Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fans of stories about otherworld adventures and travels across space will love Gabriel's Ghost, October 27, 2005
Courtesy of Love Romances
Fans of stories about otherworld adventures and travels across space will love Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair.
Chasidah "Chaz" Bergren is imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Stripped of her command in the Imperial Sixth Fleet and sent off to the prison planet of Moabar, she is just trying to survive in the harsh climate. Escape is not an option until the day she murders a guard in self-defense and comes face to face with a ghost from her past.
Gabriel "Sully" Sullivan is a legendary smuggler and mercenary, thought to be dead by the government, and Chaz as well. Here he is, alive and well... and determined to rescue her? He needs her help, for someone has initiated a program for breeding jukors, one of the most vicious, deadly creatures of their time. Chaz knows the Imperial command inside and out and is Sully's only hope.
Now these two are barreling across space, with only two missions in mind... to find and destroy all data and labs involved in the breeding program of the deadly monsters and to clear Chaz's name. Old feelings come swimming back to the surface between Chaz and Sully that they are unable to fight any longer. However, Sully has some deep dark secrets of his own that could make her turn from him in disgust. Can she see past what he is to the man in his heart?
Gabriel's Ghost is one nonstop adventure ride. The action starts immediately from the first paragraph, ebbing and flowing through to the last line. This reader loves how the book starts and ends with the same line, signifying that the story has come full circle. Though there are some slower moments during the space journey in the middle of the book, the plot continuously grows and changes with the characters, satisfying the readers. The secondary story lines add depth to the tale, providing plenty of mystery and twists to keep one guessing as to what will happen next.
Chaz is a strong woman, having been forced to grow up at a young age by the very nature of her family's lifestyle. Sully is all alpha male, powerful, brave, forceful in his intentions, protecting those in his care no matter what the cost. Yet he is also a tortured man, keeping secret the true nature of his person that would make him hated and feared for all the wrong reasons if anyone were to discover him. These two need each other; each is strong where the other is weak, perfectly melding their personalities to make them an unbreakable, united force.
Religion plays a strong role in the book, with the ways of the Englarians affecting everything that happens and coloring the ways of the people. It is fascinating to see how Ms. Sinclair weaves the beliefs of the monks into the characters' actions. Prejudice also plays a big role in the story, especially in regards to one character, the Stolorth Ren. One sees through his first hand experiences how misinformation, or even just a lack of knowledge, can be misused and misdirected, hurting those who do not deserve it. If these two concepts - religion and racial intolerance - were eliminated from the book, then the story would read completely different and possibly not have as much of an impact on its readers.
Gabriel's Ghost will appeal to fans of traditional science fiction, with the strongly developed technology and worlds. Yet there is a strong romantic storyline with the beautifully developed characters that is bound to charm fans of that genre as well.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, September 2005. All rights reserved.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love, Love, Love, Love This Book!, March 4, 2006
Chasidah "Chaz" Bergren was on her way up the ladder of the Federated Fleet. She was captain of her own ship and well respected by those under her command as well as her superiors. Or so she thought. When Chaz was accused of ignoring orders which led to the deaths of fourteen of her crew, she couldn't believe it. She was stunned during her trial when her friends deserted her and data was created to convict her. Condemned to spend the rest of her life on the prison planet, Moabar, Chaz has her hands full just trying to stay alive. When Gabriel "Sully" Sullivan shows up to rescue her, Chaz is stunned. He supposedly died two years ago. And why did he want to rescue her, anyway? It is true that both of them enjoyed sparring verbally and there was an undeniable physical attraction, but they had always been on opposite sides of the fence: she a Fleet captain, he a smuggler out stealing whatever he could whenever he could. Still, going anywhere with Sully had to be better than staying on Moabar.
Chaz reluctantly agrees to help Sully track down an illegal jukor lab on Marker, her home planet where her older brother still runs the shipping yards. She doesn't quite believe Sully when he insists that the Federation is breeding jukors there. After all, the Federation had cancelled the jukor project years ago, hadn't they? Who would be stupid enough to keep created animals that could not be controlled and were extremely difficult to kill?
It soon becomes obvious to Chaz that Sully is right - there is a jukor lab on Marker and another lab is being built on a space ship somewhere. Gradually Sully wins Chaz' trust and they are close to becoming involved when Chaz discovers that Sully is a powerful empath/telepath and can change people's thoughts, read minds and kill with the power of his mind alone. The whole Federation has been educated to hate and fear the Solorths because they have this power, but Chaz never expected to encounter a human who wields power like a Stolorth. How can Chaz trust Sully when he swears that he has not tricked her into going along with his plans? He has already altered a memory and invaded her mind when he wanted to gain information about her ex-husband. However, Chaz soon realizes that Sully hates and fears what he is, too. He fears that he will never gain acceptance from anyone, especially Chaz, whom he has loved for years and years. Little by little, Sully opens up to Chaz and tries to show her that he is not the monster that the universe thinks he is and little by little Chaz comes to believe him, but how much of the truth can Chaz take? How much is love willing to overlook and accept? As Sully and Chaz try to sort out their feelings and fears, they realize that the jukor conspiracy reaches up much higher than they hoped - all the way to the leaders of the Federation itself...
This is the first book that I have read by Linnea Sinclair and she is now up there at the top with my other favorite authors. This book was simply amazing. It had a very engrossing plotline with a lot of details about the technologically advanced futuristic world that Sully and Chaz live in. Religion, politics, military, you name it, it was discussed and figured into the plot. The world was very real and I loved Baker's characters. Sully was a gorgeous, tortured, dark hero who desperately needed someone to love him despite who and what he was. Chaz was a strong female character, but not obnoxious and not too independent to want to have friends and a special someone she could lean on. The supporting characters included people from all races and types including Ren, a blind Stolorth who was forced to hide from his people or he would be killed; the giant, hairy takas, who were raping and killing human women in retaliation for the federation experimenting on their women; Philip, Chaz' ex-husband, who still loves her and yet cannot change his rigid Fleet training to win her back; Sister Berri, a very devout, almost insane priestess who believes she is on a holy quest, and many, many more. The romance between Sully and Chaz was a wonderful subplot and handled so well by Sinclair, I was truly impressed. A simply wonderful book that is well worth any price that you pay for it! Buy this and pray that Mrs. Sinclair is writing a sequel - I know you will love it!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly and happily surprised!, January 21, 2006
I was very surprised with this novel! I was expecting a by the numbers space soap opera. But there was more space than soap. More character than romance. Orginally, I saw this classed as a futuristic romance. I can see why that occurred. I would be easier to market. I once read that science fiction was the fiction of ideas, fantasy that of emotion and romance that of sensation.
With the characters of Chas and Sully, we have all three fictions wrapped into a nice tight narrative.
Here are the basics, by the book Chas was once a Captain in the Imperial Fleet. Sully, a roguish, sexy pirate. She is courtmarshalled for a crime she did not commit. Sully swoops in and rescues her from the hellish prsion planet she is on.
They navigate through a very believable world with a depth that shows a great deal of time spent on world building. There are points of suspence when you aren't quite sure that the there will be a happily ever after.
The roguish hero isn't the ever present alpha male who can fix all and has all under control. The heroine isn's the super spunky miss we are so used to.
There is science mixed in with the fiction, enough that the title of futuristic romance is totally misplaced and the genre of science fiction fits.
Bearing that in mind, there are marvelous, romantic and steamy love scenes, but not so many that the story is lost.
I can recommend this with absolutely not one concern. A definite must read!
In fact, I was reminded of the EARLY Anita Blake novels, but with laser guns instead of silver knives and semi autos!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
