Customer Reviews

The Dare

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Susan Kearney definitely has the potential to be a great author. Her characters are interesting with lively dialogue, the love scenes are atleast warm if not roasting, and the storylines are more than inventive. However, The Dare didn't have the same edge of your seat breathlessness that the Challenge had.

Our main couple are both characters from the The Challenge. Zical, our hero, is a warrior on a planet with loads of psychic abilities who is a little lonely. Dora...well she was The Challenge's heroines bestfriend in the form of an AI super-planetcontrolling-computer. She was the thinking personality of the computer if you like. But she longs to be human and after setting scanners on Zical she decides to grow herself a body.Her transfer into that body and her adaption to the human race are the start of this couples tale.

Dora's never able to fully leave her computer self behind and Zical screws up on a universal proportion when he almost gets an entire galaxy, himself, Dora, and his crew killed - several times. But after the couple rockets off into the depths of space, while still intiguing, the story really started to drag for me. That's not to say that it wasn't good, it was! There were just a lot of inconsistancies. I kept thinking the book would have to have a continuation but all of a sudden - after 356 long pages - everything was wrapped up tidily in a few paragraphs!

If you loved the Challenge and Ms. Kearney than it is worth reading the latest story. Just don't feel you need to rush out to get it.

Dora had been a sentient computer for three hundred years before she met the Earthling called Tessa (from previous book "The Challenge"). As Dora's friendship with Tessa grew, she met many new people. One of them is a Rystani captain named Zical. Dora builds herself a body, an exact duplicate of a female holosim character that Zical often spent hot nights with. After creating Ranth, another sentient computer, to replace her computer self, Dora enters her new human body. She especially wants to experience love and caring with Zical like she has witness bloom between Tessa and Kahn. But Zical is used to Dora the computer, not Dora the sexy and sassy bombshell. She is too different from Rystani women. In addition, he still feels responsible for not being able to save his previous mate from being killed.

When Zical locates a hidden chamber within Mount Shachauri, he accidentally summons the ancient machines called "The Sentinel". The Sentinel protects the galaxy from invasion by a warlike horde called the "Zin". Zical gathers his crew for what could very well be a one way mission. They must intercept the Sentinel and take them back to the galaxy's rim. Fortunately for Dora, this puts her and Zical in very close quarters for a very long time.

**** Tessa and Kahn's amazing tale in the previous novel "The Challenge" had Dora as a secondary character throughout most of the story. Zical entered that adventure about half way into it. If you read the first novel then you could not help but love Dora. It never entered my mind that Dora could have her own story. Fortunately, author Susan Kearney has a more fertile imagination than I. Susan Kearney not only succeeded at giving Dora a human form, but also made her very realistic by adding a human flaw or two.

In addition, a new character named Kirek is introduced. He is a four-year-old genius. I can reveal nothing else without spoilers so I will not even try. However, I have hope that Kirek will get his own story told someday. I highly recommend this title for fans of romance and sci-fi. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Wow! Ms. Kearney has a way with characters that speak to you on every level. The Dare is much better than The Challenge and I am looking forward to The Ultimatum in 2006. It is obvious that Ms. Kearney has invested a lot of thought in her development of the 'worlds' that make up this line of novels.

The humour is great, the sex sublime (not for the faint at heart!) and the narrative beyond normal romance genre requirements. This is not your average "Boy-meets-Girl" story. Worth picking up and adding to your NEVER-LEND-IT-OUT-PILE!

I was very interested in this book. It features one of the more interesting secondary characters from The Challenge, Dora. Dora is a sentient computer who wants to be in a human body and experience the human world, specifically the sex and the love.

I LOVED this idea! And Dora pulls it off well. The whole is a great exploration of her feelings and actions. Zical is a bit confusing for me, hey, what man isn't?

Dora wants to make love to Zical, the warrior she has been friends with. However as she is a computer that cannot experience human senses like touching, that is impossible until Dora decides to create herself a body that will appeal to Zical.

Zical, a Rystani warrior, loves the sound of Dora's voice and values her highly as a friend, albeit a computer friend, until Dora creates herself a body that he's extremely attracted to.
While exploring a hidden doorway into the mountain he was climbing, Zical belatedly recalls the machines that guards them and puts the galaxy in danger of being attacked. Soon Zical and Dora embark on the dangerous mission of trying to correct the problem while they also figure out how to deal with the emotions of Dora being human and the growing attraction between them. Can they survive their dangerous mission and restore the protection to the galaxy and will Dora finally get to make her dreams come true?

I found The Dare by Susan Kearney to be a fast paced sci-fi adventure that was completely engaging, very sexy, and highly addictive! The characters were very well written and with such a human factor to them you can't help but love them. The action in this story was explosive and
will send your emotions in all directions. You can't seem to help feeling the same emotions that the characters do.
I had never been a big fan of sci-fi before reading this book but, I can guarantee that Ms. Kearney has found a new life-long reader.

Tammy
Fallen Angel Reviews
www.fallenangelreviews.com

The lead characters, Dora and Zical, are really good, especially Dora, the computer made human. The story line is excellent. There are real mysteries, dangers, and frustrations. In many ways, I liked it better than The Challenge (the training by sexual frustration in that one bothered me). But this book repeated too much of the first one, especially in the sex scenes; I could have interchanged the names and noticed no difference. Also, the resolution came too swiftly for all that went before. Otherwise, this book might have surpassed its predecessor. Certainly Zical's despair over Dora's climactic action was superbly written; I cried for several pages. But it was all resolved too abruptly, so allow the proper emotional responses to occur in the reader or even in the characters. All the elements were there; they just weren't handled as well as they could have been, leaving this reader unsatisfied with the result.

