Customer Reviews

Interstellar Service & Discipline: Victorious Star

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Practically everyone reviewing this book has gushed over the sex scenes, which are definitely hot and not for the faint of heart or easily offended. There's strong BDSM, m/f and m/f/m scenes as well as one other consensual act that can't be mentioned here. However, what makes Victorious Star worthy of the 5-star rating is the overall story itself.

Ms. Hawke has brilliantly fused such diverse ideas ranging from the 80's cyberpunk movement to Anne McCaffrey's 'The Ship Who Sang' and even throwing in a bit of ancient Egyptian language. She has created a universe full of sentient ships and fascinating races and peppered it with large interstellar battles worthy of C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brien with enough action and derring-do to make even 007 wipe his brow.

That's a good thing because if the book depended on the strength of its characters it wouldn't have succeeded as well. Unfortunately the three main characters - Captain Aubrey Ravnos, his second-in-command, the skheldi blood prince Seht and their soon-to-be submissive, former Imperial nav-pilot Victoria Stark - aren't as fully fleshed out as they could have been.

Aubrey and Seht have what seems to be the standard Dom/Dom relationship in books such as this one and frankly it seemed a little improbable that Seht, a blood-prince from the warlike and rather vicious skheldi, would choose to be less than overly dominant towards a human (Aubrey) whom his people regard as nothing more than pleasure toys and slaves.

Victoria Stark, known as the "Victorious Star" for her habit of rescuing ships from nearly impossible situations brought about by incompetent captains goes from tough, [...] and self-assured to submissive without a really tangible transition point. She maintains the attitude, but that seems less about her personality and more about a plot device that moves the story along. She likes the sex, but often has interior monologues that make her (and the reader) wonder why. There's no deeper look into her need and desire to be dominated, especially by these two alpha males. Also, the few m/m scenes weren't as intense as I'd hoped.

Overall though, Victorious Star is a compelling read and a good book from a talented author. I've read on the author's website there's to be both a sequel and a prequel. That's great because it would definitely help flesh out the lives of the characters more.

A surprisingly successful blending of two genre that normally don't really go together. Yes there's the Empresses' New Clothes but that's really erotic romance captured by aliens sub genre. Victoria is a Nav-pilot who is augmented so that she can interact with the sentient ships. She likes them much better than her superior officers and often saves the ship at their expense. She is an Imperial officer but is dumped outside the Imperial borders to wait for pickup and reassignment after embarrassing her two superior officers by winning a battle after they abandoned ship. She gets in a fight with the nav-pilot of the mercenary ship she ran off and kills him. She is abducted by the ships captain Ravnos to act as the nav-pilot for his ship. But she is shared with his lover Seht one of the non-human Skeldhi who normally hate humans except as pets and sex toys. There's an interesting villain who apparently is like the energizer bunny he just keeps going and going. The character development is good and the characters compelling with a good plot and some humor.

But this book has light non-consensual sex, same sex sex, BDSM, Ds, MS and is not for those who find these distasteful. Although over all its good enough it might change your mind. Hopefully this is the start of a series.

This book was a wonderful blend of sf with hot erotic scenes. Not for the faint of heart! M/M and M/M/F action abound. BDSM bordering on rape. I read this book in 2 hours and could not put it down. I have to say that I think this is one of Hawke's best books yet.

Victoria Stark, an Imperial Navigations Pilot is known as the Victorious Star, due to her uncanny ability to save her ships long after the captains have abandoned said ships. She's also never "serviced" any captain, so when she's kidnapped by a mercenary, Captain Aubrey Ravnos of the Hellsbreath, he takes savage delight in being her first. Joining in on the fun is the second in command, Commander Seht, and both men take great pleasure out of asserting their dominance over her. Victoria wasn't brought onto the Hellsbreath just for fun and games though, Ravnos has a mission for her. He needs her and Seht to infiltrate an auction where The Arcane, an Imperial ship is being sold and steal the ship's sentience before any other mercenaries can get their hands on it. The Arcane has seen countless battles and to Victoria, it's a war hero that deserves respect. She's determined to save the ship and so she embarks on a dangerous DNA transformation that turns her into a rehkyt. Seht's people enslave humans and turn them rehkyt, or mind altered slaves, and in Victoria's case, he's going to turn her into a seysehn, or sex-toy. It will explain her presence with him and provide Seht with an amusing way to pass the time. While Victoria might chafe at the loss of her independence and the loss of her ranking within the Imperium, she's fallen in love with the two men in her life and revels in their desire for her. She's determined to save The Arcane and return safely to the Hellsbreath but once there, she is unsure of what the future holds. Will she be able to stay with Seht and Ravnos? Or will her new DNA markings force her to flee from the very men who made her change possible?

