two affairs features the villain, and Christ, the villain is a very very bad man/alien. I hate him with a severity that makes me want to be proven wrong in my judgement. But at the satisfying conclusion of this tale, you wonder if this malicious creature–with his monster-closet black eyes (says Smith)–is redeemable. In summary, I loved it. With the right measurements of horror, suspence, sensuality, and complexity, it slithered its way to the top of my favorite-books-ever list.
October 5, 2022
Two aliens travel to earth. One is here as a chemist of sorts, to produce a drug that is created by human brain cells. The other is a type of police officer, chasing the chemist/escaped prisoner to bring him to justice.
Non spoilery review below:
This was a looong book, and it took me a few days to get through it, not necessarily because it was long, but because it was absolutely brutal. It’s perverse, dark, incredibly disturbing and yet somehow also erotic. There are multiple, graphic descriptions of rape, and violence. The scene in the biker bar was beyond grotesque.
Both aliens arrive during a massive Earth heat wave, this produces all kinds of (ahem) problems for them that they solve in very different ways. Kane (Kanetus E’Var) is a brilliant chemist, a sadist, a drug dealer, a human trafficker, and yet you root for him for some reason. He has an almost child-like attitude, everything makes him curious. Unfortunately for many of the humans he meets, he is curious how much pain and torture they can take before they die. Raven is one of the only humans who meets him and survives the encounter. She’s a homeless teen with street smarts. They form a bond of sorts, it’s not consensual by any means, but she survives. She becomes his uber driver, his sex slave and guide of all things Earth. It’s Stockholm syndrome at its worse.
Tagen Pahnee (4th ranking office of the Jatan Off-World Security Fleet) is the hero you should be rooting for, but he’s also a bit naïve. He (accidently kills some humans) stumbles around Earth, and discovers a house in the county owned by an emotionally damaged women with a cleaning issue. While reading those cleaning scenes, I was ashamed at how poorly I deep clean my own home. Anyway, Daria is his human. She helps him learn English (N’Glish) and how to operate the television,where he spends hours watching police dramas. Also he loves her cat Grendel, and that was simple adorable. Like Raven, Daria helps her alien with the “heat” issue, but it is consensual and very steamy.
As I have with all of R. Lee Smith’s stories, I found this book unputdownable. Smith writes anti-heroes that are one-of-a kind, and you find yourself hoping for their survival despite how awful they have been. Granted, I would never want to meet Kane in real life, I figure I’d be made into Vahst in seconds.
Non spoilery review below:
This was a looong book, and it took me a few days to get through it, not necessarily because it was long, but because it was absolutely brutal. It’s perverse, dark, incredibly disturbing and yet somehow also erotic. There are multiple, graphic descriptions of rape, and violence. The scene in the biker bar was beyond grotesque.
Both aliens arrive during a massive Earth heat wave, this produces all kinds of (ahem) problems for them that they solve in very different ways. Kane (Kanetus E’Var) is a brilliant chemist, a sadist, a drug dealer, a human trafficker, and yet you root for him for some reason. He has an almost child-like attitude, everything makes him curious. Unfortunately for many of the humans he meets, he is curious how much pain and torture they can take before they die. Raven is one of the only humans who meets him and survives the encounter. She’s a homeless teen with street smarts. They form a bond of sorts, it’s not consensual by any means, but she survives. She becomes his uber driver, his sex slave and guide of all things Earth. It’s Stockholm syndrome at its worse.
Tagen Pahnee (4th ranking office of the Jatan Off-World Security Fleet) is the hero you should be rooting for, but he’s also a bit naïve. He (accidently kills some humans) stumbles around Earth, and discovers a house in the county owned by an emotionally damaged women with a cleaning issue. While reading those cleaning scenes, I was ashamed at how poorly I deep clean my own home. Anyway, Daria is his human. She helps him learn English (N’Glish) and how to operate the television,where he spends hours watching police dramas. Also he loves her cat Grendel, and that was simple adorable. Like Raven, Daria helps her alien with the “heat” issue, but it is consensual and very steamy.
As I have with all of R. Lee Smith’s stories, I found this book unputdownable. Smith writes anti-heroes that are one-of-a kind, and you find yourself hoping for their survival despite how awful they have been. Granted, I would never want to meet Kane in real life, I figure I’d be made into Vahst in seconds.
November 28, 2021
I still remember the first time I read it, I pulled an all nighter - and afterwards I skipped to the beginning and read it again. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!!!
I would love for everyone to read this book - but it's definitely not for everyone.
BEWARE!! It's dark, and gritty, with a bad, bad alien, but it's also addictive, and unputdownable. And I'm definite team Kane (better known as the bad guy) lol.
It's time I re-read this amazing book ♡
I would love for everyone to read this book - but it's definitely not for everyone.
BEWARE!! It's dark, and gritty, with a bad, bad alien, but it's also addictive, and unputdownable. And I'm definite team Kane (better known as the bad guy) lol.
It's time I re-read this amazing book ♡
December 23, 2014
Too much sex. Too much hetsex.¹ Too much purple hetsex. I skimmed most of the sex after 50%.
It has a plot *dancing*
Half the story is literally Tagen lying around hot for 30 days, and Daria cleaning and crying for 30 days, before they have purple sex,² then 5% action.
Thank goodness for Kane, who is my favourite sociopath of 2014 (yes, he even beats Peter Hale).
Great HEA.
This doesn't sound like a 4-star read, but Kane! Kane and his delightful skull-rending hypothalamus harvesting and creative ideas for piercing. Kane and Raven shall have the galaxy at their feet, and Raven shall be the first human astronavigator. Woot!
¹ and non-con f/f which was one of the more unpleasant things I've ever read.
²
To enter her was a celebration of the soul. She rose above him with arms outstretched and her head thrown back, flying somewhere in her own mind as she moved with him. Her body swayed and arched, surged and ebbed; she danced with him, the act of sex made inert so pure it hurt to see. His hands could not keep from her, touching her, proving her reality to himself again and again. She was a god in her element. She was a star at the universe's creation. And she was his. They climaxed together and Tagen felt this release for the first time as a joining. He thought he could almost reach out and touch her soul; he thought he could see her heart like a glow around them both. They were one. They were truly one.
It has a plot *dancing*
Half the story is literally Tagen lying around hot for 30 days, and Daria cleaning and crying for 30 days, before they have purple sex,² then 5% action.
Thank goodness for Kane, who is my favourite sociopath of 2014 (yes, he even beats Peter Hale).
Great HEA.
This doesn't sound like a 4-star read, but Kane! Kane and his delightful skull-rending hypothalamus harvesting and creative ideas for piercing. Kane and Raven shall have the galaxy at their feet, and Raven shall be the first human astronavigator. Woot!
¹ and non-con f/f which was one of the more unpleasant things I've ever read.
²
To enter her was a celebration of the soul. She rose above him with arms outstretched and her head thrown back, flying somewhere in her own mind as she moved with him. Her body swayed and arched, surged and ebbed; she danced with him, the act of sex made inert so pure it hurt to see. His hands could not keep from her, touching her, proving her reality to himself again and again. She was a god in her element. She was a star at the universe's creation. And she was his. They climaxed together and Tagen felt this release for the first time as a joining. He thought he could almost reach out and touch her soul; he thought he could see her heart like a glow around them both. They were one. They were truly one.
July 31, 2018
He could still hear the sounds they made: her soft groans and sighs, his low grunts and mutters. It sounded like they were mating in their sleep. He felt a little sorry for them.
This is an awful story and I disliked every single character from it.
Kane was cruel and I can’t like someone like that.
Daria was very unreasonable, childish and overreacting.
Raven....umm...nope.
Tagen was kinda likeable, not totally, but enough.
After three days, the mountains fell again into forest, and Tagen descended its untrustworthy slopes (sometimes on foot, sometimes on his ass, and once, a good fifty meters on his damn face).
The writing is good and I had a few laughs here and there but no matter how much I wanted to like this book I just couldn’t do it. I forced myself so much to just finish it.
“So that’s what you are, huh? A…Jotan?” “Yes.”
“What’s your planet’s name?” He regarded her closely, and said, “Jota,” in a tone that was half-question. She looked faintly insulted. “Like I’m supposed to know that? Hey, I’m a human, but the planet’s name is not Hum.”
This is an awful story and I disliked every single character from it.
Kane was cruel and I can’t like someone like that.
Daria was very unreasonable, childish and overreacting.
Raven....umm...nope.
Tagen was kinda likeable, not totally, but enough.
After three days, the mountains fell again into forest, and Tagen descended its untrustworthy slopes (sometimes on foot, sometimes on his ass, and once, a good fifty meters on his damn face).
The writing is good and I had a few laughs here and there but no matter how much I wanted to like this book I just couldn’t do it. I forced myself so much to just finish it.
“So that’s what you are, huh? A…Jotan?” “Yes.”
“What’s your planet’s name?” He regarded her closely, and said, “Jota,” in a tone that was half-question. She looked faintly insulted. “Like I’m supposed to know that? Hey, I’m a human, but the planet’s name is not Hum.”
August 12, 2016
Not for everyone (Clive Barker's Hellraiser Vol. 1 is tame compared), filled with rape, abuse, dark sex, torture, murder, gore and very twisted love, but damn, what a ride! This would be hard to top, it's quite at the pinnacle.
May 15, 2014
Heat was a sci fi fiction - not a romance but there were two relationships that were a big part of the story. This book is not for the faint of heart, it's full of violence and can be disturbing. I kept reading it despite that because it kept my interest and was different.
The first relationship followed Kane and Raven. Kane is not a hero, in any other book he is the villain we want to see come to a painful ending. But the interesting part of this story was that we see things from his point of view and the motives behind his very unsavory actions. He grew up with criminals in space and learned from his mastermind father how to be successful with his illegal lifestyle. Kane comes to Earth to harvest a drug from human brains, which he has to get by tearing off their skull while they are still alive. He doesn't see humans as an equal, he sees them as pets or just like an animal who has a valuable drug in their brain and has no problem killing them. He takes Raven, a drug addicted sort of prostitute, as a companion because he needs sex or he will die (it's part of the alien biology). He rapes her and smacks her around at first but eventually they form a connection, as they start traveling together on a killing spree.
Kane's part of the story was the most intriguing to me but it was also very violent and disturbing. He kills people and it's told in graphic detail, he rapes women and even picks up another woman to go along with them and abuses her. Despite this, he was an interesting character who develops feelings for Raven, who he decides to keep as his own pet to take with him when he leaves.
The other half of the story features Tagen, a cop from Kane's planet who travels to Earth to catch him. Tagen meets Daria, a human female who is kind of neurotic from an attack on her a few years ago. This part of the story wasn't as interesting but it follows how Tagen and Daria slowly develop feelings for each other as they try to track down the murdering Kane. Tagen was a nice guy who treated Daria with compassion and helped her overcome some of her issues then she helped him out by tracking down Kane.
This story was certainly different. There are two relationships but don't expect anything sweet. There is a lot of violence so if that bothers you, stay away. There are rape scenes and many murders. The writing was actually good, it just was a little long winded sometimes and could have had a tighter story.
The first relationship followed Kane and Raven. Kane is not a hero, in any other book he is the villain we want to see come to a painful ending. But the interesting part of this story was that we see things from his point of view and the motives behind his very unsavory actions. He grew up with criminals in space and learned from his mastermind father how to be successful with his illegal lifestyle. Kane comes to Earth to harvest a drug from human brains, which he has to get by tearing off their skull while they are still alive. He doesn't see humans as an equal, he sees them as pets or just like an animal who has a valuable drug in their brain and has no problem killing them. He takes Raven, a drug addicted sort of prostitute, as a companion because he needs sex or he will die (it's part of the alien biology). He rapes her and smacks her around at first but eventually they form a connection, as they start traveling together on a killing spree.