From Pygmalion to Pinnochio to Star Trek's Data, the lure of achieving humanity has always been a strong story line. In THE DARE, Dora, a sentient computer, also longs to become human. The story of her quest is a rollicking space tale, fast-paced with enough romance, steamy sex, and breath-taking adventure to satisfy both romance and science fiction fans alike. Although it contains characters from THE CHALLENGE, the book can be easily enjoyed as a stand-alone book. And I'm hoping Kearney develops a story for Kirek, an intriguing child with special powers whom she introduces in THE DARE. Don't make any plans once you start reading. You won't be able to put it down.

For three centuries, Dora was a compliant sentient computer performing her duties without question that is until she met that transplanted twenty-first century heroine Tessa Camen, who befriends her like no one has before. Through the CHALLENGE of being Tessa's pal, Dora meets other people like Kahn and Rystani Captain Zical.

Dora falls in love with Zical and wants what Tessa and Kahn have. She observes that Zical spends steamy nights of sexual encounters with a holistic female that she wants to replace. She constructs a duplicate body to the one Zical spends his nights with and creates a new sentient computer to replace her at the helm. Next Dora moves her essence into the new human body she developed. However, plans of mice and computers often go astray as Zical rejects her unable to adjust to her not being a thing and haunted by his failure to save the life of his mate. When Zical accidentally triggers The Sentinel, ancient machines that were to protect the galaxy, he starts what could be pandemic devastation. With Dora at his side, he leads a counterforce with no hope except her love.

Dora makes quite and adjustment from secondary character to lead female protagonists, but Susan Kearney makes the adjustment seem so effortlessly even with the added conversion from critical intelligence to human intelligence. The action-packed story line never slows down once Dora decides to accept the CHALLENGE of love and never slows down as she and her beloved along with their allies battle to save the galaxy. The future of the Kearney Universe looks like it is in brilliant hands as the audience can expect more twenty-fourth romantic science fiction adventures.

Harriet Klausner

Loved the story. It is a great blend of scifi/fantasy and romance. Her characters are griping and you spend the whole book rooting for thier happy ending.

When we first meet Dora in THE CHALLENGE we learn that she is more than a just a computer, she is a sentient being with emotions and a curiosity about human relationships, particularly love making. One human in particular, Zical who is rather liberated for a Rystani male, she finds extremely attractive.

Zical enjoys verbal sparring with Dora and considers the computer a friend, but lately he finds her more exasperating than anything else. Four years after fleeing his home planet to settle on the new world, Mystique, the job of recolonizing his people has been completed and Zical must now decide what to do with his future. Being a physical being Zical decides on a mountain climb rather than meditation to relax him, and help him to make the decision. Not an easy task when a sexy voiced computer keeps upsetting his balance with her personal questions about his love life.

Dora has been dying to know what it's like to be human, and when her friend Tessa challenges her to do something about it, she takes the challenge seriously. Borrowing stock DNA, Dora decides to grow a body for herself. All she needs to know now is what a man like Zical finds attractive in a woman.

This whole line of questioning is off putting to the man who had been subjected to an arranged marriage with a child bride. His wife had been afraid of her own shadow and unable to cope to cope with her new role, or to make the smallest decision for herself. That inability had resulted in her death at the hands of the Endekians while Zical was off hunting for food. Zical suffered great guilt over her loss and the loss of their unborn child. The last thing he wanted was to get involved with another woman.

During the climb, Zical discovers a hidden cavern complete with machinery left behind by the "Perceptive Ones" the same technologically advanced race that had created the body regulating, life extending suits all citizens of the Federation wore from birth. The discovery trips a recall of a Sentinel, which had been placed at the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy to alert its inhabitants of attacks by the hostile Zin of the Andromeda galaxy.

Zical realizes that his life decision has been made for him. He must find a way to send the Sentinel back to its post, even if it takes a lifetime. To add to the chaos, Dora had found another way to discern exactly what Zical's dream lover would look like and had incorporated these features into her new body. Dora is eager to experience new sensations, but is not prepared for the limitations of her new body. The adjustment was somewhat overwhelming, but Dora had devised a way to link up to the new sentience in the computer enabling her to experience more than her new human eyes and brain would normally allow. It is through this link up that she discovers the Sentinel's recall.

Zical is stunned by Dora's appearance. Her intelligence is still far above that of most humans, and her body is the stuff of dreams, but she is new to being human and her lack of control has made her afraid. Another immature female in his life is not something Zical needs. Dora, however is not about to be left behind, never to know what it would be like to mate with the man of her dreams. Imagine Zical's consternation when Tessa insists that Dora is essential to the success of his mission! He accepts this as logical although his feelings regarding the new Dora have absolutely nothing to do with logic.

As they journey into the unknown with the prospect of danger all around them, events occur which force the pair into a meeting of the minds.... and then some! With two strong willed and sensual protagonists steamy love scenes are given, however the overall plot is so intriguing at times it's almost tempting to rush through them to find out what happens next...Almost. Susan Kearney is a consummate story teller. I can't wait to get started on THE ULTIMATUM which is the next book in this enthralling series. ---- Reviewed for PNR Reviews