Carol Van Natta

Natta, Carl Van. Overload Flux. Central Galactic Concordance No. 1. Chavanch, 2014.
Overload Flux bills itself as a space opera mystery romance. The blurb could also include bioengineering and extrasensory powers. One of the protagonists, Luka Foxe, is a forensic investigator who gets vivid visions of the killings when he investigates a murder scene. At times, his emotional response to what he sees can render him almost catatonic. He does everything he can to conceal this vulnerability. The firm he works for hires Mariwen Morganthur, a security guard, to protect him. She, too, has special abilities she wants kept secret. She is a bioengineered, highly trained tracker-assassin who wants to leave her old profession behind and live a normal life. But she cannot resist revealing her special abilities when she rescues Foxe from kidnappers with lethal intent. This odd couple discover they are kindred, complementary souls with a strong sexual attraction toward one another. And yes, some of the action takes place on a starship in interstellar space. 3.5 stars.… (más)

Riya Sanobal, a door mage, barista, and modern dance choreographer, dreams of a lovely man with eagle feet who fights demons. She’s a little confused when Idrian Odair, the warrior from her dreams, shows up at her practice space and says he’s been looking for her. Idrian is the last dreamwalker of his people and is searching for his dreamwalk partner because his grandfather’s ghost is constantly heckling him about it. There’s a prophecy involving her, and a potential demon influx. Can the two of them use their dreamwalking and non-dream talents to save Denver from incoming badness?
It seems like Van Natta has done her research on prostheses and Idrian’s relationship with his is presented in a matter-of-fact manner: he constantly has to take care of it. It’s not the focus of his character but it does come up in the plot, so it’s good to see that introduced early and integrated into the story so that we’re not surprised when it becomes a concern.
Riya and Idrian are attracted to each other from their first meeting, and don’t take long to acknowledge that and act on it. It’s easy to see why: they’re compatible adults with adult behavior. These two were pretty much made for each other, and there are no difficulties in their romance within it or externally (like one is a tenured professor in Philadelphia so is tied to that location). I don’t know how I feel about that, even though I like that they don’t make conflict out of nothing. The conflict is instead in the mystery of some foul play and fighting some demons.
The demons are pretty original in presentation: their behaviors aren’t surprising but how the manifest and extrude isn’t something I’ve read before. The dreamwalk realm seems a little more generic as a setting. The way characters do some activation magic there is cleverly executed, though.
There’s a cute moment of levity in the final conflict that tickled my sense of the absurd. This was a fun read for an afternoon.
I received a free ARC for review purposes.… (más)

Retired pilot Kerzanna crashes on the planet Jess has retired to. It’s no simple accident—someone wants her dead. Jess finds and rescues her, to both their confusion, as they were each convinced the other died several years ago. The two try to lay low and make their escape, but somebody has a tempting offer for them that could give them a chance of a future together. All they need to do is deliver some information. Easier said than done when the baddies are still after Kerzanna.

Kerzanna is one of the most interesting cyborgs I’ve read about in SFR. Cybernetics aren’t all sunshine and roses while we still have flesh. Like prosthetics now, they cause stress on other systems and need constant tweaking. I like how the CPS deactivated some of her capabilities and there was a side market for restoring them, it felt very punk. Kerzanna and Jess are mature adults who use their experience wisely during the course of the story. Though he’s retired, he has problems due to some mismanagement by his workplace. There’s a bit of upside to that oversight, but of course there is also a price for taking advantage of that. It makes me think hard about how organizations treat their employees.
The villainous troupe is entertaining. Davidro is an easy fellow to understand, and watching the way he tries to handle his underlings keeps making me snicker. I felt sympathy for Vahan, who may be cold-blooded and callous, but has to deal with a difficult job. Renner the electric talent has gotten more interesting through the series, and Georgie the forecaster and the others are memorable. Those who slip Davidro’s leash still have parts to play, even if they pay vividly terrible prices.
There’s a battle in space, and it’s exciting. Keeping track of the minor characters involved there is easy. Van Natta is good at making them distinctive and choosing interesting names.

I had a lot of trouble visualizing the layout of the passenger-freighter ship. That could just be my own spatial reasoning problems. What’s a nav pod, and why can it do what it does in the story?
There are several time jumps near the end of the book. Sometimes it felt like events were skipped over a bit abruptly, which made keeping track of them a little difficult for me.

Don’t read this book on its own. Earlier books introduced these villains and their motives, and that makes the experience much richer. The leads get their happy ending, but there’s a twist for some characters which makes me very excited to read the next book. The way the characters have been built over time makes me curious about where some of them will end up.… (más)