Title:
The Alliance

Author:
Patricia A. Waddell

Published By:
Lionhearted Pub
Inc

ISBN #:
Print:
1-57343-021-8

Electronic:
1-57343-014-5

Release Date:
Available Now

Format:
Print

Reuel Shatar is the Cadish of the Seventh Noble House, and the Governor of Pyrali, a planet of the Alliance. One of his duties is to sire a son to rule after him. Unfortunately, due to an infection from an insect bite, Reuel can no longer mate fruitfully with women of his own race.

Luckily, his advisors have found a woman of another race—an Earthwoman named Christa—on whom he can sire children. Not so luckily, Christa Kirklan is a rebellious woman from a rebellious minority of Earthlings settled on Pyrali, and currently in custody for treasonous statements against the government. Reuel can barely stand the thought of the turmoil that will ensue when she enters his controlled, quiet life. Nevertheless, Reuel does his duty and marries Christa, and discovers that his life—and the Alliance—will never be the same.

I've never understood some of these romances where the conflict between the man and woman is so artificial as to be laughable. Stories in which the woman is a spoiled brat who heaps abuse on the man, or where the man is so dominating that one expects him to club the little woman and drag her by the hair back to his cave just make me wonder why anyone would want to get into a relationship with that sort of toxic person.

It is so wonderful to note that the conflict in The Alliance is developed from a situation that felt real to me. The hero and heroine were not mindlessly combative with each other, but acted consistently throughout, even as they were growing and developing within the constraints of the story. Even though Reuel starts out thinking he can thoughtlessly dominate the women in his life, he soon begins to realize that domination isn't necessarily emotionally fulfilling. (Hey! He has human emotions! Imagine that!) Christa is a strong female character in that she logically sees that she must compromise in a situation she can't change, and realizes that not only is the hero an admirable man in many ways, but also that haranguing the hero only makes him more resistant to change.

My favorite moment in the book is when Christa tells Reuel that she is bored and he is honestly surprised that the mere fact of being his wife isn't fulfilling her. Although I really enjoy SF romance, many authors are good at either the SF part or the Romance part, but not both. Romance writers tend to have strange ideas about what SF is. I have read such books in which made-up words are used that the author apparently thinks sound “science-fictiony” without the author having a real understanding of science fiction. This usage tends to jar me out of the world of the story and make it difficult to get emotionally involved in the romance. SF writers who try to write romance tend to write a SF story, then, when their editor tells them to add a romantic interest, they add a relationship that reads as the afterthought that it is. I like to have both a good SF story and a good romance. I know it can be done, because a few authors have managed to do it. In this sense, The Alliance is among the few stories that smoothly combine both elements. (The only correction I'd make is to call people from Earth "Terrans" - "Earthling" sounds so 1950-ish!)

Finally, I really like the title - The Alliance is the name of the federation in which the story takes place, but it can also mean an “Alliance" between two people for the benefit of others—a very sophisticated concept as is the rest of the book!

Reviewed by: Jean