5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a ride!, March 7, 2009
This review is from: The Warlord's Daughter (Paperback)
I am a LONG time Futuristic and Science Fiction Romance fan. There are only a handful of authors out there in this genre that consistently write a good tale that is not erotica (or bordering on it). Susan Grant is one of them. I've read everything the lady has written. I adored her Star King series and Contact.
I was lukewarm on the first book of her Otherworldly Men series but really liked the second and third books. When I found I was lukewarm on her last book, the first of The Borderlands series, I hoped I was noticing a trend.
Yup, I was right.
The Warlord's Daughter blew me away. I couldn't put it down. This is the best thing she has written since The Star King. If you have been longing for the rip-roaring action, adventure, and intrigue of her earlier books, with a side-order of Sci-Fi and Romance, then this book is a must read.
The main romance in this book is about Wren (the daughter of the evil Supreme Warlord of the Drakken Horde) and Aral (the son of the evil Battlelord Karbon Mawndarr). It is a tale of soul mates, love at first sight, recognition of kindred spirits. After one brief meeting they never forgot each other. Their shared memory gave them the strength and hope to persevere. Separated by years of war, when they are reunited by chance, the seed that was planted so long ago is finally allowed to grow.
Hadley and Bolivarr from Moonstruck return. Bolivarr is still struggling to regain his memory and Hadley is now a Captain and given command of her first ship. It isn't necessary to have read Moonstruck to follow their story in this book. Susan fills in enough back-story so you won't feel lost.
Unaware of each other, the two groups begin the hunt to find the lost treasure of the Goddesses. At the same time, the newly formed Triad and the Drakken resistance are searching for both Wren and Aral.
The 1000 year war between the Coalition and the Drakken is finally over. Or is it?
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heartwarming science fiction thriller, March 7, 2009
This review is from: The Warlord's Daughter (Paperback)
Just as traitors inside the Coalition has been responsible for the kidnapping of the goddess queen, Keira, one closest to the Drakken Warlord had been responsible for his fall. Battlelord Aral Mawndarr had allowed the ship carrying the Queen's consort, Prince Jared Jasper of Earth, to breach the Warlord's flotilla. Together the royal pair had ended the Warlord's reign of terror, by ending his life, and a centuries old war in a near bloodless coup as Draaken believers had finally stood up to be counted.
This left Aral only two further pieces of business to attend to, the arrest and execution of his father Karbon Mawndarr, and the rescue of the Warlord's secret daughter, Awrenkka. Wren had been neglected by her father much as her people had been. Once, barely in her teens, he had seen fit to summon her to his presence only to parade her before the most powerful men in the Empire, a prize to be dangled and won by the man who garnered her father's favor. Poor Wren was hardly a prize except in the power a marriage to her would bestow on her unwanted mate. Denied the medical care even the lowest born in the Coalition took as a birthright, shy Wren was undersized and wore thick glasses that barely compensated for her poor eyesight. The room had been filled with cruel and powerful men like her father, except for one, a boy whose eyes had reflected the same loneliness and suffering she'd felt in her own heart, until, afraid of his father's scrutiny he'd hardened his expression. She's never forgotten the boy nor he her.
Karbon Mawndarr had been an even worse father than the Warlord he worshipped. Aral would have preferred to have been neglected compared to the daily beatings he'd suffered in his father's effort to subjugate his spirit. He had never succumbed but had followed his father's career path, becoming a Battlelord, currying the Warlord's favor until he'd become a favorite, until the man he had been granted the man's daughter's hand in marriage. He had fallen for the Wren at first sight recognizing a kindred spirit. Suddenly afraid he had quickly hidden his feelings, knowing that his father would have vied for her hand if only to deny his son's happiness. As a favored Draaken warrior, Aral had been working covertly as a Coalition spy. Now with the Warlord dead and peace restored, he was an unsung hero. Soon his cruel father would also be put to death for his crimes, and he would be free. But the Coalition had one last assignment for Aral: Find the Warlord's daughter and bring her into custody. He would find her all right, but on his own terms.
The woman he loved was not safe, not from anyone. Drakken loyalists would be seeking her, hoping to restore the Empire to glory through her DNA. The new Triad government would do anything to prevent that from happening, even if that meant executing an innocent soul for her father's crimes. A bounty had been placed on Wren's head. The entire universe is looking for her. Now his only duty is to find her before anyone else did and protect her with his very life if need be.
On her own after a lifetime of a sheltered existence, Wren has been charged with a sacred mission of her own. She holds the key, passed down by the mother she couldn't remember to the woman who loved her like one. In her dying breath Wren's guardian Sabra had charged her with finding Ara Ana, the long forgotten birthplace of the goddesses, to uncover a treasure and make the galaxy whole. Well disguised thanks to her late guardian, Wren is evacuated from the planet along with other Drakken refugees. Not knowing who she can trust in the crowded refugee camp, Wren quickly becomes paranoid, feeling that all eyes are upon her. Little does she know that the entire universe is searching for a composite of her genetically perfect parents, not an undersized, nearsighted, scrap of a woman.
Trader, Keir Vantos is an opportunist. Since everyone in the galaxy is looking for a royal beauty he decides to search for the exact opposite hoping that his intuition would land him the lucrative bounty. Aral Mawndarr knows exactly who he's looking for and where to find her. As luck would have it both find her, at the same time.
Unbeknownst to Aral, his father has escaped and the Triad government could not disallow the possibility that Karbon had been aided by his son. Now Aral was wanted as well. Their only way off the refugee planet is on the trader's ship. Fortunately, Wren can offer a bribe that makes the bounty on her head look like chump change.
And they're off, on a race to find Ana Ara before anyone else does. Little do they know their biggest competition will come from TAS Captain Hadley Keyren and the crew of the Cloud Shadow, whose security officer just happens to be a memory impaired, former Drakken wraith assassin by the name of Bolivaar who could very will determine all of their fates.
Of all Susan Grant's novels, this was my favorite of all. It had everything I love in a story - romance, intrigue, action, adventure and of course a happy ending. THE WARLORD'S DAUGHTER took two lost and lonely children, one neglected the other abused, and gave them strength and character to put an entire universe to rights or die trying. Both have the right stuff to do what needs to be done on their own but together they are all but invincible. There is not an abundance of steamy love scenes but IMHO they are not necessary as the connection Ms. Grant establishes between the pair is undeniably soul deep. For a science fiction thrill ride that touches the heart, I highly recommend this tale. ~ Reviewed for PNR Reviews
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
