Review of Hope's Folly

	Hope's Folly by Linnea Sinclair 448pp (Paperback) My Rating: 7/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.17/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.47/5

Hope's Folly by Linnea Sinclair is the third science fiction romance novel set in the Dock 5/Gabriel's Ghost Universe. The first two books, Gabriel's Ghost and Shades of Dark, are closely connected and focus on the adventures of former Fleet Captain Chaz Bergren and Gabriel Sullivan. Hope's Folly takes place after the first two novels and does refer to previous events but it only mentions Chaz and Sullivan. The stars of this story are Philip Guthrie, Chaz's ex-husband who appeared in both previous books, and Rya Bennton. This could work as a stand alone book, particularly since references to previous events are explained, but I highly recommend reading the first two books first, beginning with Gabriel's Ghost. Familiarity with events in the first two books and Philip's character thus far is best, and personally, I much prefer the darkness and complexity of the first two books to this lighter novel.

Although he was a respected admiral in the Fleet, forty-five year old Philip Guthrie is now a rebel hunted by the Empire due to his opposition to their dastardly deeds. He's still recovering from an injury, but there is no rest for the weary when you're the target of the head of an evil intergalactic empire. So Philip gathers a crew that is not technically large enough to run the only ship he can afford, the archaic Hope's Folly. Although the ship is not in the best shape, Philip soon wonders if difficulty with getting it functioning could be caused by a traitor in their midst.

In addition these problems, Philip has another concern - his new security guard Rya Bennton, the daughter of a good friend who recently died in one of Philip's missions. Rya, who is sixteen years younger than he, has had a crush on Philip since she first met him at 10 years old. At the time, Philip thought her an annoying little brat but now he's seeing her in a new - and very attractive - light. After his relationship with Chaz deteriorated, Philip believes he's not fit for a relationship, especially with a woman young enough to be his niece. Rya adores Philip but believes he could never care for a woman who needs to lose about 30 pounds.

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Hope's Folly is much lighter than its two predecessors, which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially after just how dark the last book was. My personal preference is to read about complex characters and relationships, sinister events, mystical powers, and hard choices, though, and for that reason I much prefer the first two books. Chaz and Sully are more interesting to me than Rya and Philip, although I do love Philip. I liked him in Shades of Dark, but I was a little worried he wouldn't be able to carry a whole book for me since he's much more stable and normal than Sully. My concerns were unfounded, though, and I enjoyed reading the sections of the book told from his perspective more than Rya's. Rya was likable but also very impetuous and I found it harder to relate to her tendency to rush into danger without thinking than Chaz's tendency to analyze a situation first, although I definitely think it is great that Sinclair does not just write the same characters over and over again.

After Philip and Rya, my favorite character was Captain Folly, whom the ship was named for. When the little girl Hope died, she left behind her pet cat Folly and the ship was only available at a good price if he continued to live on it. Folly ended up being important to the story and I have a real soft spot for cats.

Like the first two books, this novel contains a great balance between romance and adventure. It is a love story (and a predictable one at that), but there is still plenty of action and intrigue. Rya and Philip both love their weapons and neither lacks courage so they manage to get into plenty of treacherous situations. If one is getting tired of reading about characters and relationships, it won't be long before the pace picks up again.

One complaint I did have was how Rya always thought of Philip as her "Always Forever Dream Hero." The first time I gagged a little but by the hundredth time this was mentioned, I wanted to puke. (I did have one other BIG complaint. However, to avoid spoilers, I will not discuss it here.)

Hope's Folly is a fun romantic space opera with a little bit of everything - mystery, adventure, and some likable characters. It is very different from the first two installments in this series, but it is worth reading if you have read Gabriel's Ghost and Shades of Dark.