Kane's part of the story was the most intriguing to me but it was also very violent and disturbing. He kills people and it's told in graphic detail, he rapes women and even picks up another woman to go along with them and abuses her. Despite this, he was an interesting character who develops feelings for Raven, who he decides to keep as his own pet to take with him when he leaves.
The other half of the story features Tagen, a cop from Kane's planet who travels to Earth to catch him. Tagen meets Daria, a human female who is kind of neurotic from an attack on her a few years ago. This part of the story wasn't as interesting but it follows how Tagen and Daria slowly develop feelings for each other as they try to track down the murdering Kane. Tagen was a nice guy who treated Daria with compassion and helped her overcome some of her issues then she helped him out by tracking down Kane.
This story was certainly different. There are two relationships but don't expect anything sweet. There is a lot of violence so if that bothers you, stay away. There are rape scenes and many murders. The writing was actually good, it just was a little long winded sometimes and could have had a tighter story.
November 26, 2013
I love an anti hero and this was def one! I am a hopeless romantic though so I would have loved this book if he had not enjoyed having sex with the other woman so much and he cuddled the other woman way too much so even though he cared about the heroine as much as he was capable of his enjoyment of other women just peeved me off.
March 4, 2012
Not sure how to rate this because I stopped at the 60% mark. I got through what seemed like several hundred pages, most of which I found compulsively readable. Heat is full of senseless violence and disturbing sex scenes. The alien protagonist takes a human prostitute as a slave. Raven submits to Kane to stay alive and even helps him kill people. Her initial reactions (fear, weeping, reluctance) felt very real. But the story devolves into a killing and sex spree, designed to titillate rather than provoke thought.
A subplot romance between an alien cop on Kane's trail and a reclusive human woman also fell short for me. Tagen does no investigating. Daria is shrill and annoying.
Both Tagen and Kane are TSTL. I thought aliens could die from going into "Heat," but Tagen can't bring himself to ask Daria for help or even explain the problem. Tagen has no way to track Kane. He's stuck in Daria's house for many wasted chapters and the storyline doesn't move forward.
Kane is a somewhat sympathetic psychopath at the beginning. He doesn't seem to understand the emotional impact of rape and murder. Life-threatening "heat" drives him to act. Later, with Raven, we see that he's aroused by her pain and humiliation. His main focus shifts from harvesting human brain matter to putting Raven through sexual torture. He can die from heat (maybe?) and he's kept her as a sex toy, but he impulsively has her adorned with dozens of genital piercings, which put her out of commission. Later, when she gets her period, he's "worried" and thinks she needs to rest from all activity, not just sex. But he makes her perform oral on at least ten different men in a bar.
The author's choices for these characters become increasingly gratuitous and degrading. I didn't see a creative reason for any of the sex or violence. Like Tegan's subplot, it doesn't move the story forward.
I wish Heat had continued as it started and been edited for excessive content. As a shorter novel with fewer repetitive scenes, I think it could have worked brilliantly. The sexual violence didn't bother me so much as the eventual meaningless of it. Perhaps the ending is full of redemptive value, but I'm not reading on.
2.5 stars.
A subplot romance between an alien cop on Kane's trail and a reclusive human woman also fell short for me. Tagen does no investigating. Daria is shrill and annoying.
Both Tagen and Kane are TSTL. I thought aliens could die from going into "Heat," but Tagen can't bring himself to ask Daria for help or even explain the problem. Tagen has no way to track Kane. He's stuck in Daria's house for many wasted chapters and the storyline doesn't move forward.
Kane is a somewhat sympathetic psychopath at the beginning. He doesn't seem to understand the emotional impact of rape and murder. Life-threatening "heat" drives him to act. Later, with Raven, we see that he's aroused by her pain and humiliation. His main focus shifts from harvesting human brain matter to putting Raven through sexual torture. He can die from heat (maybe?) and he's kept her as a sex toy, but he impulsively has her adorned with dozens of genital piercings, which put her out of commission. Later, when she gets her period, he's "worried" and thinks she needs to rest from all activity, not just sex. But he makes her perform oral on at least ten different men in a bar.
The author's choices for these characters become increasingly gratuitous and degrading. I didn't see a creative reason for any of the sex or violence. Like Tegan's subplot, it doesn't move the story forward.
I wish Heat had continued as it started and been edited for excessive content. As a shorter novel with fewer repetitive scenes, I think it could have worked brilliantly. The sexual violence didn't bother me so much as the eventual meaningless of it. Perhaps the ending is full of redemptive value, but I'm not reading on.
2.5 stars.
October 21, 2020
When I downloaded this novel a few years ago, I had asked a GR friend who had loved it what it was about. She told me that this was about two aliens who came to Earth, one to produce a drug which needs human brains to do so, and the other, a sort of Jotan policeman, came to capture the first one. But both were suffering from the effects of the heat wave; which made them in heat like beasts.
The idea seemed amusing to me: a pretext for hot sex scenes, no more. And I postponed this reading. But as the number of 5 stars accumulated, I began to think that I should really try to read it.
Finally, I did. And I, who ordinarily reacts very badly to all that is rape, abuse, non-con and even dub con, I not only loved this novel, but I almost fell in love with this brute of Kane.
However, I have a few reservations:
1. It’s clear that the author is an unilingual Anglophone. For if he/she had really tried to learn a language other than English, she/he'd know with the utmost certainty that ONE DOES NOT learn to speak a foreign language so well that Tagen did in just a few days (or even a few weeks) and just by listening to a dull TV series.
If you want to get an idea of how beginners talk, watch the old cowboys and Indians movies and listen to how the Indians spoke. They only had a basic vocabulary and they structured their sentences as in their own languages (lame sentences). The most difficult thing for someone who is learning a new language is not only the acquisition of vocabulary, but mostly the way in which the sentences are constructed in that other language. And we have a strong tendency to build them as in our native language. I'm sure that an extraterrestrial language would be drastically different. So different that it’d be difficult to understand each other even with a good translator (see the movie « Arrival » if you want to really understand what I mean).
What's more, a beginner certainly doesn’t use such usual (but sometimes silly) phrases like "dead serious.” Can you explain to me how a dead man can be serious? Well, we rarely see a cadaver laughing, but all the same...
2. I am sure the regulations prohibit any Jotan police officer to leave a prisoner and his accomplice alone in his spaceship even for a few minutes, as Tagen did.
Moreover, Kane said further in the novel that his forward-looking father had made him take drugs to accustom him to their effects and so that he did not feel them so strongly. I was hoping that the somniferous effect of the drug administered by Tagen when he caught Kane would diminish while Kane was alone with Raven in the ship and that both could then flee away, leaving Tagen on Earth with Daria and her cat. But the author chose another happier for everybody ending.
3. I found Tagen to be a really pitiful cop. I would not trust him to investigate my cat's disappearance. Heat or not, he could have done better than listening to Law and Order repeatedly. At least he could have tried to stay tuned by watching the news channels. He would have noticed then all the damage done by Kane since his arrival on Earth (no need to speak English to understand information videos).
It is rather Daria who deserves the investigator title in this story.
4. Chapter 28 is completely useless. It’s just a long sex scene between Daria and Tagen, not even the first one, not even a really hot one. It could have been shortened to a few words. No need for another long booty-booty-bang-bang scene there.
5. And, by the way, even in stealth mode, a spaceship would not go completely unnoticed if it entered our atmosphere to land on Earth. Neither Kane nor Tagen penetrated our space with their "cloaks" of invisibility on. ;) They made their ships invisible only once landed.
That's why I give 4 stars to this novel.
The idea seemed amusing to me: a pretext for hot sex scenes, no more. And I postponed this reading. But as the number of 5 stars accumulated, I began to think that I should really try to read it.
Finally, I did. And I, who ordinarily reacts very badly to all that is rape, abuse, non-con and even dub con, I not only loved this novel, but I almost fell in love with this brute of Kane.
However, I have a few reservations:
1. It’s clear that the author is an unilingual Anglophone. For if he/she had really tried to learn a language other than English, she/he'd know with the utmost certainty that ONE DOES NOT learn to speak a foreign language so well that Tagen did in just a few days (or even a few weeks) and just by listening to a dull TV series.
If you want to get an idea of how beginners talk, watch the old cowboys and Indians movies and listen to how the Indians spoke. They only had a basic vocabulary and they structured their sentences as in their own languages (lame sentences). The most difficult thing for someone who is learning a new language is not only the acquisition of vocabulary, but mostly the way in which the sentences are constructed in that other language. And we have a strong tendency to build them as in our native language. I'm sure that an extraterrestrial language would be drastically different. So different that it’d be difficult to understand each other even with a good translator (see the movie « Arrival » if you want to really understand what I mean).
What's more, a beginner certainly doesn’t use such usual (but sometimes silly) phrases like "dead serious.” Can you explain to me how a dead man can be serious? Well, we rarely see a cadaver laughing, but all the same...
2. I am sure the regulations prohibit any Jotan police officer to leave a prisoner and his accomplice alone in his spaceship even for a few minutes, as Tagen did.
Moreover, Kane said further in the novel that his forward-looking father had made him take drugs to accustom him to their effects and so that he did not feel them so strongly. I was hoping that the somniferous effect of the drug administered by Tagen when he caught Kane would diminish while Kane was alone with Raven in the ship and that both could then flee away, leaving Tagen on Earth with Daria and her cat. But the author chose another happier for everybody ending.
3. I found Tagen to be a really pitiful cop. I would not trust him to investigate my cat's disappearance. Heat or not, he could have done better than listening to Law and Order repeatedly. At least he could have tried to stay tuned by watching the news channels. He would have noticed then all the damage done by Kane since his arrival on Earth (no need to speak English to understand information videos).
It is rather Daria who deserves the investigator title in this story.
4. Chapter 28 is completely useless. It’s just a long sex scene between Daria and Tagen, not even the first one, not even a really hot one. It could have been shortened to a few words. No need for another long booty-booty-bang-bang scene there.
5. And, by the way, even in stealth mode, a spaceship would not go completely unnoticed if it entered our atmosphere to land on Earth. Neither Kane nor Tagen penetrated our space with their "cloaks" of invisibility on. ;) They made their ships invisible only once landed.
That's why I give 4 stars to this novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2012
4 ½ stars. It’s so different. It’s brutality that you can’t stop watching - like a train wreck. It’s also happy ending romance.
STORY BRIEF:
This is a double romance, so by definition there is a happy ending for both couples at the end. It’s graphic, erotic, with extreme violence. What is amazing is the character creation. Two alien males from the planet Jota come to earth. Kane makes illegal drugs using fluid from human brains, killing them in the process. He comes to earth to get a large supply of fluid so he can buy a starship and crew. The Jotan government isn’t sure if Kane is alive, but just in case, they send one soldier Tagen to earth to search for Kane.
The summer heat on earth causes both Jotan males to be in extreme pain requiring sex multiple times per day to stop the pain. Kane quickly finds a young prostitute Raven to take care of his needs. He takes her with him as he hunts and kills humans. Tagen goes to Daria’s home asking for food and water. When Daria learns of his mission to find Kane, she helps him. Daria is self conscious and reluctant to have sex. Tagen respects that and won’t ask her for sex. Therefore he suffers tortuous pain.
