The Slave by Cheryl Brooks

The Slave 
by Cheryl Brooks
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

My Review:
It's been a while since I read a sci-fi story, even though I like them a lot. I had a couple recommendations from friends to try this one and I have to admit it did hold my interest. The story had a lot of action. But I was left kind of ho-hum at the end. There was a lot of strange manipulative feelings that didn't sit well with me.

It seemed to be somewhat of a parody. There was quite a bit of sex and sexuality, but honestly I didn't think it was sexy enough to put into the erotica category. Maybe because it's been a couple years since it was published, but I would have expected a whole lot more sex before I'd place this one as erotica. I mean, yeah there were naked or partly dressed people, but a lot of the ideas could have worked as a slightly racy Star Trek episode, even if the TV show wouldn't have shown the male nudity described in this book.

It was silly and fun, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the zaniness and the crazy sex things, but I left feeling like there wasn't much of a point or like the characters weren't true to themselves and their adventure didn't resolve in a believable way (realizing how crazy that sounds when we're talking about aliens with addictive sperm and genital-showing clothing).

I felt like Jacinth was a little too passive for my liking. She went right along with the patriarchal manipulations in the story and by the end, I was disappointed that she had no desires outside of her man. She finished her quest, so now she could go home and pump out babies, even though that never seemed to be a part of her framework before. She had a gun, but most of the time she couldn't save herself anyway. She always needed someone big, strong, or magical, to do the saving for her.

The story was also written in first person, past tense. That made it a little jarring for me. Besides not having any idea what Cat is thinking, I just didn't feel like there was much emotional depth. It was an adventure, yes, but I didn't connect with the characters very well and by the end, the story lost a lot of steam.

Oh, and it felt really random how Jacinth came up with the conclusion of the adventure. Maybe there are more details in later books, but I felt like she just randomly had an idea and ran with it because “that's the only possible solution”.


So, I probably won't read book two in the series. At least not anytime soon. Even though the book held my interest and I never felt like giving up the story and moving on, I just couldn't get behind the characterization or the half-hearted feel to the resolution.