I really, really liked this book. It was extremely sexy, erotic and sensuous as all get out. It was exciting and Morgan Hawke filled it with extremely interesting characters. There were amusing introductions to fellow rehkyts, as well as a very perverted old Stationmaster that had me laughing and rolling my eyes at his eager, horny antics. Plus, the sentient mind of The Arcane was really funny and I liked having him around. The plot wasn't overly complicated but the world building was fascinating to read about, though it takes a few reads to process all the nuances and especially the names.

Captain Ravnos and Commander Seht have a very intriguing past and Victoria is dragged literally into the middle of these two dominate and forceful men. Ravnos is an augmented human and Seht is a Skeldhi prince. The Skeldhi race hate humans and think them only worthwhile as slaves, and for Seht to operate underneath the command of Ravnos makes for a very interesting story. There is definite love between these two proud men but it's a stormy, uncomfortable type of love. The type of I-hate-to-love-you passion that needs the calming influence of a woman to gentle. There are some very tender m/m moments but most of the erotic action is m/f/m oriented. The first love scene is a little eyebrow raising with it's forcefulness but I enjoyed it very, very much, as did Victoria. There is also one extremely erotic whipping scene between the two men that I found surprisingly arousing and strangely compelling. Normally I don't like m/m or female dominant BDSM scenes because they tend to get bloody. While this one does gets bloody, it was extremely erotic and very loving. It was a beautifully written, brutal scene that is not for the faint of heart. Heck, this whole book is not for the faint of heart, but I enjoyed it and if you like sci/fi romance with a little BDSM and D/s thrown into the mix, you will enjoy this, too. I highly recommend this book as an exciting and humorous read that you will not be disappointed in. Enjoy!

Does this book have some hot sex scenes? Yes. But it's at too high of a price. Both lead men are extremely brutal. I have read many good dominance and submission stories and this isn't one of them. The dominant doesn't just take without first having trust in place (otherwise, a dominant is just a very selfish lover). A dominant seeks to fulfill both their needs. The submissive also has some way out, a safe word, something. Not in this tale. Ravnos or Seht care only about their pleasure and relentlessly brow beat and place Victoria in situations where she is sure to be punished, raped, and more against her will.

The first sex scene is extremely brutal with both men ganging up on her, men who are augmented, thus unbelievably strong, and don't hesitate to take her against her will. Even though she gets aroused, it is still rape. In real life, some rape victims experience arousal against their will and feel even more that they somehow 'deserved' it, when they absolutely did not! Both Ravnos and Seht blame her for their actions, saying that her arousal makes everything they do alright. What complete crap. In this scene, Ravnos sodomizes her so brutally it should have left her with severe internal injuries.

I found myself repeatedly outraged from chapter to chapter. Victoria is a strong woman who is victimized physically, mentally, emotionally...name it, they do it to her. There's even a scene where in order to speed up the process of turning her into a sex slave, Ravnos and Seht attack her with real swords to slice her up as she defends herself with a practice sword. The nanites healing her apparently speed up her transformation.

Maybe Morgan Hawke was trying to show how tough Victoria is, but I did not enjoy reading how she couldn't escape them, being sliced at from every turn by these men. Yeah, such big strong men that it took two of them to do the job to their satisfaction. There's also a scene where Seht urinates on her to mark her as his. And his sudden fierce love for her is supposed to make this okay???

Throughout the story, her mental state is completely irrelevant. The men don't give a flying leap. In one scene, Seht casually takes away her ability to speak without warning or discussion, and Morgan Hawke has Victoria treat it with anger that's quickly forgotten but not the true feeling of utter helplessness this would cause. He does it `for a good reason'. But so do all abusive men. She is never treated as a smart co-conspirator, but as someone who takes orders and is punished for questioning them.

There is no build up of trust. There is no build up of affection, unlike the Lost Star tale that is the prequel to this story. In fact, Ravnos completely turns around his situation, becoming the dominant in Lost Star. This never happens for Victoria. She never gets any of her own back against the two men who brutalize her the most.