THE CHARACTERS:
Kane is the bad guy’s bad guy. He is a sadist who becomes attached to Raven. He forces her to get multiple piercings in her private areas and elsewhere, including rings around her waist to hold a gold chain. What is shocking is the way he treats Raven. He treats her like a pet dog. He snaps his fingers and she must come to him. He gently slugs her and later smiles fondly at seeing the yellow bruises. He really likes her and wants to keep her around, and he also likes to see her in pain. But then he gives her drugs to help with the pain. She of course is in shock - horrified at seeing him rip open people’s skulls with his hands, getting their fluids into his vials. She humbly does whatever he asks in order to stay alive. At one point he gave her a drug for pain which had an accidental aphrodisiac effect. She was mad for sex and began biting him all over his body, wherever her mouth could reach. He was amused with this. He found it charming. She then fell asleep with her face kissing his foot. He sat there with his chin on his hand, watching her in amusement as she slept.
Mary Frances Carter came from a loving middle class family. She ran away from home to live on the streets and changed her name to Raven. She dyed her long hair eggplant purple with a long white stripe on each side of her face. She enjoys the street lifestyle, including prostituting herself for drugs. Her mother asked her “Why Mary Frances why?” Raven occasionally thinks about this - and has no answer. My opinion is that Raven needs to belong heart and soul to someone. She craves being owned by Kane. She likes being his devoted slave. She likes feeling pain from him. She acts like an eager puppy, quickly coming to him when he snaps his fingers. Raven is fierce in her loyalty to Kane. She is smart and cautious which helps him.
Someone threw acid on one side of Daria’s face six years earlier. She received a monetary settlement which allowed her to live in seclusion in a remote area without having a job. She rarely leaves home and appears to have OCD, cleaning and re-cleaning everything in her home. She is clever, intuitive, and the brains behind the search for Kane. Her leads come from watching TV news and website surfing about area murders.
There are very few females on Jota. Therefore females are the ones who initiate sex. Tagen is grateful that Daria is giving him food and shelter. He knows she is reluctant about sex. His culture taught him never to ask for sex. So he exhibits the ultimate restraint even though he is in terrible pain. He is also the good, honest, loyal soldier, determined to do his best to catch the bad guy.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
THE ENDING:
I loved the ending. It was unexpected and well done. I was surprised that I liked the happy ending for the bad couple as well as the good couple. The following spoiler answers the question “How could you possible like a happy ending for a bad couple who murder people?” Please don’t read the spoiler until after you’ve read the book. It’s better to be surprised. I’ve frequently looked at the last page of a book early on and didn’t regret it. But in this case I wish I had not looked. So, I urge others don’t read the spoiler below and don’t look at the last page early.
BRUTALITY AND SEX:
There is a lot of sex, explicit and erotic, more than 36 scenes. They include self pleasuring, rear door activity, sex in public, group sex, male-male, female-female, humiliation, and a lot of injury and pain. This is different from BDSM which usually has temporary sessions of playtime and scenes. Here it is constant and brutal. No safe words. Readers who don’t like seeing physical and verbal abuse should probably avoid this. I view this like a train wreck. It’s so horrible that you can’t stop watching it. I’m putting in the following example to give you a hint as to how you might react.
4328: Kane and Raven enter a biker bar, full of mean guys with guns and knives. Kane has Raven topless as they enter. One of the bikers sees Raven’s wide, terrified eyes. He is bothered because Raven didn’t look scared OF him, she looked scared FOR him. A short time later, Kane is sitting in a booth looking at a map. He grunted. “It’s too f***ing hot. Get under the table.” Raven slid out and onto her knees and crawled under the table without argument and serviced him orally in front of the bikers who were roaring with laughter and hooting. When she finished, Kane motioned for her to do the same to the bikers. The bikers slapped and did other hurtful things to her as she serviced them.
Kane brings along a second female Sue-Eye for more sexual services and to help hunt humans. He treats Sue-Eye worse than he treats Raven.
OVERALL OPINION:
I feel like I’ve never read anything like this, and that’s why I gave it a high rating.
One thing I did not like was that it took way too long for Tagen to have sex with Daria. He is being tortured for many days. She keeps asking if there is anything she could do. Yes there is, just have sex with him, but he never tells her that. I wanted to yell at him to tell her. That frustrated me. Some delay was ok, but this carried on for too long. It was repetitive. If the author would have cut some of those conversations and delays, and let them get together a little sooner, the book would have been better.
This is a long book which was fine. There were a handful of editing errors: there should be they, was should be were, this should be his. It wasn’t bad, but I did notice them.
Mlle.X wrote a great review that I totally agree with. See her review for more thoughts, for example how readers will root for a psychopathic killer and his Stockholm Syndrome romance.
AUTHOR’S OTHER BOOKS:
Amazon and Goodreads list other books by this author, but the lists were not identical when I looked, so you might want to check both. One book not yet published but coming is The Scholomance.
DATA:
Kindle count story length: 10,891 (909 KB). Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: more than 36. Setting: current day mostly northwestern U.S. plus outer space and the planet Jota. Copyright: 2006. Genre: erotic sci-fi romance.
STORY BRIEF:
This is a double romance, so by definition there is a happy ending for both couples at the end. It’s graphic, erotic, with extreme violence. What is amazing is the character creation. Two alien males from the planet Jota come to earth. Kane makes illegal drugs using fluid from human brains, killing them in the process. He comes to earth to get a large supply of fluid so he can buy a starship and crew. The Jotan government isn’t sure if Kane is alive, but just in case, they send one soldier Tagen to earth to search for Kane.
The summer heat on earth causes both Jotan males to be in extreme pain requiring sex multiple times per day to stop the pain. Kane quickly finds a young prostitute Raven to take care of his needs. He takes her with him as he hunts and kills humans. Tagen goes to Daria’s home asking for food and water. When Daria learns of his mission to find Kane, she helps him. Daria is self conscious and reluctant to have sex. Tagen respects that and won’t ask her for sex. Therefore he suffers tortuous pain.
THE CHARACTERS:
Kane is the bad guy’s bad guy. He is a sadist who becomes attached to Raven. He forces her to get multiple piercings in her private areas and elsewhere, including rings around her waist to hold a gold chain. What is shocking is the way he treats Raven. He treats her like a pet dog. He snaps his fingers and she must come to him. He gently slugs her and later smiles fondly at seeing the yellow bruises. He really likes her and wants to keep her around, and he also likes to see her in pain. But then he gives her drugs to help with the pain. She of course is in shock - horrified at seeing him rip open people’s skulls with his hands, getting their fluids into his vials. She humbly does whatever he asks in order to stay alive. At one point he gave her a drug for pain which had an accidental aphrodisiac effect. She was mad for sex and began biting him all over his body, wherever her mouth could reach. He was amused with this. He found it charming. She then fell asleep with her face kissing his foot. He sat there with his chin on his hand, watching her in amusement as she slept.
Mary Frances Carter came from a loving middle class family. She ran away from home to live on the streets and changed her name to Raven. She dyed her long hair eggplant purple with a long white stripe on each side of her face. She enjoys the street lifestyle, including prostituting herself for drugs. Her mother asked her “Why Mary Frances why?” Raven occasionally thinks about this - and has no answer. My opinion is that Raven needs to belong heart and soul to someone. She craves being owned by Kane. She likes being his devoted slave. She likes feeling pain from him. She acts like an eager puppy, quickly coming to him when he snaps his fingers. Raven is fierce in her loyalty to Kane. She is smart and cautious which helps him.
Someone threw acid on one side of Daria’s face six years earlier. She received a monetary settlement which allowed her to live in seclusion in a remote area without having a job. She rarely leaves home and appears to have OCD, cleaning and re-cleaning everything in her home. She is clever, intuitive, and the brains behind the search for Kane. Her leads come from watching TV news and website surfing about area murders.
There are very few females on Jota. Therefore females are the ones who initiate sex. Tagen is grateful that Daria is giving him food and shelter. He knows she is reluctant about sex. His culture taught him never to ask for sex. So he exhibits the ultimate restraint even though he is in terrible pain. He is also the good, honest, loyal soldier, determined to do his best to catch the bad guy.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
THE ENDING:
I loved the ending. It was unexpected and well done. I was surprised that I liked the happy ending for the bad couple as well as the good couple. The following spoiler answers the question “How could you possible like a happy ending for a bad couple who murder people?” Please don’t read the spoiler until after you’ve read the book. It’s better to be surprised. I’ve frequently looked at the last page of a book early on and didn’t regret it. But in this case I wish I had not looked. So, I urge others don’t read the spoiler below and don’t look at the last page early.
BRUTALITY AND SEX:
There is a lot of sex, explicit and erotic, more than 36 scenes. They include self pleasuring, rear door activity, sex in public, group sex, male-male, female-female, humiliation, and a lot of injury and pain. This is different from BDSM which usually has temporary sessions of playtime and scenes. Here it is constant and brutal. No safe words. Readers who don’t like seeing physical and verbal abuse should probably avoid this. I view this like a train wreck. It’s so horrible that you can’t stop watching it. I’m putting in the following example to give you a hint as to how you might react.
4328: Kane and Raven enter a biker bar, full of mean guys with guns and knives. Kane has Raven topless as they enter. One of the bikers sees Raven’s wide, terrified eyes. He is bothered because Raven didn’t look scared OF him, she looked scared FOR him. A short time later, Kane is sitting in a booth looking at a map. He grunted. “It’s too f***ing hot. Get under the table.” Raven slid out and onto her knees and crawled under the table without argument and serviced him orally in front of the bikers who were roaring with laughter and hooting. When she finished, Kane motioned for her to do the same to the bikers. The bikers slapped and did other hurtful things to her as she serviced them.
Kane brings along a second female Sue-Eye for more sexual services and to help hunt humans. He treats Sue-Eye worse than he treats Raven.
OVERALL OPINION:
I feel like I’ve never read anything like this, and that’s why I gave it a high rating.
One thing I did not like was that it took way too long for Tagen to have sex with Daria. He is being tortured for many days. She keeps asking if there is anything she could do. Yes there is, just have sex with him, but he never tells her that. I wanted to yell at him to tell her. That frustrated me. Some delay was ok, but this carried on for too long. It was repetitive. If the author would have cut some of those conversations and delays, and let them get together a little sooner, the book would have been better.
This is a long book which was fine. There were a handful of editing errors: there should be they, was should be were, this should be his. It wasn’t bad, but I did notice them.
Mlle.X wrote a great review that I totally agree with. See her review for more thoughts, for example how readers will root for a psychopathic killer and his Stockholm Syndrome romance.
AUTHOR’S OTHER BOOKS:
Amazon and Goodreads list other books by this author, but the lists were not identical when I looked, so you might want to check both. One book not yet published but coming is The Scholomance.
DATA:
Kindle count story length: 10,891 (909 KB). Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: more than 36. Setting: current day mostly northwestern U.S. plus outer space and the planet Jota. Copyright: 2006. Genre: erotic sci-fi romance.
October 23, 2015
When R. Lee Smith said that the book would be dark, you better fucking believe it. This auhtor's works are not for everyone, but if you like the author's certain charm in his/her books, then I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Heat is the 2nd book that I've read by Smith. As always, it boderlines between kinky and hot and fucked up. This book is not for the faint of heart and easily offended.
Heat is the 2nd book that I've read by Smith. As always, it boderlines between kinky and hot and fucked up. This book is not for the faint of heart and easily offended.
June 24, 2013
FIVE STARS - BUT WITH A VERY BIG WARNING. THIS BOOK IS HARD CORE!!!!
