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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Romance with SF elements but too much s/m in some scenes, February 3, 2006
This review is from: The Challenge (Mass Market Paperback)
The Challenge by Susan Kearney has a very interesting cast of characters and premise. Special Agent Tessa Camen takes a bullet for the President but wakes up naked, in the future, in the arms of a very hunky guy, and is told she's Earth's champion in a contest that could win the world technology that would help heal it's dying environment. Okay, the book jacket pulled me in ... so, sue me. Besides, I'm a sucker for romance, especially if it's neatly tied up in a good story.
So, what went wrong? Well, the plot demands that Tessa give her life for the President and she has to be shown to be competent, strong, and independent. The book starts off strong but then we come to the press conference and the attempt on the President's life. Many of us in the US have lived through a presidential assassination attempt (or two) and the seemingly unending rehash in the news; but the one in this book is just unbelievably over the top. This unrealistic attempt while driven by the plot is unbelievable. If you can get past that you may be able to take the next unbelievable event.
Tessa must develop her innate psychic ability (which she didn't know she had) in order to control her suit and win the challenge and gain Earth's entry into the Federation. She's to be trained by Kahn, who is from Rystan. Kahn's planet needs protection from their enemies, the Endekians, who wish to steal the Rystan's glow stones and use them as weapons. Rystan has been thrown into an ice age as a result of a war. The federation suits are all that allow Kahn's people to survive on their planet; the suits control the temperature for the wearer, protect them from injury, and keep them clean, and can be psychically shaped into clothing.
Kahn cannot tell Tessa anything about the challenge, how to awaken her psychic abilities, or about the new world and society she finds herself in. Tessa tries to adapt to her changed circumstances. Kahn comes from a planet with an extreme patriarchal society that sees women as poor, weak, barely sentient, baby-machines who must be trained and led by their men. This doesn't make things any easier for Tessa. Nor does the fact that Kahn believes that the only way to awaken her psychic ability is via sexual frustration. So there are many varied and explicitly detailed sexual frustration techniques and later detailed sexual fulfillment fantasies as Tessa and Kahn train.
I'm as liberated as the next person but many of Kahn's techniques are tantamount to sexual and mental abuse. Tessa seems to react with classic abuse coping mechanisms that cause her to bond with her abuser. Of course, this is your standard romance novel with a science fiction background and everything is going to turn out alright in the end (that's a given in these books). But, I was appalled at the way Tessa continually bowed to Kahn's demands even when she knew they were wrong-headed and the way she took the blame for doing things that Kahn had never told her were forbidden or counter-productive to his plans for her and her resources.
The story could have been much better. I think the writer has skill but took the easy way out rather than having the two main characters actually work through their differences - it was mostly Tessa adapting and Kahn simply accepting that she was different. I think the ending was more wish fulfillment than what would actually happen within the parameters set up by the story.
However, if you like paranormal romance and can park your brain while reading there are some interesting cultural variations and lots of background interests such as the sentient AI in the spaceship, the suit, some of the alien races, and a weirdly unexpected challenge that make the book very intriguing, if frustrating - for both reader and I imagine the heroine.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
superb science fiction literally star-crossed romance, February 1, 2005
This review is from: The Challenge (Mass Market Paperback)
Special Agent in Charge Tessa Camen is guarding the President of the United States (POTUS) when assassins attack. Tessa saves Madam President from the first assault getting her out of Jefferson Central High School, but the coordination with her team fails and she is alone. She gets POTUS to the car, but instead of one of her men as driver, a killer draws a gun. Tessa leaps in front of POTUS taking the bullet that kills the dedicated American agent.
Tessa wakes up believing she must be in heaven as she finds herself with a hunk. The man explains that he is Khan of planet Rystan, the year 2324, and the United States of North America and earth need her services. Khan explains she was selected to take the challenge of the Federation of Planets that earth desperately needs to join to obtain technology that will save the planet by finally cleaning the environment. At first disbelieving, then turning doubtful and cynical, Tessa eventually accepts the challenge, but has doubts about the psychic skills needed for success. As Khan prepares her, they fall in love, but another species wants earth to fail and interfere with the test.
