This novella takes place in an alternate reality of the Xeno Relations series. Lost in Space went in one direction, while the final series went in another. It tells the story of gigantic Verdante children and other humans living on the Verdante home planet. In Lost in Space, drug abuse turns deadly. In the final three books of the series, semi-reptile humanoids created in the lab plagued Antaska … Antaska instead. What all these books have in common are the mysterious bonds of affection that can exist between members of the two very different species.
There are three more full-length novels in the Xeno Relations series:
Alien Pets – Life gets weird when you’re adopted by an alien. One million years in the future, young human Antaska and her psychic cat are adopted as pets by a gigantic alien. Traveling in outer space, she becomes telepathic in a world where that’s dangerous. Then she gets into a love triangle that’s even more dangerous. Her cat tries to tell Antaska what she’s doing wrong, but will she listen? An all-new ending has been added to this version (10/2018).
hypnoSnatch – Is it love, or is it alien abduction? Things keep getting weirder when Antaska travels in outer space with an alien and her psychic cat. Mischievous but evil part-reptile humanoids team up with Antaska’s nemesis, a genetically enhanced fitness instructor, to take revenge on her to the ends of the universe. Her unexpected alien abduction spoils their plans.
Bonded in Space – Strange things happen when a crazy alien can’t get you out of his mind. Antaska wants to forget about Marroo the slave hunter, but she can’t stop thinking about him. Marroo wants to forget about Antaska too. So he plans to kidnap another Earth female, experience her love, and move on. But it’s not working out like he expected. Just out of space school, Earth girl Pweet can’t wait to take off from Earth. But she runs into some problems. And Potat the psychic cat is miffed when another semi-humanoid cat follows Antaska home.
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Our heroine is a telepath and has a psychic cat. Which is probably why she can deal with all the aliens in such a forthright manor.
So this story is billed as an alternate ending to a series that I have not read. I was hoping it would stand well on its own, and it does to a certain extent. But it seems to start in the middle and it took a while for me to understand the characters and situation. All that is a long winded version of saying it would be best to start with the original series before reading this.
This story is of novella length and well written, although I found it rather challenging to keep up with who was talking to who in some parts. And the constant reminders that things were said telepathically got rather annoying after a while. We get it. The story itself was interesting and the alien setting was definitely different and well done. The characters were also rather intriguing, although there was a lot I was missing by not reading the original series. Overall, I think this would be very enjoyable for fans of the original. The rest of us will struggle a bit.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout for review purposes.
3.5 stars.
This book IS dependent upon reading Alien Pets (Xeno Relations Book 1). I originally read this particular novella as Lost In Space (Xeno Relations Book 0) but it should had been labeled Book 1.5… but then Trisha McNary calls this an “alternative universe” point-of-view. Hmm… Not sure what she meant by that. Maybe if I read Books 2-3 I can figure this out. I’ll let you know.
This novella discusses the point in time in which Antaska (the human), M. Hoyvil (the alien), and Potat (the Cat) spend a week’s planet leave on Verdante, M. Hoyvil’s homeworld, before leaving for deep space exploration. Unfortunately, we get into a subplot template in which I’ve seen overused in too many academy stories in which jealous human belonging to M. Hoyvil’s primary genetic contributor (aka mother) creates trouble for Antaska. Gee. Didn’t I see this in Aliein Pets Book 1?? Not amused.
I am intrigued by the additional world-crafting done by Trisha McNary regarding the Verdante and the Verdante Homeworld. The Trees I find very intriguing, and to think that Verdante really isn’t the Verdantes’ original homeworld! Just their present homeworld.
I see this book as just an addition to Alien Pets. Perhaps it should had been included… but then we would have two distinct stories patched together… I will have to make a final judgment call once I finish Books 2-3. I still don’t get this alternative universe schtick as mentioned at the beginning of this novella. Perhaps I’ll understand once I read the rest of the series.
Again, there were many misspellings that couldn’t be caught with any decent spellchecker. (Makes me wonder if there was an editor because these errors should had been easily seen.) Freeta, the antagonist, was sometimes called Frita. (Come on! This should had been found, too, by even a mediocre editor!) Issues with italics that didn’t obey continuity… Grr… Rather frustrating. Thus the total of 3.5 stars.
This book was free via Apple and Amazon. It does discuss more about the Verdante species that might make be important with the next two books. (I’m wondering how the Trees’ message will eventually be interpreted…) Still, the blurb is confusing like its predecessors, so I need to read Books 2-3.
Might be worth the cost…