Two aliens come to Earth from the distant planet of Jota for two very different reasons. Kane is an escaped drug dealer and kills humans to harvest a brain chemical which mimics their race's sexual mating frenzy of HEAT. Tagen is a highly decorated police officer who is ordered to find and re-capture Kane. What follows is two separate stories that follow the two men's time on Earth and the relationships between the women they meet here. Tagen and Daria's is an evolving warm love story, Kane and his Raven and the biker chick Sue-Eye IS NOT!!!
I don't think I have been ever so conflicted when reading a book. I had been warned about some of the content, some scenes I just found flat out confronting and disturbing. On the one hand Kane's story is full of murder, sexual violence and misogyny but juxtaposed with this is the sweet and beautiful romance between Tagen and Daria, a meeting of two equals who actually bring out the best in each other. I think the two parallel stories are perhaps one of the strong points of the book, the comparison between two very different faces of love and emotions both equally strong in their own way is thought provoking.
So why did I rate this book so highly if parts of it were so offensive? Well, the quality of the writing is just so addictive that despite my objections I found myself hurrying to get back to the book to find out what happened next. I also found myself thinking about the some of the issues raised, the nature of love and addiction, why women are attracted to violent men and of course wondering how it was all going to satisfactorily resolve. (It does!) The fact that I finished a 600 page book in 4 days is testament to the fact of its addictive quality.
Finally did I love this book. Well parts of it I did, parts of it I loathed. But will I ever forget reading it. NO. And that's why it got a five star rating.
And now .... I think I will return to the safety of my romantic and very vanilla historical romances or a Virgin River (Robyn Carr) instalment.
Two aliens come to Earth from the distant planet of Jota for two very different reasons. Kane is an escaped drug dealer and kills humans to harvest a brain chemical which mimics their race's sexual mating frenzy of HEAT. Tagen is a highly decorated police officer who is ordered to find and re-capture Kane. What follows is two separate stories that follow the two men's time on Earth and the relationships between the women they meet here. Tagen and Daria's is an evolving warm love story, Kane and his Raven and the biker chick Sue-Eye IS NOT!!!
I don't think I have been ever so conflicted when reading a book. I had been warned about some of the content, some scenes I just found flat out confronting and disturbing. On the one hand Kane's story is full of murder, sexual violence and misogyny but juxtaposed with this is the sweet and beautiful romance between Tagen and Daria, a meeting of two equals who actually bring out the best in each other. I think the two parallel stories are perhaps one of the strong points of the book, the comparison between two very different faces of love and emotions both equally strong in their own way is thought provoking.
So why did I rate this book so highly if parts of it were so offensive? Well, the quality of the writing is just so addictive that despite my objections I found myself hurrying to get back to the book to find out what happened next. I also found myself thinking about the some of the issues raised, the nature of love and addiction, why women are attracted to violent men and of course wondering how it was all going to satisfactorily resolve. (It does!) The fact that I finished a 600 page book in 4 days is testament to the fact of its addictive quality.
Finally did I love this book. Well parts of it I did, parts of it I loathed. But will I ever forget reading it. NO. And that's why it got a five star rating.
And now .... I think I will return to the safety of my romantic and very vanilla historical romances or a Virgin River (Robyn Carr) instalment.
April 25, 2016
I CAN'T COUNT THE STARS, I AM YOURS
It is a testament to the art of R.Lee Smith that I have not been able to move on after reading this book. I couldn't at first and didn't need to. Now it feels like I won't be able to until I write this review and put black on white this magma of emotions before it buries my ashes. My main problem is that this story hit issues so personal they should have no part in a book review. In some instances it was like having an epiphany I had been trying to ignore for a long time, not of the joyful type. I am invested in this story for all the right and wrong reasons...but I MUST master the right words for an author that fills me with so much life and longing for writing again.
Heat is a miniature amusement park where the main attraction is finding your place in Hell, a scaringly accurate diorama of humanity, inhumanity, misery, daily regular evil and all the choices that determine who we are, especially when we don't have free choices. It's about lust, control and power. It's another mindblowing piece of social commentary, spot-on, pitiless observations on human nature and a writing so fantastic you'll feel like your brain and soul have been picked, exposed, laughed at, stepped on and licked clean. R.Lee Smith could rewrite the telephone book of this city and I'd read it, love it, rec it to pieces. Yes, she is that good. You never feel her hand in the charachters, her ability to give life to real, indepedant entities is as deep as it is invisible, inobtrusive.
This book is sci-fi, it's horror, it's erotica, a roadtrip, a hunt, a captivity and slavery tale...I think everyone should read it although it certainly is not for everyone. You will find all possible triggers: abduction, rape, violence and splatter, non-con a go-go, drugs, killing sprees, humiliation and degradation to no end, abuse of all kinds. All things that I usually don't favour nor look for - if not totally discard- in books and yet I loved every second of it. It also contains two gutpunching love stories, more or less twisted, personally debatable. It is graphic, it is explicit, it will throw you through the wringer and you won't be able to get out of it without finding or fighting your limits.
Earth becomes the prison and hunting ground of two humanoid aliens from Jota, just one of the many evolved civilizations out there in space. Kane is a slaver, a chemist and a smuggler on the run, Tagen is the Jotan Fleet officer sent after him in a practically suicide mission. The first is acquainted with English, our technology, the terrain, the way to control humans, which are nothing to him but a commodity to trade, sell, fuck, breed or break in case they disobey. The latter only knows humans as rescued, broken, unstable slaves, speaks more Spanish than English and arrives on Earth with the intel that the planet is still almost in prehistorical development. Kane is equipped, determined and resourceful, he's done it all before, even if not alone; Tagen on the other hand is frustrated, resentful, unprepared and insufficiently equipped, ending up in a much more vulnerable situation than the fugitive. The painful physiological phenomenon of the Jotan Heat is used as the motor of all the ensuing drama with the humans they both end up using, in their unique way.
Yes, a copper and criminal story but loosely so, they won't really interact with each others until the very end. For all leads, male and female, it is a veritable odissey that ends up finding a home and a reason in someone else.
As different as Kane and Tagen seem to be portrayed at first – one unabashedly sadistic, the other painfully tied to his role and the honour of his race – I found they were actually close. Through them Smith presents us a completely believable world, with no knitted family ties, extreme order, extreme punishments and, even with all its aspiration to being evoluted and just, a very cowardly-utilitaristic attitude toward weaker species being enslaved as long as it keeps the Jotans safe from harm. In essence, humans are seen as less than people by every party involved, openly or not. Kane and all other slave traders might be the perpetrators, but the Jotan elite attitude, paternalistic and indifferent, choosing often not to get 'dirty' actively defending humans, is just as bad. They might rescue humans, they just don't prevent their capture and they relegate to a sort of giant prison planet afterwards. This is typical Smith file rouge number one for me, how closely our social conundrums can be identified through the thickest sci-fi world building. From this world we get two male specimens, one cruel, manipulative, anapologetic killing machine, the other full of ideals and will to do the right thing, wrestling with his own conscience, a soldier used to serve, rescue, but also to kill. And yet, they both have symmetrical daddy issues, they both are, at least at the beginning, intrinsecally uninterested and uncapable of truly understanding what humans are, how our emotions factor in our actions and our minds work despite numerous previous contacts (although Kane will prove very apt to understand and control our base instincts), they both are capable of brutality and they both need human women to survive, couldn't make it without them. Seeing them struggle and coming to terms with foreign feelings of affection, love and need was majestic, even if gruesome at times.
The women of Heat, the women of this writer! Women, their essence, their position in society, their interactions with the other gender, how completely normal, every day women can face and survive all kinds of horrors, are probably the main theme running through her body of work. Jotan women are scarce and coveted, protected, needed, privileged in their sexual choices. Human women are...well, you know, nothing special, vexed, still fighting for basic rights in many places, sadly used to sexual politics. And yet, so goddamn strong too. Raven is the street-smart kid, adaptable, resourceful, an initial rebel without a cause, a thrill seeker. Sue-Eye is a captive of convenience, hardened by a life of abuse and servitude, pack mentality. Daria is a recluse, skittish, neurotical victim of an assault who will prove more determined and selfless than Tagen in the end. Self-deprecation and all. As all their layers peeled off during the story, I was equally horrified, proud, elated and angry at them. Because despite being action, sex and gore packed, this book reads like a theater play in two acts. Whenever Kane, Raven and Sue-Eye are on stage, everything is claustrophobic, violent, hectic and harmful; whenever we move to Tagen and Daria, the space is just as confining, the stifling tension always just below the surface waiting to explode, mounting, but there is also peace and slow understanding, blooming love. The description alone of the physical reactions of Tegan to the heat and Heat made me want to scratch my body open.
Why did I hate Sue-Eye so much? On paper I should have felt closer to her, starting from her childhood, and because Raven's little lies made her Kane's second captive. All her thoughts and actions, all her power machinations, her lies, her games, her quick and heartless complicity are completely true to the nature of someone used to fight for scraps and protection, a serie of fuckable holes. Kane's acute eye correctly assesses her as a true slave, with chains so beaten and fucked into her she only knows how to serve the biggest mean guy. She is hard and nasty all around, no aspirations, no qualms, no empathy. For all that she is scheming, she's not such a good judge of characters, too wrapped up in her own ways. She started blackmailing Raven and never thought about allying with her instead of fighting to be favourite. And I damn hated her because she was between Raven and Kane for a while...it simply twisted my guts till I couldn't breathe. I perversely enjoyed all the abuse she went through. Kane is mean, sure, though seldom just for kicks, she brought a lot of it on herself too never understanding what her real place was.
I doubted Raven quite a bit for a while. She was quick, forward-thinking, good at recognising dangers and keep herself relatively safe in every situation. Through all the shit she had to face, she kept part of her innocence, she held on to her sense of right and wrong, to her limits and shame. Till the very end, she endures all of Kane's killings disgusted by them, never ok with killing other humans. She does not want to hunt them or be directly responsible. She is helpful but only becomes a willing subordinate the very moment she choses him. And god how much I had to resist until she finally came out and grabbed him! Now, one might argue about Stockholm syndrome and how can you really choose in captivity etc. You can always choose something, to surrender or not, and she didn't fall head over heels for him, I don't think it's a case of syndrome. If anything, she sees him better and better for whom he is. Despite the terror Kane forced on both women, he was also very attentive and always attuned to Raven, sometimes completely the wrong way but still, quite considerate. He is aware of her all the time, she touches him even from a distance, he cuts through her mind with all he is. I felt her actually change day by day after having to step back due to her own little lies, endure Sue-Eye sicked on her body and watch Kane and Sue-Eye together. Once her body fully mends and her mind processes it all, her true personality comes forward. She fears him but misses him. We're not even talking love in a traditional way, but something much more instinctual: desire, belonging, possession, need. I physically needed her with Kane. It was not just her recognising Sue-Eye's little tricks and trying to save her position with Kane. She chose and that's where she came alive again. She's not meek, she's not weak. She gets what she wants and she's greedy when she wants. She really understood how Kane worked and actively started thinking at the skills she'd need in space with him. She becomes his with all her might. But he's hers just as much even if he'd never admit it in these terms, she matches his ferocity but also his ability to care and strategize, she is the only one who soothes him after his father, his need to mark and possess her is completely visceral and innate. The scenes where they both show jealousy and lose control are my favourite ones. Also...I would probably combust with utter fulfillment if Kane bejewelled me the same way he did Raven. But let's not beat around the bush, for her is extreme body mod without consent, quite painful. Yeah, possessive, objectifying bastard. I got issues, I know.