At one point, Ravnos suddenly becomes a little more affectionate after all the rapes, but it rings false as an attempt by the author to soften him up and make him likeable.

The more I read, the less I could tolerate either male character or Seht's culture as a whole. It was also unbelievable that Victoria, one of the best nav-pilot's in the entire galaxy, willingly becomes a nobody at the end. She becomes literally owned property with no rights, a sex-slave to both Ravnos and Seth, all for the name of love and because they've ruined her chance to stay a nav-pilot anywhere else. Only Victoria's inner rationalizations make any of what they do to her excusable (because they apologize for nothing) - without these, their many acts would be completely unforgivable.

In the end, I pitied her as a woman brain washed by their brutality. I forced myself to finish the book, hoping against hope that Victoria would get some justly deserved revenge and force both men to treat her with respect. And I still feel outraged that this never happened. I will not be buying anymore Morgan Hawke stories about this universe.

I found this book to be just o.k the story was interesting but the relationship aspect was very lacking i found victora intreaction with ship much better than her intreaction with the captain and the first officer, the sex scence were abrupt and inpersonal especailly on the captain part. i like emotion with sex, other than that i did not mind the book at all.

As someone else said, this book has light non-consensual sex, same sex sex, BDSM, Ds, MS and is not for those who find these distasteful.

That being said, the characters are entertaining and well developed. I found myself drawn in by better story-telling than that found in the Jaid Black novels, though I have to admit [...] all of hers.

What I missed was a bit more to the non-sex potion of the plot. I had a hard time believing that Victoria was so essential to the Imperium for her technical skills because her sexual journey is the center of gravity of this story. By comparison, Justine Davis does a great job with female futuristic fighter pilots and military tacticians, involved in a sexual journey, in Lord of the Storm and The Skypirate. The sex scenes in this story go on for a long time, and there are quite a few of them, compared to the rest of the (almost non-existent) plot.

At bottom, however, Victorias personal, sexual, journey is intriging. It is reminiscent of 'Submission' by Marthe Blau, in which an attorney gets drawn into an illicit affair that challenges her fundamental notions of herself.

Redonk Nutshell: Nav pilot is abducted onto a mercenary ship and put to the test between two dominant men

I have a special place in my heart for this book, mostly because it was the first straight up sci-fi BDSM menage erotica I ever read. Why is it that, though these things aren't necessarily things we want to experience, we find ourselves fascinated with them anyway? I don't know. All I know is I was completely entranced with this book, mostly because it completely blew my dwindling prudish barriers to smithereens. Make no mistake, my fellow Raunchers - this is some seriously raunchy stuff. It's not for the faint of heart. Threesome galore, anal sex (including an alien with more than one...er...well...you'll see), bondage and submission...it packs a serious smutty punch.

That said, I LOVE THIS BOOK. *laughs maniacally* Lemme just say for the record it's straight up porn. The bonus is that the story of this book just happens to rock. Morgan Hawke did a stellar job creating a futuristic world where ships are sentient beings (Farscape anyone?), and the humans that help to pilot them have to jack-in to their system. We are introduced to different cultures and a wide array of adventure. The marriage of sci-fi and erotica is simply superb.

Then of course is the relationship between our main characters, Victoria Stark aka the Victorious Star, Captain Ravnos and his partner and Commander First Officer Seht. Ravnos and Seht have a history together, and when they bring in Victoria they immediately recognize her potential not just for their crew, but also for their bedroom.

Deliciously raunchy, Victorious Star is a rare sci-fi erotica book that also packs a hell of a story punch.

Victorious Star by Morgan Hawke, 484 pgs, 8/24/06

Rating: A

Romance: 1/5 Raunch: 5/5

Fastastic story - I stopped reading and ordered the next book Lost Star because this book is so terrific. I am going to read Lost Star (should have it in a couple days) and then I am going to read Victorious Star again. It will go on my Keeper shelf. It has plenty of tough, very emotional romance (quite a nice variety!), lots of humor and lots of action besides. Loved it!! Ms. Hawke, please please write more in this series!!

This is the very first story by Morgan Hawke that I have ever read. I thought all of the characters were great, and very unique on the their own and together make an interesting union. The dynamics between Ravnos and Seht are pretty hot. I would recommend this to anybody.