3.5 Stars

Definitely original. Wholly interesting with an intriguing setup.

Runt is barely getting by. He’s contracted with “big corporate” to farm a planet for future colonization. With seven years of service he hopes to succeed in order to become a shareholder. However, Runt is down on his luck, profitability slowly slipping through his fingers as he’s forever falling behind, trying to do a multitude of tasks meant for two.

Fortuitously, supplies finally land, and instead of a new wife, he gets the hulking mute beast, Ox. Paranoia runs rampant in Runt’s brain, wondering if Ox is there to terminate his contract due to his subpar performance. However, Ox is nothing but above board, and they figure out a tentative partnership, working in sync to get the farm in order.

What follows is the synergy of how these two cohabitate, complementing each other quite well despite, or because of, their differences. What also unfolds slowly is the awkward, uneasy, but palpable sexual tension.

I’m a goner for gentle giants, and apparently mutism really ups the ante. Admittedly, I wanted more explanations and fleshing out the background stories. What was present though, kept my attention. Especially unique was how these two made up for their size differences with creative ways in the bedroom (titillating to say the least). Overall, a sweet, scifi take, with a couple dashes of smexy, on the evolution of changing one’s expectations to find a happiness they didn’t know they wanted.
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I bought this late last night and stayed up until my eyes were (literally) closing on me. Then I woke up and finished it before work!

Amazing sci-fi world (I think the 'advertainers' were the most fascinating thing to me for some reason). I read the free story, Seedy Business' right before, and while you don't need to read it, I think it definitely enhanced it.

My only issue was it was too short! I wanted to see more of Ox and Runt together and read how they manage to overcome more obstacles (like Ox's past). Glad this is part of a series because the next book is already on my 'to-buy' list. ( )

While I did skip through parts of this book, the last third included a freaking hot sex scene that made me think it was early onset menopause. Hello hot flush. It made the $4.99 @ ARE for this VERY short book worth it. 4 stars for the sex. ( )

One of the things I love about sci-fi is you can always expect the unexpected. It's a grand stage for something new and different. And that's what I liked most about this story.

The world-building is nicely done, and the characters grow on you quickly with Runt named for his small stature and Ox his enormous height and brawn. And if you're curious about OX, yes THAT too is enormous.

The relationship builds slowly as Runt was expecting a wife to be provided not a giant man who is mute. But as they work together daily on the their outpost farm, they grow very close and eventually their "needs" assert themselves.

A thoroughly enjoyable read with a rewarding ending that requires a sequel to answer some of the questions left dangling. I hope to see more of these two in the near future. Well done Damon! ( )

Upon finishing this novel, is someone is wondering like me why it was so short, well you can console yourself with that “first transmission” in the title, meaning that I think the author has more in storage for these “grown men” of his.

Runt is already wondering if he did the right choice when he signed for being a colonist on Andromeda; there is nothing resembling home in this land and the promised cloned wife didn’t survive the landing. So Runt is not only hungry of food he is also starving from isolation and he would welcome everyone in his little piece of lost paradise… other than a more than 2 meters tall giant. Even if Ox, the giant, is more like an oversized teddy bear than an ogre, nevertheless Runt is not comfortable: in the very faraway chance something more than friendship will blossom between them, Runt has no intention at all to play the submissive role, and with Ox there would be no other option. That would be quite true if not for the fact that I had the feeling Ox is not 100% grown… and no, there is no double meaning in my sentence: Ox is more than grown considering the “exterior”, but he is more or less like a baby on the “interior”. It’s like they shaped him with the body of an assassin to then matching the heart, and mind, of a pacifist; actually in some aspect Ox is more like a puppy than a watchdog, and I was almost expecting for him to turn up his belly for a scratch from Runt. Runt himself gave me the idea of a stray dog, all wiry muscle and guarded attitude, in a way, even if he was smaller than Ox, he was way more dangerous.

The setting was more or less simple: even if there is a sci-fi theme, they are stranded in an isolated land, and the environment is “bared”, without much furnishing. There is a bit of world building, even a little of social criticism, see the reference to the “advertisement” that replaced the old fashioned movie: you no more see movies with ad breaks, you see a continuous ad that is the movie itself.

The sex is good but arrives almost at the end, so that the reason why I hope the author is planning the following instalment in the series always with Runt and Ox as main heroes, I don’t feel like they had a closure for their story, above all Ox. There is still more to explain and even more for them to try, both in than out of the bed. And then it would be interesting to know how they will solve the “genetic” issue of not being able to procreate between the two of them.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060NP4UC/?tag=elimyrevandra-20