Daria could drive me to distraction sometimes. I so completely understood all her hang-ups, her fears, her paralysis, her self-loathing and her loneliness, her insecurity about her body, her scars and her femininity. I have scars too, not half that bad, and they just carve into your brain to your very core. Her cleaning obsession, her relationship with the room where all things from her ex were hidden, her growing emotional isolation were so relatable. She can be cynical, shy, easily flustered but she's strongheaded and determined. And in the end she's the one figuring out how and where to hunt for the fugitive, not the alpha alien soldier. Her internal struggles against irrational reactions and the constanct warring between her growing desires and comfort zone were perfectly portrayed, but she really couldn't have landed with anyone better than Tagen, home-invaded or not. His patience and respect were neverending, his will like steel, his stamina, his capacity for self-control, self-sacrifice, dedication and abuse just staggering. When she FINALLY gather her courage and makes him crack and surrender, I almost swallowed my iphone out of joy. Maybe their coming together contains some purple prose, I couldn't care less. Their slow, clumsy dance, their loving, connected and connecting sex is the needed counterpart to all the blood and rapes without being less intense or steamy. They are glorious together. They make each other better, they free each others from roles and limitations, force each other to choose what they really want for themselves. Safe some petrified silences where they both ruminated apart about the impending separation, they did not squander their love, they didn't belittle what they felt once they had acknowledged it. Tagen deserves all the same adoration he offers her.
All my reactions to Heat were visceral and out of control. Arousement, concern, fear, distress, rage, love...yeah, dozed in gasoline and set alight. And I found also reasons to laugh out loud, yes. Tagen getting obsessed with Law and Order and using it to improve his language skills? His speaking patterns? Score. Kane putting Raven to practice with the Jotan alphabet like a small child? Double Score. Aliens unfamiliar with the great art of oral sex and sex shops? Triple score! Daria's cat and how Kane thought a lobster was a big bug? Throw the confetti. Most of all, it was great to find out, once again, that our very human bodies and vaginas, with the fine squeezing our orgasms cause, are simply the greatest thing in the universe...I always thought so! Or that great advanced scientists are not sure what the liver is nor where it is placed in our body but a slaver does. Let's not forget how incredibly naive both Tagen and Kane can be at times, no matter how well trained they are, how big, strong and well-hung they are. I am really not a fan of misunderstandings and lies between the main characters, but in this book little lies and omissions work to build even more the angst, the dramatic changes and the pull in the couples. For instance, Raven silent confirmation about the 'seriousness' of her condition, ends up bringing Sue-Eye in her life, who will lie to Kane about it. And what is her condition? She has the period! Yes, folks, human men and aliens are all alike, just show them some blood and they lose their shit. Ok, Kane is surprisingly uninformed about it and I think he could have very easily found out about the phenomenon instead of believing the final version from Sue-Eye's silver tongue. He is not disgusted at least, just really concerned about Raven, scared shitless he might lose her. Still...it's just a freaking period, gullible much, my sadistic Kane? I wanted to smack his head! And Tagen, with his problems with humour and figures of speech, suble nuances, after all the damn Law and Orders he watched, shouldn't he be so much more suspicious of Raven's motives? Sometimes he's just blinded by all his good will, sometimes he's so endearing in his justice convictions and concern, so clueless about how to deal with women. Porn seems to be the main educational tools characters also in other books choose to use to find out about human sexuality. It is visual and solves the language barrier, I understand it, but it certainly warps things quite a bit for someone who can't distinguish it from the reality of intimate, not enacted sex. Smith would never leave cultural differences and communication untreated in her books, she's done it again. She had me wanting to learn the Jotan language.
I could go on forever picking things I loved in this book. The more it felt like a torture to my feelings, the more I fell for it. There are so many hard, hot, uncomfortable, passionate, absolutely memorable scenes...personally, I've had the pleasure/pain of seeing some of my biggest wants (and most hated fears/nightmares) embodied to perfection and I felt touched at all levels. Never expect to be put at ease by this author, be ready to confront your dreads, you desires, your biases, your kinks, your certainties, your disgusts. You will feel dirty, degraded, horrified and adored, covered in blood or acceptance. What's not to love??
***********************************************
INITIAL REVIEW
I...don't even know how I feel right now...I had to stop reading so many times for so many reasons, emotional and not, that it feels unreal now I am actually done...I fucking loved it...yes I am sick, even more aware of it, I just loved it. Full review as soon as I manage to wrestle Kane out of me, if ever...
It is a testament to the art of R.Lee Smith that I have not been able to move on after reading this book. I couldn't at first and didn't need to. Now it feels like I won't be able to until I write this review and put black on white this magma of emotions before it buries my ashes. My main problem is that this story hit issues so personal they should have no part in a book review. In some instances it was like having an epiphany I had been trying to ignore for a long time, not of the joyful type. I am invested in this story for all the right and wrong reasons...but I MUST master the right words for an author that fills me with so much life and longing for writing again.
Heat is a miniature amusement park where the main attraction is finding your place in Hell, a scaringly accurate diorama of humanity, inhumanity, misery, daily regular evil and all the choices that determine who we are, especially when we don't have free choices. It's about lust, control and power. It's another mindblowing piece of social commentary, spot-on, pitiless observations on human nature and a writing so fantastic you'll feel like your brain and soul have been picked, exposed, laughed at, stepped on and licked clean. R.Lee Smith could rewrite the telephone book of this city and I'd read it, love it, rec it to pieces. Yes, she is that good. You never feel her hand in the charachters, her ability to give life to real, indepedant entities is as deep as it is invisible, inobtrusive.
This book is sci-fi, it's horror, it's erotica, a roadtrip, a hunt, a captivity and slavery tale...I think everyone should read it although it certainly is not for everyone. You will find all possible triggers: abduction, rape, violence and splatter, non-con a go-go, drugs, killing sprees, humiliation and degradation to no end, abuse of all kinds. All things that I usually don't favour nor look for - if not totally discard- in books and yet I loved every second of it. It also contains two gutpunching love stories, more or less twisted, personally debatable. It is graphic, it is explicit, it will throw you through the wringer and you won't be able to get out of it without finding or fighting your limits.
Earth becomes the prison and hunting ground of two humanoid aliens from Jota, just one of the many evolved civilizations out there in space. Kane is a slaver, a chemist and a smuggler on the run, Tagen is the Jotan Fleet officer sent after him in a practically suicide mission. The first is acquainted with English, our technology, the terrain, the way to control humans, which are nothing to him but a commodity to trade, sell, fuck, breed or break in case they disobey. The latter only knows humans as rescued, broken, unstable slaves, speaks more Spanish than English and arrives on Earth with the intel that the planet is still almost in prehistorical development. Kane is equipped, determined and resourceful, he's done it all before, even if not alone; Tagen on the other hand is frustrated, resentful, unprepared and insufficiently equipped, ending up in a much more vulnerable situation than the fugitive. The painful physiological phenomenon of the Jotan Heat is used as the motor of all the ensuing drama with the humans they both end up using, in their unique way.
Yes, a copper and criminal story but loosely so, they won't really interact with each others until the very end. For all leads, male and female, it is a veritable odissey that ends up finding a home and a reason in someone else.
As different as Kane and Tagen seem to be portrayed at first – one unabashedly sadistic, the other painfully tied to his role and the honour of his race – I found they were actually close. Through them Smith presents us a completely believable world, with no knitted family ties, extreme order, extreme punishments and, even with all its aspiration to being evoluted and just, a very cowardly-utilitaristic attitude toward weaker species being enslaved as long as it keeps the Jotans safe from harm. In essence, humans are seen as less than people by every party involved, openly or not. Kane and all other slave traders might be the perpetrators, but the Jotan elite attitude, paternalistic and indifferent, choosing often not to get 'dirty' actively defending humans, is just as bad. They might rescue humans, they just don't prevent their capture and they relegate to a sort of giant prison planet afterwards. This is typical Smith file rouge number one for me, how closely our social conundrums can be identified through the thickest sci-fi world building. From this world we get two male specimens, one cruel, manipulative, anapologetic killing machine, the other full of ideals and will to do the right thing, wrestling with his own conscience, a soldier used to serve, rescue, but also to kill. And yet, they both have symmetrical daddy issues, they both are, at least at the beginning, intrinsecally uninterested and uncapable of truly understanding what humans are, how our emotions factor in our actions and our minds work despite numerous previous contacts (although Kane will prove very apt to understand and control our base instincts), they both are capable of brutality and they both need human women to survive, couldn't make it without them. Seeing them struggle and coming to terms with foreign feelings of affection, love and need was majestic, even if gruesome at times.
The women of Heat, the women of this writer! Women, their essence, their position in society, their interactions with the other gender, how completely normal, every day women can face and survive all kinds of horrors, are probably the main theme running through her body of work. Jotan women are scarce and coveted, protected, needed, privileged in their sexual choices. Human women are...well, you know, nothing special, vexed, still fighting for basic rights in many places, sadly used to sexual politics. And yet, so goddamn strong too. Raven is the street-smart kid, adaptable, resourceful, an initial rebel without a cause, a thrill seeker. Sue-Eye is a captive of convenience, hardened by a life of abuse and servitude, pack mentality. Daria is a recluse, skittish, neurotical victim of an assault who will prove more determined and selfless than Tagen in the end. Self-deprecation and all. As all their layers peeled off during the story, I was equally horrified, proud, elated and angry at them. Because despite being action, sex and gore packed, this book reads like a theater play in two acts. Whenever Kane, Raven and Sue-Eye are on stage, everything is claustrophobic, violent, hectic and harmful; whenever we move to Tagen and Daria, the space is just as confining, the stifling tension always just below the surface waiting to explode, mounting, but there is also peace and slow understanding, blooming love. The description alone of the physical reactions of Tegan to the heat and Heat made me want to scratch my body open.
Why did I hate Sue-Eye so much? On paper I should have felt closer to her, starting from her childhood, and because Raven's little lies made her Kane's second captive. All her thoughts and actions, all her power machinations, her lies, her games, her quick and heartless complicity are completely true to the nature of someone used to fight for scraps and protection, a serie of fuckable holes. Kane's acute eye correctly assesses her as a true slave, with chains so beaten and fucked into her she only knows how to serve the biggest mean guy. She is hard and nasty all around, no aspirations, no qualms, no empathy. For all that she is scheming, she's not such a good judge of characters, too wrapped up in her own ways. She started blackmailing Raven and never thought about allying with her instead of fighting to be favourite. And I damn hated her because she was between Raven and Kane for a while...it simply twisted my guts till I couldn't breathe. I perversely enjoyed all the abuse she went through. Kane is mean, sure, though seldom just for kicks, she brought a lot of it on herself too never understanding what her real place was.
