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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Novel and 3 short stories about warriors, September 27, 2007
This review is from: Warlord (Paperback)
The bulk of this book is made up of the story "Jane's Warlord" about a newspaper reporter, Jane Colby, who finds her life suddenly becoming a great deal more complicated than normal when she discovers a large man with a tame wolf in her house. Baran explains that he is a time traveller from the future sent to deal with a psychopathic criminal from his own time who is preying on women in Jane's town - and Jane will be one of his victims. Baran and his talking wolf, Freika, have to convince Jane that she needs their help and also prepare for the unexpected appearance of the murderer, Druas. Jane wants to continue her life, though, although it's rather difficult with a huge warrior and a giant wolf constantly with her.
The plot of this story was very good with the time-travelling aspects adding interest and the historical references to Jack the Ripper giving a fascinating angle on other past crimes. Jane is a feisty heroine and Baran has more to him than just a thick-skulled warrior; both Jane and Baran have to overcome events in their past that could cause them to fail in their missions. As with other Angela Knight books there is a lot of sex in this book, sometimes distracting the reader from the plot a little, but the overall story was a good read.
The three short stories also bundled in this collection are less satisfying, mainly because the bulk of the stories seem to be based on the sexual exploits of the heroines, not actual plot, at least in the last two stories. "Warfem", the longest of the short stories, is rather better than the other two as it contains a decent plot. Alina is a female warrior, a Warfem, who has been bound as a slave to a woman for twenty years, having had to give up her lover Baird. When she bumps into Baird again the old resentments and sadnesses are stirred up but Alina is as firmly bound to her master as before - the reason soon becomes apparent. Baird is gathering evidence of treason and it seems like his former love is knee-deep in it. Can Alina and Baird sort out their joint history and rescue a young boy at the same time? This story was well written and the underlying concept was very good.
Unfortunately the same can't be said for "The Warlord and the Fem" which, although including an interesting premise (a Warlord has to work to prove to a Warfem that she will enjoy his mastery of her), is rather short on action apart from sexual action with the notable exception of the fight scene at the beginning. The entire story seems to be constructed around their sexual needs - that Baird (the hero has the same name as in the previous story) and Kyna have to come to terms with a dominant relationship. Baird wears Kyna down with chess games (unusual seduction method, that) and with a mock-fight. The story isn't bad, it just seems to peter out rather and the sex in this story is more graphic than in the earlier elements to this book.
The fourth story, "Baby You've Changed", has almost nothing to it apart from a sex scene which many people would probably find offensive. Tamir had a love affair with a human years ago but as she's a Warfem the human wasn't powerful enough for her and she humiliated him and let him go. Now he has reappeared in her life but Gage Deauxville is now a vampire, extremely powerful and is after Tamir, needing to show his dominance and mastery of her in the traditional Warlord way. The scene is set in the first two pages and the rest of this story is all about the sex that they have and the description of this event is one that many people may find distasteful, and it's described in great detail too.
The last two stories were apparently written for an internet newsgroup by Angela Knight and are rather more explicit than her novels and for me I think the book would have been more acceptable overall if it just contained the first two stories. The last two, being more about sex and less about plot, reduced the impact of the earlier stories and may also cause many readers to be uncomfortable with what they are reading. The world of the Warlord and Warfems that Angela Knight has created is an interesting one and she is good at writing action and plot; however when the stories become just about sex they are less successful and a little disappointing.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, [...]. © Helen Hancox 2007
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
another winner from Angela Knight!, August 2, 2008
This review is from: Warlord (Paperback)
I read WARRIOR first (though it is book two), so I had a basis in this world from that. I like Angela's vampires, but this is my favorite of her series, by far, and ENFORCER and future books are auto-buys for me.
WARLORD is made up of four distinct stories, and I was glad to have the chance to read all of them!
JANE'S WARLORD is the novel centerpiece of the omnibus. It's the story of Riane Arvid's parents. Jane runs a newspaper in the 21st Century. Baran Arvid is dropped in her time by the rather villainous Temporal Enforcement officer who seems to follow all of the Time Hunter books. Baran's mission? Try to keep the time traveler who committed the Jack The Ripper murders and is currently picking up the trail in 21stC America from killing Jane...and kill the criminal, while he's at it. The TE is armed with all sorts of information that prove the criminal and Baran went head to head in our time, but aside from the basic information on the criminal's identity, they give Baran nothing to work with, believing he'll cause a paradox, if given too much information.
WARFEM also has ties to WARRIOR. In this case, it's the story of Galar Arvid's parents. Alina Kasi and Baird Arvid were childhood sweethearts, parted twenty years earlier. After their success in driving the Xer from their homeworld, they were supposed to be freed from their contracts. But, Alina's company president had other plans. Using Alina's (at their parting) unborn son to Baird as a hostage (a son Baird never knew existed), they succeeded in forcing her to remain in their service for another twenty years. If Alina balks them, their son's tampered implants will kill him. It's up to Baird to find out what Alina is hiding from him...and prove she's innocent of treason.
THE WARLORD AND THE FEM takes place long after the time line of the other stories (about 100 years, by the hints given), in a future where the Femmats have driven the genetically-engineered Warlords and Warfems from their homeworld and scattered them across the universe to avoid a war with them. Baird Airell is a Warlord in search of a mate, and he's found Kyna, a mercenary Warfem who wasn't raised in the colonies but rather in the merc fleet. She's not sure she can submit to Baird, as a Warlord requires.
BABY, YOU'VE CHANGED is the shortest story. It is the story of Tamir, a Warfem merc, and Gage Deauxville, a former lover she dumped because he was incapable of dominating her as a Warlord would...being nothing more than a human. When her team is captured by his ship, Tamir has a surprise in store for her. Gage isn't just a human anymore. He's a dominant vampire, and he's studied precisely how a Warlord would have dominated her.
Okay...I've said it before and I'll say it again. Angela is a wonderful world-builder and her characterization ROCKS! I can't wait to read more from this series. I love that she shows how generations evolve and change within the world framework. I love that she keeps adding in more and more races and fleshing them out. This series has endless possibilities.
Complaints? Only one. I can honestly say that WARRIOR was MUCH better edited than WARLORD was. Since WARRIOR is the second book in the series, that bodes well for future books, thank goodness. This book would have been darned near perfect, if I hadn't found the editing errors I did. It's not enough to kill what Angela has going right for it, but it was a distraction that didn't need to be.
KUDOS to Angela!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
disappointed, May 7, 2009
Her later books are better. I ordered this as background; the main story and the novella are the stories of parents of later characters. Let's just say the kids are more likeable than their parents.
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