THE CHALLENGE is a superb science fiction literally star-crossed romance that fans of both genres will fill enjoy. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action, and believable multiple species so that the audience will know they are in the twenty-fourth century. Tessa is a terrific heroine and Khan is her perfect mentor, lover, and sidekick. Susan Kearney soars to stardom with this sterling tale.
Harriet Klausner
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sci-fi romance not at its best, January 26, 2010
This review is from: The Challenge (Mass Market Paperback)
I remember being excited when Tor announced (several years ago) it had a paranormal romance line, so I looked for something from it. I found this book. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had read another book by this author and hated it. This one is better, but it still has some big flaws, in my opinion.
Tessa Camen is a Secret Service agent who throws herself in front of a bullet meant for the (female) President of the United States and is whisked out of time and into the future just before the bullet's lethal impact. She wakes up naked in the arms of Kahn, an alien hunk who tells her that she has been selected to be Earth's representative in something called the Challenge. He can't tell her anything about the Challenge--neither what she has to do nor when it will take place.
Tessa meets the qualifications of a candidate for the Challenge: she has no living family, she has no scientific background, and she is a virgin. *snort* OK, the first two I could buy with a little more salesmanship from the author. But virginity? Good grief. No explanation for this is ever given, and to make this requirement even more inane, it is later revealed that Tessa only has to be a virgin when she is chosen, not when she actually performs the Challenge. You can see where this is going, right?
Needless to say, Tessa and Kahn have sex quite a few times before the Challenge begins.
Kahn tells Tessa that if she wins the Challenge, Earth gets a trial membership in the Federation of Planets, and Kahn's people, the Rystanis, get permanent membership because of his assistance. Kahn tells Tessa that to win the Challenge, she must discover and master her innate psi ability--something Tessa swears she doesn't have.
Kahn decides that the best way for Tessa to discover her psi powers is by making her sexually frustrated. [At this point, this book sustained its first damage after colliding with my bedroom wall.] When Tessa was transported through time, Kahn took her clothes and replaced them with a psi-powered "suit" like all inhabitants of this future Federation of Planets wear (it's one the big benefits of membership--along with ...) . The suit is never removed. It can be made to appear as any type of clothing, and it automatically recycles human waste. It can also be warmed (or cooled) by psi-powers, allowing the user to to run about in the snow without additional clothes. How does miracle of conception take place, I wonder? Too bad the book never tells me.
Anyway, Kahn instructs Tessa's suit to stimulate her by "touching" her in inappropriate places. A kiss here, a fondle there. Oh goody, high-tech sexual abuse. [More damage to the book occurs. This seems to be a recurring theme in Ms. Kearney's books.]
In the time between Tessa's selection and the actual Challenge, the couple has time to travel to the home world of the Federation of Planets and then to Kahn's planet. Along the way, the couple gets married and has sex and has more sex. By the time the Challenge occurs, it is almost an afterthought to the story. One of the more ridiculous sequences involving Kahn and the group use of psi powers occurs during this part of the story.
Kahn is a jerk with a arrogant and backward attitude towards women. He treats Tessa like a child, and when she does something (which made a lot of sense to me) that doesn't fit with his plans (which he didn't tell her), he retaliates by not letting her speak for a day. When she can speak again, what does she do? Tell him off? Hit him with a clue-by-four? No, she seduces him. [More damage to both the book and my wall.]
This relationship is dysfunctional from start to finish. And that is too bad, because when Tessa isn't caving in to Kahn's macho demands, she is rather likeable. The non-romance subplots--which include an AI that has sex on the brain and Tessa's business dealings with an octpus-like alien--are far more engaging.
This was a story that could have been so much more than it was. If you like caveman alpha heroes, you'll like this one. If you like men who respect women, this one should be a pass.
I have read the other books in the series, and I liked subsequent ones much better, mostly because the heroes were more likeable and less control freaks.
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