I doubted Raven quite a bit for a while. She was quick, forward-thinking, good at recognising dangers and keep herself relatively safe in every situation. Through all the shit she had to face, she kept part of her innocence, she held on to her sense of right and wrong, to her limits and shame. Till the very end, she endures all of Kane's killings disgusted by them, never ok with killing other humans. She does not want to hunt them or be directly responsible. She is helpful but only becomes a willing subordinate the very moment she choses him. And god how much I had to resist until she finally came out and grabbed him! Now, one might argue about Stockholm syndrome and how can you really choose in captivity etc. You can always choose something, to surrender or not, and she didn't fall head over heels for him, I don't think it's a case of syndrome. If anything, she sees him better and better for whom he is. Despite the terror Kane forced on both women, he was also very attentive and always attuned to Raven, sometimes completely the wrong way but still, quite considerate. He is aware of her all the time, she touches him even from a distance, he cuts through her mind with all he is. I felt her actually change day by day after having to step back due to her own little lies, endure Sue-Eye sicked on her body and watch Kane and Sue-Eye together. Once her body fully mends and her mind processes it all, her true personality comes forward. She fears him but misses him. We're not even talking love in a traditional way, but something much more instinctual: desire, belonging, possession, need. I physically needed her with Kane. It was not just her recognising Sue-Eye's little tricks and trying to save her position with Kane. She chose and that's where she came alive again. She's not meek, she's not weak. She gets what she wants and she's greedy when she wants. She really understood how Kane worked and actively started thinking at the skills she'd need in space with him. She becomes his with all her might. But he's hers just as much even if he'd never admit it in these terms, she matches his ferocity but also his ability to care and strategize, she is the only one who soothes him after his father, his need to mark and possess her is completely visceral and innate. The scenes where they both show jealousy and lose control are my favourite ones. Also...I would probably combust with utter fulfillment if Kane bejewelled me the same way he did Raven. But let's not beat around the bush, for her is extreme body mod without consent, quite painful. Yeah, possessive, objectifying bastard. I got issues, I know.
Daria could drive me to distraction sometimes. I so completely understood all her hang-ups, her fears, her paralysis, her self-loathing and her loneliness, her insecurity about her body, her scars and her femininity. I have scars too, not half that bad, and they just carve into your brain to your very core. Her cleaning obsession, her relationship with the room where all things from her ex were hidden, her growing emotional isolation were so relatable. She can be cynical, shy, easily flustered but she's strongheaded and determined. And in the end she's the one figuring out how and where to hunt for the fugitive, not the alpha alien soldier. Her internal struggles against irrational reactions and the constanct warring between her growing desires and comfort zone were perfectly portrayed, but she really couldn't have landed with anyone better than Tagen, home-invaded or not. His patience and respect were neverending, his will like steel, his stamina, his capacity for self-control, self-sacrifice, dedication and abuse just staggering. When she FINALLY gather her courage and makes him crack and surrender, I almost swallowed my iphone out of joy. Maybe their coming together contains some purple prose, I couldn't care less. Their slow, clumsy dance, their loving, connected and connecting sex is the needed counterpart to all the blood and rapes without being less intense or steamy. They are glorious together. They make each other better, they free each others from roles and limitations, force each other to choose what they really want for themselves. Safe some petrified silences where they both ruminated apart about the impending separation, they did not squander their love, they didn't belittle what they felt once they had acknowledged it. Tagen deserves all the same adoration he offers her.
All my reactions to Heat were visceral and out of control. Arousement, concern, fear, distress, rage, love...yeah, dozed in gasoline and set alight. And I found also reasons to laugh out loud, yes. Tagen getting obsessed with Law and Order and using it to improve his language skills? His speaking patterns? Score. Kane putting Raven to practice with the Jotan alphabet like a small child? Double Score. Aliens unfamiliar with the great art of oral sex and sex shops? Triple score! Daria's cat and how Kane thought a lobster was a big bug? Throw the confetti. Most of all, it was great to find out, once again, that our very human bodies and vaginas, with the fine squeezing our orgasms cause, are simply the greatest thing in the universe...I always thought so! Or that great advanced scientists are not sure what the liver is nor where it is placed in our body but a slaver does. Let's not forget how incredibly naive both Tagen and Kane can be at times, no matter how well trained they are, how big, strong and well-hung they are. I am really not a fan of misunderstandings and lies between the main characters, but in this book little lies and omissions work to build even more the angst, the dramatic changes and the pull in the couples. For instance, Raven silent confirmation about the 'seriousness' of her condition, ends up bringing Sue-Eye in her life, who will lie to Kane about it. And what is her condition? She has the period! Yes, folks, human men and aliens are all alike, just show them some blood and they lose their shit. Ok, Kane is surprisingly uninformed about it and I think he could have very easily found out about the phenomenon instead of believing the final version from Sue-Eye's silver tongue. He is not disgusted at least, just really concerned about Raven, scared shitless he might lose her. Still...it's just a freaking period, gullible much, my sadistic Kane? I wanted to smack his head! And Tagen, with his problems with humour and figures of speech, suble nuances, after all the damn Law and Orders he watched, shouldn't he be so much more suspicious of Raven's motives? Sometimes he's just blinded by all his good will, sometimes he's so endearing in his justice convictions and concern, so clueless about how to deal with women. Porn seems to be the main educational tools characters also in other books choose to use to find out about human sexuality. It is visual and solves the language barrier, I understand it, but it certainly warps things quite a bit for someone who can't distinguish it from the reality of intimate, not enacted sex. Smith would never leave cultural differences and communication untreated in her books, she's done it again. She had me wanting to learn the Jotan language.
I could go on forever picking things I loved in this book. The more it felt like a torture to my feelings, the more I fell for it. There are so many hard, hot, uncomfortable, passionate, absolutely memorable scenes...personally, I've had the pleasure/pain of seeing some of my biggest wants (and most hated fears/nightmares) embodied to perfection and I felt touched at all levels. Never expect to be put at ease by this author, be ready to confront your dreads, you desires, your biases, your kinks, your certainties, your disgusts. You will feel dirty, degraded, horrified and adored, covered in blood or acceptance. What's not to love??
***********************************************
INITIAL REVIEW
I...don't even know how I feel right now...I had to stop reading so many times for so many reasons, emotional and not, that it feels unreal now I am actually done...I fucking loved it...yes I am sick, even more aware of it, I just loved it. Full review as soon as I manage to wrestle Kane out of me, if ever...
March 15, 2014
"Heat" has been called sci-fi romance and/or dark erotica. For me, it was sci-fi and horror with romantic elements. This book is not for everybody, but for those willing to brave the rape, harvesting of brain chemicals, and extreme biker gang culture...then you may appreciate the gifts R. Lee Smith displays in this dark story.
The world-building was my favorite part of the writing . I loved the imagination detailed in the alien culture, particularly the 'good' alien's home planet's norms - they live in a matriarchal society and government. Also, their perceptions of the human race and the reasons for never making contact are not unexpected but the conversation is still engaging. Human origins is also broached. If you love sci-fi films you won't be surprised by some of these revelations.
The characterizations were fabulous! This is including the bad character, too! I was happy with one resolution, but another was not to my satisfaction. I was pissed (angry) about one character's actions and consequences. Penance...atonement...redemption...I was not satisfied...at all.
The pacing was great until the last 25% or so, where it started to drag. There is gratuitous violence. One scene in particular pushed into my comfort zone. (What was the point? Where was the 'full circle' for this incident?) It was a decisive moment for me regarding one character.
The detail accorded to technology, alien physiology, and alien language/culture - even between space pirate and a planet's enforcer - made my inner Sci-fi fangirl sit up and absorb all the delicious world-building! On a side note: I have noticed, especially after reading The Last Hour of Gann (Great book!), that the human heroines have the power of the BJ on their side. Heh. When I read Cottonwood I will know if it's a common occurance in Smith's writing. [Note after reading Cottonwood: It is not common.]
AA group read - May 15
[Searock flaked out on me, along with Michelle, who after reading Gann will give this book another try. I believe it was the brutality (rape, cracked brains) that led them to drop the book. Good luck, Michelle!]
The world-building was my favorite part of the writing . I loved the imagination detailed in the alien culture, particularly the 'good' alien's home planet's norms - they live in a matriarchal society and government. Also, their perceptions of the human race and the reasons for never making contact are not unexpected but the conversation is still engaging. Human origins is also broached. If you love sci-fi films you won't be surprised by some of these revelations.
The characterizations were fabulous! This is including the bad character, too! I was happy with one resolution, but another was not to my satisfaction. I was pissed (angry) about one character's actions and consequences. Penance...atonement...redemption...I was not satisfied...at all.
The pacing was great until the last 25% or so, where it started to drag. There is gratuitous violence. One scene in particular pushed into my comfort zone. (What was the point? Where was the 'full circle' for this incident?) It was a decisive moment for me regarding one character.
The detail accorded to technology, alien physiology, and alien language/culture - even between space pirate and a planet's enforcer - made my inner Sci-fi fangirl sit up and absorb all the delicious world-building! On a side note: I have noticed, especially after reading The Last Hour of Gann (Great book!), that the human heroines have the power of the BJ on their side. Heh. When I read Cottonwood I will know if it's a common occurance in Smith's writing. [Note after reading Cottonwood: It is not common.]
AA group read - May 15
[Searock flaked out on me, along with Michelle, who after reading Gann will give this book another try. I believe it was the brutality (rape, cracked brains) that led them to drop the book. Good luck, Michelle!]
March 4, 2012
I don't usually like to leave negative reviews, but this book is getting so many raves, I feel compelled to jump into the fray for the benefit of potential readers.
Let me say first that I read Heat all the way through, and while, like many readers, I found it well written and compulsively readable, I also found it horrifying. It was more of a serial killer chronicle than a love story, and the violence so overwhelmed the tender elements that all I really remember now, with a cold clenching in my gut, is the sadistic rape, torture and killing.
Kane was a sociopath from beginning to end, leaving a trail of dead human beings behind him like so many crushed beer cans after a joy ride. I liked and admired Raven, but ultimately I was disappointed in her. And to say I was dissatisfied with their ending would be an understatement of heroic proportions.
Tagen was admirable, but forgettable. I do remember Daria, and I empathized with her all the way through, which is the only thing that saves this book from getting a single star from me.
The plot itself was interesting, and the world-building credible, but I believe the story could easily have been told in half the words or less and still been every bit as chilling. I felt deeply disturbed after being immersed in cold-blooded violence for so many pages.
Heat is an excellent depiction of a completely selfish, utterly amoral being who indulges in extreme sadism for amusement's sake, so if that's what you're looking for, you've totally found it. Buy away. But the very last place I would file this book is on my Romance shelf, so be warned, romance readers -- the warm fuzzies to be had here are purely incidental to the horror.
Let me say first that I read Heat all the way through, and while, like many readers, I found it well written and compulsively readable, I also found it horrifying. It was more of a serial killer chronicle than a love story, and the violence so overwhelmed the tender elements that all I really remember now, with a cold clenching in my gut, is the sadistic rape, torture and killing.
Kane was a sociopath from beginning to end, leaving a trail of dead human beings behind him like so many crushed beer cans after a joy ride. I liked and admired Raven, but ultimately I was disappointed in her. And to say I was dissatisfied with their ending would be an understatement of heroic proportions.
Tagen was admirable, but forgettable. I do remember Daria, and I empathized with her all the way through, which is the only thing that saves this book from getting a single star from me.
The plot itself was interesting, and the world-building credible, but I believe the story could easily have been told in half the words or less and still been every bit as chilling. I felt deeply disturbed after being immersed in cold-blooded violence for so many pages.
Heat is an excellent depiction of a completely selfish, utterly amoral being who indulges in extreme sadism for amusement's sake, so if that's what you're looking for, you've totally found it. Buy away. But the very last place I would file this book is on my Romance shelf, so be warned, romance readers -- the warm fuzzies to be had here are purely incidental to the horror.
February 8, 2017
I can say that I ended up skimming through the 'vanilla' couple Daria and Tagen's story but didn't skip a moment of Kane and Raven's exploits.
Wow, what an epic read. I seriously wanted the 'bad guy' to have his HEA so kudos to R. Lee Smith.