7/10

Read an excerpt

Other Reviews:
The Book Smugglers
Lurv a la Mode

Hope's Folly Is Out Today/Update

Hope's Folly, the third book in Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five series, is out today. The copy I pre-ordered is now on its way! This one is about Philip instead of Chaz and Sully. As much as I liked Philip, I'm a little worried he'll be too normal and uncomplicated to carry a whole book for me (which is why I preferred Gabriel's Ghost/Shades of Dark over An Accidental Goddess - the characters in the latter were much more normal with fewer complicated, darker issues than the former). Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Over the weekend, I started a review on Catherine Asaro's The Charmed Sphere, the first book in The Misted Cliff fantasy series. It looks like I may not have a lot of time to make progress on it this week, unfortunately - but I'm hoping I'm wrong about that. The next books in the review queue after that one are:

• Watchmen by Alan Moore (had to read this before the movie came out)
• A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
• Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (I'm about halfway through this one now and really enjoying it now that it's gotten going)

After Moon Called, I'll be starting Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower in preparation for the March Blogger Book Club.

Review of An Accidental Goddess

	An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair 464pp (Paperback) My Rating: 6/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 3.95/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.54/5

An Accidental Goddess is a science fiction romance novel by Linnea Sinclair. It is a far future sequel to Wintertide, which I did not know until after reading this one. An Accidental Goddess is self-contained and makes perfect sense read on its own, though. I read this book right after Gabriel's Ghost and Shades of Dark because I loved those two so much that I wanted to read more by Linnea Sinclair. However, as entertaining as An Accidental Goddess was, I thought the storyline and characters in the other two books were more complex and intriguing.

Gillie Davre, Raheiran Special Forces captain, awakens in a space station 342 years after her last memory, in which her ship was being attacked. That does not faze her nearly as much as the discovery that sometime during that 342 years, she was ordained a goddess by the Khalar. Her elevation was due to the "Sacred Sacrifice" she made in the fight against the enemy, the Fav'lhir - an act believed to have resulted in her death. In addition to being the savior of the Khalar, Gillie is also part of the mageline, meaning she has telepathic powers that seem godlike to the Khalar. Many of the facts about Gillie have been forgotten, leaving a lot of myths that Gillie is not comfortable with. Since she does not want to interfere with a people's long held religious tradition, she determines to hide her identity the best she can.

Soon after awakening in sick bay, Gillie meets Admiral Rynan Mackarian, known as "Mack." The practical Mack immediately falls for beautiful Gillie and her lavender-green eyes, even though he initially fears she may be a smuggler. Gillie likes Mack as well but is finding it difficult to get close to him while constantly lying to hide her identity and the truth about how she ended up on the space station. Soon she uncovers a plot by her old enemy the Fav'lhir and may be the only one who can save the people of Khalar once again.

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An Accidental Goddess is a light, somewhat humorous story and the pages flew by, but I just did not connect with it the same way as Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five books. It might not be fair to compare this one to the two Dock Five books, but I can't help it since I read this one after enjoying those ones. I really wanted to read more books like those and this book was very different. That's not at all a bad thing since reading about the same basic characters and the same basic plot would get boring. I just found I did not love any of the characters nearly as much as the ones from the other books and this one did not resonate with me the same way. It was a much simpler story, not as dark, and very predictable.

The fun-loving, down to earth Gillie is likable enough. Being ordained as a goddess did not go to her head at all - in fact, she was quite horrified to find a shrine dedicated to her, thinking a pub built in her honor would be more appropriate. She was too good for my taste, though. Gillie's powers are used for unselfish reasons, such as helping others or defeating the bad guys. The consequences of holding great power was not a struggle for her. Her big problem was that her powers were glorified and I find it more interesting to read about such awesome abilities being demonized, or at least having some sort of big dilemma involved. Gillie could still get herself into trouble but it tended to be for all the right reasons.

Mack, the typical nice guy, was also a bit too upright for me. He's a very efficient, hard-working man who is the youngest admiral in the Khalaran Fleet, at 43. He had realistic struggles such as worrying about Gillie falling for a younger, more fit man, but overall, he did not have any huge quandaries. He was very realistic as an overall good person with minor human issues, but I prefer reading about people who are more complicated with a morally gray side.

The story itself was straightforward played out very much as expected. The idea of not only waking up in the future but waking up to find a whole people worshipped you was interesting initially but I felt it was a bit drawn out. It was mainly used as a humorous plot device as Gillie kept getting herself into funny situations.

An Accidental Goddess is an entertaining, straightforward story with some romance and humor. It's a good book, but I would recommend Linnea Sinclair newbies looking for something a little less light start with Gabriel's Ghost instead.

