Christie MeierzReseñas

This episode of Christie Meierz's stories set in Tolari space stars Bertie - otherwise known as Albert St. John Rembrandt, Lord Whitdon.

After being disowned by his family for not following their orders and marrying the British Crown Prince, Bertie has been making his way in alien space. Given that he is a financial genius and lawyer, he has managed to land on his feet with the Tolari. Besides running their space station, he has fallen in love with one of their rulers.

But the path to true love is running anything but smoothly. First of all, he almost dies after his first intimate moments with the Monral when he learns that not only is the environment on Tolar toxic to humans but so are some of the people. Bertie suffers from nerve damage that the Tolari can't cure despite their advanced technology and medical knowledge. His only choice is to take the blessing and be genetically modified which has all sorts of upsides including a longer lifespan. But there are downsides too.

Bertie has spent his life trying to gain the approval of his distant father. Nothing he could do has been good enough, but taking a gen mod would be the last straw. No Rembrandt has ever been genetically modified.

Meanwhile, a couple of Johnsons have arrived on Tolar under false pretenses. They want to convince their sister Laura to return home with them. The Johnson family is a bitter rival to the Rembrandts, but their hospital ship might be a way to cure Bertie without the need for genetic modifications. However, double dealing is in the works which leads to a lost ship and a kerfluffle of galactic proportions.

This was engaging space opera. It's only fault in my opinion was that it has a cliffhanger ending. Some issues are resolved but an equal, or perhaps, larger number of the plot threads were left unanswered.

After being exiled from Tolari Space after an attempted coup, Farryn is building a new life and empire of his own in human space. But when the bond-mate he believes betrayed him comes to look for him, he needs to save her from Earth's Central Command in the person of Adeline Russell.

Sharana is a scholar and empath and makes a perfect tool for Adeline who wants to capture Farryn and learn all of the Tolari secrets.

This was a fast-paced story. However, just a trigger warning, Adeline isn't at all opposed to torture to reach her goals. There are lots of examples of Sharana being tortured throughout the story.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. The Tolari are interesting people with lots of interesting abilities including the ability to disappear. I liked the romance between Farryn and Sharana which really had to go through difficulties before things worked out.

Fans of space opera will enjoy this story.

While the Monral plots to seize control and open Tolar to human trade - with the major advantages going to him, Laura Howard is adjusting to life on an alien planet. She has found love with the Paran and rediscovered her abilities as an artist, but she misses her family back in human space.

Then she has an accident and loses her memories of all the time she's spent on Tolar and forgotten her bond with the Paran. While dealing with her memory loss, she revisits all her insecurities including that her father convinced her that she wasn't smart enough to suit him. She becomes convinced that no one could love her as she was. That everyone wanted her to be someone else before she could be worthy of love.

She is also dealing with a very strong empathy that almost overwhelms her senses. However, she is getting an assist in dealing with her problems from the Jorann, who is the ancient mother of all the Tolari.

Her struggles are happening at the same time that the Monral is using more and more dirty tricks in his quest to gain control of the planet. One of his plots has taken him so far beyond what is acceptable that his bond mate Sharana has left him and has even traveled to the Jorann to ask that the bonding be removed.

This story moved the emphasis from the romances to the political arena and deals with a culture very reluctantly opening itself up to a galaxy that it had previously abandoned.

Two short stories set in Tolari space. The first is First Contact and tells about when the Monral tries to make an end around by dealing with the humans without letting the Sural know. The second is also about the first contact told this time from the Sular's point of view.

In this second book in the Tales of Tolari Space trilogy, Marianne is getting used to being bonded with the Sural and is surprised when she becomes pregnant. She knew that choosing to become Tolari would mean physical changes but hadn't realized that would include her reproductive system.

Meanwhile, Earth's Central Command has not given up on trying to reclaim Marianne and return her to human space. They are sure that she knows secrets that they are willing to do all sorts of underhanded things to learn.

Central Command's next ploy is to send Laura Howard, the wife of the Admiral the Sural killed in the first book, with a plan of jerking both of them off the planet when Laura touches Marianne. That plan is foiled using Tolari technology that Earth doesn't know about, but it leaves Laura stranded and in the care of the man who killed her husband.

This story is about Laura's changes as she adjusts to a new planet and develops powerful talents she never knew she had. And finds a man who is able to be her second love for her newly extended future.

A Spanish teacher from Iowa named Marianne Woolsey is drafted by her government to travel to Tolari to act as a tutor to the daughter of the ruler of the planet. Her government hopes to find out more about the strange and reclusive Tolari.

Marianne arrives to find a world very different than her own. Outwardly, it looks like a medieval civilization. But her opinion quickly changes as she learns more about the people, and especially the Sural who rules the largest area on the planet and is the supreme ruler of all other areas. She enjoys the challenge of learning new languages but misses human contact despite her weekly calls to the ambassadorial ship in orbit around the planet.

Marianne has a past trauma in her life which is readily apparent to the empaths who surround her, and which makes it difficult for her to realize that the Sural is falling in love with her. This is very much a "slow burn" romance. She's on the planet for 8 years before any sort of romance begins that she recognizes.

And while she is falling in love, the humans who are in orbit are getting more and more anxious to find out about the aliens who live on the planet and threaten to pull her out to drain her of everything she's learned but not told them about.

But the aliens have been keeping a number of secrets and they aren't willing to share them with Earth's Central Command. Nor are they willing to surrender a woman who has bonded with their leader.

This was a fun space opera and romance.

A great read with interesting characters and a tantalising introduction to this universe. Quite short, but as it's free that's not a problem. Highly recommended.

This was a satisfying sci fi romance. Meierz is a careful writer and the whole story is smooth. There's a lot of restraint here, both in how the characters respond to each other and how the story unfolds. It's like reading a regency romance but in space. I like this.

The love story here is gentle and not in any hurry. It takes eight years for the romance to unfold. There aren't any sex scenes, mostly just fade to black and we get the gist.

Really good world building here, and Meierz establishes mood quite well.

I liked the science/tech elements. There's still some fantasy elements here that aren't "sci fi" explained (empathic abilities, for one), but most things that could be taken as magic have a science/tech explanation that was plausible to me.

I will continue on with this series.