Other reviewers have shared the story outline, all I can say is to check my tags and if you like this kind of dark erotica, you'll really like this tale and if you don't, stay far away. This is 617 pages, a real investment in time.
Wow, what an epic read. I seriously wanted the 'bad guy' to have his HEA so kudos to R. Lee Smith.
Other reviewers have shared the story outline, all I can say is to check my tags and if you like this kind of dark erotica, you'll really like this tale and if you don't, stay far away. This is 617 pages, a real investment in time.
January 19, 2015
For those that read Last Hour of Gann, then you kind of know what to expect from this book - although it's different. It's extremely violent. There is relentless rape. I know, I know. This author does not shy away from brutal things.
But this book worked for me. This author has an amazing voice. I could not put it down. I will think about it for a very long time.
The end totally surprised me.
I will read anything this author writes.
Fans of Gann, I rec you read this. :)
But this book worked for me. This author has an amazing voice. I could not put it down. I will think about it for a very long time.
The end totally surprised me.
I will read anything this author writes.
Fans of Gann, I rec you read this. :)
April 10, 2013
4.5 rounded up.
Sheeew! Finally made it through this one. Not only was it seriously intense, it was freaking long. I guess it would have to be since it was two "romances" in one. I use that word for a lack of a better one.
This is a scifi-horror-fetish-type story about an alien (Jotan) slaver, Kane, who comes to Earth to harvest dopamine from humans in order to manufacture alien drugs that will fund his need for a ship and crew. He has stolen an unarmed police cruiser and is on the run after his father was captured and killed during a raid. Kane is pretty effing evil and does everything from rape to murder, but I still found myself rooting for him. I know that sounds awful, but I'm sure we're suppose to. There are little snatches here and there that shows that he's not all bad, despite all the gruesome criminal activity. Despite coming to Earth with the intent of murdering untold numbers of humans, he still manages to find and become attached to a little gothic chick, Raven, who takes Stockholm Syndrome and runs with it.
The second part of the story is about the Jotan cop, Tagen, who has followed Kane to Earth in order to capture him and send him to prison. Tagen is painfully straight-laced and by-the-book, as polar opposite to Kane as you can get. I'm sure he's the one most readers don't have mixed feelings about supporting. (Well...maybe. I'm sure I'm not the only WTFery-uber-alpha loving, trainwreck-whore out there ;D. Though this isn't just a trainwreck, it's wholy insane). He reluctantly has to capture his own human, Daria, who happens to be a beautiful but damaged neurotic agoraphobic who ends up befriending him and helping him catch his criminal (and helping him with his own biological necessities).
Kane's side of the story was the most interesting and unbelievably crazy, but I ended up being invested in each part of the story as relationships develop and each couple dealt with their own issues. And, in my opinion, both halves of the story came to a satisfying end.
If you're sensitive and easily squicked out, stay far away from this story. This is not really a romance. There's some serious violence and atrocities that will horrify many a gentle reader. But if you like your erotica mixed with a bit of horror (ok, a lot of horror), then this might be to your liking.
Sheeew! Finally made it through this one. Not only was it seriously intense, it was freaking long. I guess it would have to be since it was two "romances" in one. I use that word for a lack of a better one.
This is a scifi-horror-fetish-type story about an alien (Jotan) slaver, Kane, who comes to Earth to harvest dopamine from humans in order to manufacture alien drugs that will fund his need for a ship and crew. He has stolen an unarmed police cruiser and is on the run after his father was captured and killed during a raid. Kane is pretty effing evil and does everything from rape to murder, but I still found myself rooting for him. I know that sounds awful, but I'm sure we're suppose to. There are little snatches here and there that shows that he's not all bad, despite all the gruesome criminal activity. Despite coming to Earth with the intent of murdering untold numbers of humans, he still manages to find and become attached to a little gothic chick, Raven, who takes Stockholm Syndrome and runs with it.
The second part of the story is about the Jotan cop, Tagen, who has followed Kane to Earth in order to capture him and send him to prison. Tagen is painfully straight-laced and by-the-book, as polar opposite to Kane as you can get. I'm sure he's the one most readers don't have mixed feelings about supporting. (Well...maybe. I'm sure I'm not the only WTFery-uber-alpha loving, trainwreck-whore out there ;D. Though this isn't just a trainwreck, it's wholy insane). He reluctantly has to capture his own human, Daria, who happens to be a beautiful but damaged neurotic agoraphobic who ends up befriending him and helping him catch his criminal (and helping him with his own biological necessities).
Kane's side of the story was the most interesting and unbelievably crazy, but I ended up being invested in each part of the story as relationships develop and each couple dealt with their own issues. And, in my opinion, both halves of the story came to a satisfying end.
If you're sensitive and easily squicked out, stay far away from this story. This is not really a romance. There's some serious violence and atrocities that will horrify many a gentle reader. But if you like your erotica mixed with a bit of horror (ok, a lot of horror), then this might be to your liking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2012
My thanks to Jane Litte for mentioning this book on Twitter.
Once I started reading this book, I read it straight through and MAN is it long. I had to charge my Kindle half way thru.
This book contains many violent scenes. Torture. Rape. Mutiliation. There are two main "romances" - one more traditional (if you ignore the drug Tagen gives her at the beginning to make her more compliant - but he never rapes her) and one so twisted and horrible and yet so compelling I can't even say much here without spoiling the book. The ending, OH, the ending! Wow. I'm still thinking about it. Despite the horrors Kane commits, I found myself going out to Amazon and searching for another book with him. (There is none to my knowledge.)
He's worse than Riddick in Pitch Black, folks, so if you've ever thought about romance for the anti-hero in the worst way, this is the book for you.
I did get tired of Daria's "I'm sorry" moaning and carrying on for way too long (I would have definitely cut some of that out) but she was still an interesting character. I loved her compulsive cleaning habits. I also thought Tagen played the dumb but good cop too long and in the end, I had to cheer for Kane too. The whole "what, you have a map?!?" made me roll my eyes, but in the whole scheme, it was a minor irritation.
I loved the way Smith used Kane and Tagen to illustrate both sides of Jota. Not just the black and white site either. Tagen might have been the good guy doing the right thing, but he made mistakes, he had poor judgement at times, and the "good" aliens were not wholly good. The slaver/murderer was not wholly bad (when he thinks Raven's dying because of her period - it was priceless, funny, but so touching too and played perfectly to his backstory). I even enjoyed the old slaver's (his father) narrative through Kane's thoughts.
Really great depth, compelling characters, superb worldbuilding details. But don't read if you're squeamish about rape and torture.
Once I started reading this book, I read it straight through and MAN is it long. I had to charge my Kindle half way thru.
This book contains many violent scenes. Torture. Rape. Mutiliation. There are two main "romances" - one more traditional (if you ignore the drug Tagen gives her at the beginning to make her more compliant - but he never rapes her) and one so twisted and horrible and yet so compelling I can't even say much here without spoiling the book. The ending, OH, the ending! Wow. I'm still thinking about it. Despite the horrors Kane commits, I found myself going out to Amazon and searching for another book with him. (There is none to my knowledge.)
He's worse than Riddick in Pitch Black, folks, so if you've ever thought about romance for the anti-hero in the worst way, this is the book for you.
I did get tired of Daria's "I'm sorry" moaning and carrying on for way too long (I would have definitely cut some of that out) but she was still an interesting character. I loved her compulsive cleaning habits. I also thought Tagen played the dumb but good cop too long and in the end, I had to cheer for Kane too. The whole "what, you have a map?!?" made me roll my eyes, but in the whole scheme, it was a minor irritation.
I loved the way Smith used Kane and Tagen to illustrate both sides of Jota. Not just the black and white site either. Tagen might have been the good guy doing the right thing, but he made mistakes, he had poor judgement at times, and the "good" aliens were not wholly good. The slaver/murderer was not wholly bad (when he thinks Raven's dying because of her period - it was priceless, funny, but so touching too and played perfectly to his backstory). I even enjoyed the old slaver's (his father) narrative through Kane's thoughts.
Really great depth, compelling characters, superb worldbuilding details. But don't read if you're squeamish about rape and torture.
December 25, 2022
Well, I can't say I enjoyed this. Not really at all. I'm proud of myself for finishing another of this authors books and I will say, they are talented beyond a doubt. I truly mean it. Two things kept me reading and the author's skill was 1 of them.
However... I think I am cementing that erotic horror is NOT my jam. I see why it's compelling for sure. And again, mad respect to this author because I felt a lot of these same qualities in Land of the Beautiful Dead. But that one I just... I liked the hero more. He was bad but I understood him in ways that Kane just turned me off completely.
I was actively upset during most of this book and my angst vs HEA balance was completely off its rocker for this one.
So take my rating with a grain of salt, I read 90% for enjoyment and there was very little to enjoy for me. So this is where I'm at.
I did like Tagen, Daria and the cat and I was rooting for them to get the serial killing psycho alien.. unfortunately, the serial killer was a hero too?! And him getting an HEA with his brainwashed slave was... the straw that broke me. Fuck that guy.
2.5 stars
5 on the spice scale (it IS erotic)
CW: too many to count but the worst for me were: forced body modification. Murder of humans (all ages), rape, and much more.
However... I think I am cementing that erotic horror is NOT my jam. I see why it's compelling for sure. And again, mad respect to this author because I felt a lot of these same qualities in Land of the Beautiful Dead. But that one I just... I liked the hero more. He was bad but I understood him in ways that Kane just turned me off completely.
I was actively upset during most of this book and my angst vs HEA balance was completely off its rocker for this one.
So take my rating with a grain of salt, I read 90% for enjoyment and there was very little to enjoy for me. So this is where I'm at.
I did like Tagen, Daria and the cat and I was rooting for them to get the serial killing psycho alien.. unfortunately, the serial killer was a hero too?! And him getting an HEA with his brainwashed slave was... the straw that broke me. Fuck that guy.
2.5 stars
5 on the spice scale (it IS erotic)
CW: too many to count but the worst for me were: forced body modification. Murder of humans (all ages), rape, and much more.
December 6, 2012
A definite walk on the wild side of science fiction. This ones chock full of non-con, dub-con, non-con body modification, kidnap, rape, blood-n-gore, drug trafficking, aliens in heat... as well as super sweet romantical stuff that usually makes me cringe. Ha.
My thoughts? Raven is the baddest-ass human ever. BADASS.
To the end.
Speaking of the end. The way this ended made all the long, drawn out, little bit boring and repetitive parts worth while. Incredible!
The uber-sweet love story goes to the cop, the psycho twisted S/M love match is visited upon the drug dealer. You have no idea how much fun this is bouncing between the two for 600 odd pages! Not even kidding. And a freaking cat. I hate cats. Why would I be cheering for a cat named Grendel? This book made me crazy, that's why.
*Alie38 made me do it, an I loved it*
;P
My thoughts? Raven is the baddest-ass human ever. BADASS.
To the end.
Speaking of the end. The way this ended made all the long, drawn out, little bit boring and repetitive parts worth while. Incredible!
The uber-sweet love story goes to the cop, the psycho twisted S/M love match is visited upon the drug dealer. You have no idea how much fun this is bouncing between the two for 600 odd pages! Not even kidding. And a freaking cat. I hate cats. Why would I be cheering for a cat named Grendel? This book made me crazy, that's why.
*Alie38 made me do it, an I loved it*
;P
May 16, 2019
So.... not one the higher rated books by this author i see. But I personally really liked it. 4.5 rounding up to 5. Could not put it down.