6/10

Other Reviews:

• BookSpot Central
• The Book Smugglers

Shades of Dark Review

	Shades of Dark by Linnea Sinclair 448pp (Paperback) My Rating: 9/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.2/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.08/5

Shades of Dark is the sequel to Gabriel's Ghost and the second book in Linnea Sinclair's Dock 5 Universe series. While Shades of Dark picks up where the first book left off and focuses on the same main characters, the third book Hope's Folly (to be released in February 2009) is about Philip Guthrie, a secondary character in the series so far. Shades of Dark should not be read before Gabriel's Ghost and this review will contain spoilers for the former book (reviewed here).

This novel picks up about three months after the end of Gabriel's Ghost. Sully and Chaz have left Marker after successfully destroying their first jukor lab and are back to life on the ship Boru Karn - and heading for a meeting with an informant who claims to know the location of another one of these labs. When she cannot sleep one night, Chaz happens to see her last name in a news headline. The article turns out to be about the arrest of her brother, Thaddeus Bergren, for his role in the events at Marker. Of course, Chaz is worried about what will happen to Thad but she is also concerned that his mind will be probed since he is one of the only people with knowledge about Sully's telepathic powers. This disclosure of Sully's Kyi-Ragkiril abilities, feared by the vast majority of humanity, would be detrimental to their cause since no one would want to help Sully. Furthermore, most of Sully's crew do not know what he is and may react badly upon hearing the fact that he could easily destroy their minds if he so desired.

In addition to fear over Thad's predicament and a possible impending mutiny, Chaz and Sully must also contend with the increasing strength of Sully's powers, which he hides from Chaz for a time. The reason for the rapid change is unknown, but Sully finds the new things he can do simultaneously intriguing and disconcerting. In the end, he still views himself as a "hell-spawned soul stealer" and fears that keeping Chaz close to him is a mistake - and one that he does not have the personal strength to avoid.

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By the end of Gabriel's Ghost, I was so hooked that I had to go out and buy Shades of Dark so I could start it immediately. That night, I was halfway through this book and finished it about two days later (it would have been much sooner if I didn't have to go to work). I found this one a little slower to get into in the beginning with a few info dumps about happenings from the previous book but overall better (and much darker) than the first book. Dark books are my favorites, and I really loved how Sully had to come to terms with who and what he was in this book.

Gabriel's Ghost was largely about the obstacles Kyi-Ragkirils had to overcome to be accepted and downplayed their evil since Sully was overall a decent man and Ren (who was not actually a Kyi-Ragkiril but was the race often judged to be one) was the kindest and gentlest being imaginable. Sully was often feared for his abilities by Chaz and later hated for them by Philip, who knew a lot about the worst of Kyi-Ragkirils but often did not know the entire truth. Yet as Sully used his powers for good (such as preventing both Ren and Philip from dying), it seemed as though the dangers of Kyi-Ragkirils had been overstated. It appeared to all come down to what type of person wields the power instead of the actual ability contributing to unethical acts. In Shades of Dark, this is refuted to an extent. Sully is conflicted between his beliefs and the need to exercise his powers more, which is further enforced by the encouragement of a mentor.

Chaz is still a very strong and likable heroine - analytical to the extreme and very practical. She is a strong woman who makes her own decisions, is very capable, and Sinclair does an excellent job of keeping true to her character in both books. Her own struggle with Sully's difficulty at reconciling his two sides also makes for some excellent reading and she is a very sympathetic character.

There is one minor complaint I had with this book other than the aforementioned info-dumping contributing to a slow start - the number of times Chaz was referred to as "the pride of the Sixth fleet" or "the one-time pride of the Sixth fleet" or any variation of "the pride of the Sixth fleet." The references to this were excessive. We get it - she was held in high regard and now she's an escaped prisoner on the run from the law, oh how the mighty have fallen.

For those who have read and enjoyed Gabriel's Ghost, Shades of Dark is a followup worth reading with a much darker tone and more complex questions. Unless one has an aversion to books that are not light and happy, this one is highly recommended to fans of its predecessor.

9/10

Read Chapter Two

Other reviews:

• The Book Smugglers

Reviews of other books in this series:

• Gabriel's Ghost

Gabriel's Ghost/Shades of Dark Giveaway

This is the last of the four giveaways featuring some of my favorite books read this year. The final book is one of the two Dock 5 Universe novels by Linnea Sinclair - either Gabriel's Ghost (review) or Shades of Dark. (I was hoping to have a review of the latter book up by today but with all the holiday running around, I haven't had the time yet. I'll link to it once I get it up, hopefully sometime this weekend. If you've read the first book, though, I'm sure you'll have a pretty good idea of whether or not you want to read the second one.)






Gabriel's Ghost is the first book in this science fiction romance series containing a great balance between space opera adventure and romance. It is the story of how the innocent former fleet captain Chasidah Bergren was rescued from a prison planet by her adversary Gabriel Sullivan, whom she had believed to be dead. Sullivan needs someone who knows the fleet to help him stop the breeding of terrible creatures that had been outlawed for being too dangerous... and who better than the woman he's had a crush on for years, the one he couldn't stand to think of living on the terrible planet she had been exiled to. In spite of the typical rescue of a woman by a man storyline, Chaz is a very strong heroine with a mind of her own who tends to follow her head instead of her heart.

I enjoyed this book immensely and found it very difficult to put down for the last half, and the sequel was even better (and darker). The first book left me wanting to know what happened so much that I decided I just couldn't start any other book and had to have Shades of Dark. So I went to Borders and got that one the day I finished it and was halfway through Shades of Dark by the time that day was over (and had finished it two days later even though I was back to work at that point). The ending was amazing and stuck with me for quite a while, and I loved the characters and the focus on them in this story, which is why it is one of my favorites read this year.

Contest Rules

To enter, send an email to fantasycafe AT novomancy.org. The subject of the email should say "Ghost" if have not read either of these books, but if you have read the first one but not the second, the subject should say "Shades." Please include your mailing address. Addresses will only be used for sending the book out quickly and all messages will be deleted once the contest is over.

The contest is open to anyone, no matter where you live. One entry per person is allowed.

Entries for the contest will be accepted through 11:59 PM on Saturday January 3.


You can also still enter to win a copy of The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari for a short time (contest closes at midnight)!

Review of Gabriel's Ghost

	Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair 480pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8.5/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.07/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.14/5

Gabriel's Ghost is the first book in science fiction romance writer Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five series and a winner of the RITA Award for Best Paranormal Romance in 2006. This book has a direct sequel, Shades of Dark, featuring the same main characters as the first book. Hope's Folly, the third book (out in February 2009), is about Philip Guthrie, a character appearing in the first two books. Gabriel's Ghost is a fun, fast-paced novel containing action and adventure in addition to the romantic storyline.

Chasidah (Chaz) Bergren, former captain of the Sixth Fleet, has been sentenced to life on a prison planet for a crime she did not commit. After three weeks as a prisoner, she is found by Gabriel Sullivan (Sully), a mercenary smuggler whom she thought to be dead. Sully faked his death and now is on a mission in which he needs a "beautiful, interfering bitch" who knows the fleet and is prepared to free Chaz if she will help his cause - which he won't reveal until they have reached their destination. On the way to shelter, they are attacked by and kill a jukor, a huge smelly creature bred to counter telepaths that were supposedly all deemed too dangerous to everyone and destroyed.

Sully brings Chaz to an Englarian monastery where she is surprised to find he seems to know the monks rather well. She is also surprised by the presence of a Stolorth, a member of a race infamous for their mind powers and therefore abhorrent to Englarians. However, this Stolorth (Ren) is blind, an outcast of his kind because this limits his abilities to some basic empathic powers. The monk Ren is to travel with Chaz and Sully, who will pose as members of the clergy on the way back to Sully's ship and crew where they will work on the plot Sully mentioned - destroying the Empire's jukor breeding program. Chaz can't help but join such a worthwhile endeavor despite being wary of Ren's abilities and Sully's constant flirting with her.

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I have only begun reading some science fiction romance this year and this was the first book I read by Linnea Sinclair. Her novel An Accidental Goddess is on my bookshelf and I had tried reading a chapter from it before reading this one and just couldn't get into it (yes, I am impatient sometimes). I absolutely loved this novel so I'm very glad a friend recommended it to me. The beginning of Gabriel's Ghost had me intrigued but not riveted until I was about 2/5 of the way into the book, but from that point on I could not put it down. The day I finished this book, I read 4 pages of another book but couldn't stop thinking about this one so I went to the bookstore and picked up Shades of Dark. With the average enjoyable series, I can wait for the next book - not this one.