Kane has to be the truest villain there ever was. Unredeemable. And I couldn’t help but love him. If you’ve read this; don’t judge me! Also, if you read this and loved him too; haaaaay 😉
Tagen is a good foil. He brings you back from the dark side and reminds you of what goodness is.
I both loved and hated the back and forth. I would get so invested in one story line and then it’d switch to the other one and it’d start all over again.
Kane has to be the truest villain there ever was. Unredeemable. And I couldn’t help but love him. If you’ve read this; don’t judge me! Also, if you read this and loved him too; haaaaay 😉
Tagen is a good foil. He brings you back from the dark side and reminds you of what goodness is.
I both loved and hated the back and forth. I would get so invested in one story line and then it’d switch to the other one and it’d start all over again.
October 1, 2014
I see why this book was all the rage. Or at least I see the seeds of such passion. Unfortunately for me, the book never went beyond potentially-really-good-if-only.
I loved half of it, while the other half bored me to death. An uncaring evil like Kane needed a good counterbalance, while Tegan was dumber than a brick. He went beyond the stick-to-the-regulations soldier. He really was dumb. And his lady was even worse, so weak, so whiny. Dumb and dumber or stupid and stupider. Can't decide how to name this couple. Never for a moment I was able to relate to Daria, her back story sounded false to me. Like something I was told, but never felt. She could have come out of her "tragedy" a better woman, but she came out a stupid victim. And stupid and dumb are the only adjectives I can think about them. So the end was a particular cluster-fuck for me, as it was purely luck.
And this bring me to the second point. The other half missing wasn't only in the character development, but in plot too. Yes, this is a romance, kinda, but it's a romance set in to a "detective" plot, into a chase. The problem was: there's no chase. Tagen, never the brightest in the litter, does absolutely nothing to catch his prey. It's simply unbelievable. He's not even suffering from heat at the beginning, but he simply unable to think. Up to 70% of this long, long book, the cop spends his time sleeping or watching TV. Yep, that exciting. Nope.
But then around 60% I had started skipping all the Tagen-Daria time, and from that moment forward I skim-read all their page time.
Overall it was an interesting, if way too long, read, but not one I loved or I will recommend. There's no part of it I'm even thinking of re-reading (I do read again some parts of TLHoG.)
The epilogue to me seemed completely full of holes, plot-wise.
I loved half of it, while the other half bored me to death. An uncaring evil like Kane needed a good counterbalance, while Tegan was dumber than a brick. He went beyond the stick-to-the-regulations soldier. He really was dumb. And his lady was even worse, so weak, so whiny. Dumb and dumber or stupid and stupider. Can't decide how to name this couple. Never for a moment I was able to relate to Daria, her back story sounded false to me. Like something I was told, but never felt. She could have come out of her "tragedy" a better woman, but she came out a stupid victim. And stupid and dumb are the only adjectives I can think about them. So the end was a particular cluster-fuck for me, as it was purely luck.
And this bring me to the second point. The other half missing wasn't only in the character development, but in plot too. Yes, this is a romance, kinda, but it's a romance set in to a "detective" plot, into a chase. The problem was: there's no chase. Tagen, never the brightest in the litter, does absolutely nothing to catch his prey. It's simply unbelievable. He's not even suffering from heat at the beginning, but he simply unable to think. Up to 70% of this long, long book, the cop spends his time sleeping or watching TV. Yep, that exciting. Nope.
But then around 60% I had started skipping all the Tagen-Daria time, and from that moment forward I skim-read all their page time.
Overall it was an interesting, if way too long, read, but not one I loved or I will recommend. There's no part of it I'm even thinking of re-reading (I do read again some parts of TLHoG.)
The epilogue to me seemed completely full of holes, plot-wise.
February 4, 2023
As with most of Smith's books I enjoyed reading this, but I am completely conflicted about the fact that I did.
There are a lot of dark themes going on in this book , and a lot going on story wise- with two male leads and two female leads stories happening at the same time.
Basically it's about two male aliens that have landed on Earth. One is a criminal drug dealer/trafficker that has fled to our world in order to make drugs out of...well basically humans. The other is an alien officer who was tasked with locating and arresting him.
The major problem for these two is that they have landed on our planet during a particularly warm summer and the heat causes them to go into Heat. It is usually only a short occasional time on their planet that makes the aliens ready for mating more or less- so having landed on a world with months of scorching weather makes things dangerous for any woman in their path.
These woman are both going through their own shit too. One heroine is a homeless young adult that is addicted to drugs and has been hitching rides cross country while paying her way with favors. The other woman is pretty much an agoraphobic with OCD tendencies that has isolated herself in her own house after a traumatic event that has left her completely closed off.
Everybody's a mess and the storyline is crazy.
x------------------------------------------x
So yeah this book can get a little twisty in the relationships and romances which can make the read difficult at times. Buuutttt....I'll also be honest with the fact that I liked reading Kane and Raven's fucked up 'relationship' more. Hence my conflict- because Kane and Raven are both messed up in different ways- but simultaneously fantastically complicated characters.
So can I recommend? I don't know.. but I will say I have re-read this more than once.
There are a lot of dark themes going on in this book , and a lot going on story wise- with two male leads and two female leads stories happening at the same time.
Basically it's about two male aliens that have landed on Earth. One is a criminal drug dealer/trafficker that has fled to our world in order to make drugs out of...well basically humans. The other is an alien officer who was tasked with locating and arresting him.
The major problem for these two is that they have landed on our planet during a particularly warm summer and the heat causes them to go into Heat. It is usually only a short occasional time on their planet that makes the aliens ready for mating more or less- so having landed on a world with months of scorching weather makes things dangerous for any woman in their path.
These woman are both going through their own shit too. One heroine is a homeless young adult that is addicted to drugs and has been hitching rides cross country while paying her way with favors. The other woman is pretty much an agoraphobic with OCD tendencies that has isolated herself in her own house after a traumatic event that has left her completely closed off.
Everybody's a mess and the storyline is crazy.
x------------------------------------------x
So yeah this book can get a little twisty in the relationships and romances which can make the read difficult at times. Buuutttt....I'll also be honest with the fact that I liked reading Kane and Raven's fucked up 'relationship' more. Hence my conflict- because Kane and Raven are both messed up in different ways- but simultaneously fantastically complicated characters.
So can I recommend? I don't know.. but I will say I have re-read this more than once.
April 27, 2015
This was one of the worst books I have ever read.
I had just read The Last Hour of Gann by the same author and though it had some bad moments, it was ultimately a thoughtful and deeply satisfying read. So even though I had heard some not-so-great things about this book, I decided to try it out. Big mistake.
Nothing could have prepared me for this book. It was chock full of rape, murder and every evil in between. Described over and over. It was like a dare from the author to keep reading, like a child's game to see who would blink first.
The weak plot did nothing to distract from the gruesomeness of it all. A super cop comes to earth to catch a super criminal and all they do is f*ck from morning till night with the stupid heat as a handy excuse. The "villain" spends his time showing us just how badly women can be degraded and the hero spends his time taking showers and rubbing ice all over his muscly chest when he's not masturbating in the hopes that the "heroine" will finally come to her senses and put him out of his misery. No detecting gets done at all and in the end the villain is caught by sheer luck.
Taegen and Lindaria were weak and uninteresting. While Kane who was originally intriguing, quickly devolved into a parody, a nightmare creature whose actions were strictly there for the shock value. Raven was another mindfuck of a character, who lost her sympathy very early on. I won't go into the outlandishness that was Sue-Eye.
This book was a waste of time. Time spent reading novels, for me, is precious time. Escape and wish-fulfillment time. For a book as long as this one was, I felt cheated at the very unsatisfying end.
I think I need a break from novels for awhile. I need a brain cleanse. Maybe I'll spend time watching my favorite sitcoms. Or see my therapist.
Horrible book. Recommended to no one.
I had just read The Last Hour of Gann by the same author and though it had some bad moments, it was ultimately a thoughtful and deeply satisfying read. So even though I had heard some not-so-great things about this book, I decided to try it out. Big mistake.
Nothing could have prepared me for this book. It was chock full of rape, murder and every evil in between. Described over and over. It was like a dare from the author to keep reading, like a child's game to see who would blink first.
The weak plot did nothing to distract from the gruesomeness of it all. A super cop comes to earth to catch a super criminal and all they do is f*ck from morning till night with the stupid heat as a handy excuse. The "villain" spends his time showing us just how badly women can be degraded and the hero spends his time taking showers and rubbing ice all over his muscly chest when he's not masturbating in the hopes that the "heroine" will finally come to her senses and put him out of his misery. No detecting gets done at all and in the end the villain is caught by sheer luck.
Taegen and Lindaria were weak and uninteresting. While Kane who was originally intriguing, quickly devolved into a parody, a nightmare creature whose actions were strictly there for the shock value. Raven was another mindfuck of a character, who lost her sympathy very early on. I won't go into the outlandishness that was Sue-Eye.
This book was a waste of time. Time spent reading novels, for me, is precious time. Escape and wish-fulfillment time. For a book as long as this one was, I felt cheated at the very unsatisfying end.
I think I need a break from novels for awhile. I need a brain cleanse. Maybe I'll spend time watching my favorite sitcoms. Or see my therapist.
Horrible book. Recommended to no one.
June 4, 2013
One "alien" comes to earth on a criminal mission. Another follows to apprehend him for his crimes. They are both here during an intense period of their biological make-up. Total mayhem occurs.
LOVED IT. In fact, I think this might be the best thing I've read in a long time, and that's saying something because I've read quite a few 5-star books back-to-back. I read for entertainment and THIS one entertained me from beginning to end. BUT BE CAUTIONED!!! That is not to say this is a book that I would recommend to everyone. You have to be able to deal with extreme violence and explicit sex scenes to enjoy this. It's totally off-the-wall, as in, it takes a HIGH leap off the wall and smashes into mountainous cliffs below. That works for me. The characters and stories are compelling and like nothing I'd read before.
I love how the author pulled this together and did not tap dance around any scenes. I rate books like this as "hardcore", not just for mature readers, and not for just for adults. You have to be able to stomach this. No matter how crass, R. Lee Smith went there. I had several sleepless nights because I was addicted to this story. I wondered what was going to happen to each alien next, and how they were going to cross paths. I pulled some hair out wondering how it was all going to wrap up in the end. The ending did not disappoint.
Surprisingly, with all the horror written in this book, it's actually TWO love stories in one. And it's long. All those pages and not one dull moment. Encore. Encore.
More like this, please.
LOVED IT. In fact, I think this might be the best thing I've read in a long time, and that's saying something because I've read quite a few 5-star books back-to-back. I read for entertainment and THIS one entertained me from beginning to end. BUT BE CAUTIONED!!! That is not to say this is a book that I would recommend to everyone. You have to be able to deal with extreme violence and explicit sex scenes to enjoy this. It's totally off-the-wall, as in, it takes a HIGH leap off the wall and smashes into mountainous cliffs below. That works for me. The characters and stories are compelling and like nothing I'd read before.
I love how the author pulled this together and did not tap dance around any scenes. I rate books like this as "hardcore", not just for mature readers, and not for just for adults. You have to be able to stomach this. No matter how crass, R. Lee Smith went there. I had several sleepless nights because I was addicted to this story. I wondered what was going to happen to each alien next, and how they were going to cross paths. I pulled some hair out wondering how it was all going to wrap up in the end. The ending did not disappoint.
Surprisingly, with all the horror written in this book, it's actually TWO love stories in one. And it's long. All those pages and not one dull moment. Encore. Encore.
More like this, please.
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