The highlight of this one for me was the characters of Sully, Chaz, and Ren. The story is told from the first person point of view of 35 year old Chaz, who is a fantastic heroine. Although it is partially a romance story, she is not the swooning, brooding type but a very logical, analytical woman as fits her military upbringing and and status as a captain. Chaz will listen to her mind over her heart, and although she finds Sully very attractive, she is not ready to let herself fall for him when she thinks he just wants to conquer her and add her to his list of women. Sure, she thinks about Sully sometimes, but he's not her only concern in life. I also appreciated that she was very open minded and willing to learn and reevaluate her beliefs if presented with evidence that they might be wrong. Ren terrified her at first since her training had taught her Stolorths were an evil race intent on destroying human minds, but instead of continuing to fear him, she talked to him and attempted to learn more about him. This does not mean she automatically decided she should not be frightened of him because Sully and the monks said she shouldn't, which would not be very realistic since this was a belief that was deeply ingrained into her and she didn't entirely trust Sully - but she did try to find out if what she had been taught was untrue.

Although the story is told from Chaz's point of view, it is really about the title character and his struggle for acceptance from both Chaz and himself. As much as I loved Chaz, Sully was my favorite character. I don't want to give away too much about what is revealed about Sully (the example I gave about Chaz happened early in the book) so I will just say that the reasons for his problems were well done and his conflicts were very understandable. His issues were not due to someone taking away his wubby toy as a child.

Ren was also a character I enjoyed reading about. He is perhaps a little too good if you like flawed characters (which I do) but I didn't care in this case. The model monk should be kind and understanding of others and he was just so likable.

The character relationships were interesting to read about and I thought Sinclair did a fantastic job of giving each character his or her own personality and making them believable as people, but that was not the only aspect to this story. There was a lot of focus on characters and revelations about them, but there was plenty of action and adventure in the quest to destroy the jukors too (especially at the end). Gabriel's Ghost is not just romance, as it also has a strong element of science fiction, albeit not hard science fiction but space opera. The science fiction aspect of the story is somewhat familiar with an evil empiric conspiracy, interplanetary travel, life as part of a crew on a spaceship, but it still entertains especially when combined with such great characters.

The pacing was excellent and there was never a boring moment - the pages fly by quickly with a straightforward, easy to read book like this one.

No book is perfect, even those that make their way on to my favorites list. Toward the beginning, I did find the writing style a bit abrupt and choppy with a lot of short sentences (which seemed intentional but I'm not a fan of that type of writing style). Later I did not notice this, though, so it either got smoother or I got so absorbed in the story that I ceased to care. I also did find the love scenes/descriptions to be very cheesy and read through them as quickly as possible. There were maybe two or three of those so it was a small percentage of the book and this ends up being a minor complaint. I'm not a big romance reader and I normally find these types of scenes to be a bit silly, though.

The pros far outweigh the cons with Gabriel's Ghost, which is one I know I'll be rereading. Highly recommended to those who enjoy science fiction romance and great characters.

8.5/10

Other Reviews:

• The Book Smugglers

Hope's Folly Book Trailer

The book trailer for Hope's Folly, the third book in the Dock Five/Gabriel's Ghost series by Linnea Sinclair, is on her site. It will be released in February of 2009. I am so excited about this book! The first two books in this science fiction romance series, Gabriel's Ghost and Shades of Dark, recently made it to my favorite books list and I'll be reviewing both of them soon. Until then, let's put it this way... I couldn't put down the last half of Gabriel's Ghost and once I finished it, I wanted more so badly that I rushed out to the bookstore to get Shades of Dark just a couple of hours later. By the time I went to bed that night, I was halfway through that book and in the end, I loved it more than the first one. Those are ones I'll be definitely be rereading.

The third book will be about Philip Guthrie, a character from the first two books. Although I'm looking forward to Hope's Folly, I am going to miss the two main characters from the first two books since they are really what made me love the series so much. Even so, I'll be going to the bookstore to get that one the day it comes out.