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A review by kaje_harper
Blue on Black by Carole Cummings
4.0
This is a book for fantasy lovers, full of atmospheric steampunkish-magic/tech and imaginative world building. The main characters are great, and the action is tense and exciting.
Bas is working undercover, looking for the killer of a young psionic gridTech genius whose charred corpse was found in his lab, and whose notebooks and journals documented a brilliant young man gone too soon. Bas has studied Kimolijah's writing, to the point where he feels like he knows and mourns the dead man. So he has seriously mixed feelings when he makes it to the outlaw-suspect's remote border town, and finds Kimo alive, and apparently, possibly even willingly, helping his captor build astonishing gridTech inventions.
It's Bas's job, as a tracker, to sort out the truth, rescue any captive Techs, and restore justice. But in this small criminal empire, run by one half-crazy Baron with a bunch of hardened men, it's hard to figure out who is on what side. It doesn't help that there seem to be far more than just two sides. It also doesn't help that unknown alien creatures walk (and fly) in the area, that Kimo will talk only in obscure riddles, or that Bas's infatuation for a dead man is turning into a serious hard-on for a potentially insane or criminal live one.
This is a slow, slow burn story with a lot of details. Both the action and the characters take a long time to unravel, and I spent the first half of the book alternately thrilled, charmed and baffled. Had I read straight through (and paid better attention) I think this would have been a 5-star read. But, because I didn't quite make that effort, some of the details of who among the wide cast of secondary characters was subject to whom, or had what abilities, or what past, escaped me. For that reason the climactic action, thrilling as it was, still confused me slightly.
On the other hand, I adored Bas, and Kimo, and felt for both of them in the impossibilities of their situation. I was invested in their safety, and their attraction. I definitely wanted a happy ending for them. The book does provide a HFN, in beautifully-chosen words that let me set it down with a sigh. I love this author's prose, and recommend this for anyone who likes detailed fantasy or paranormal, with a side of slow-burn romance, and great characters.
Bas is working undercover, looking for the killer of a young psionic gridTech genius whose charred corpse was found in his lab, and whose notebooks and journals documented a brilliant young man gone too soon. Bas has studied Kimolijah's writing, to the point where he feels like he knows and mourns the dead man. So he has seriously mixed feelings when he makes it to the outlaw-suspect's remote border town, and finds Kimo alive, and apparently, possibly even willingly, helping his captor build astonishing gridTech inventions.
It's Bas's job, as a tracker, to sort out the truth, rescue any captive Techs, and restore justice. But in this small criminal empire, run by one half-crazy Baron with a bunch of hardened men, it's hard to figure out who is on what side. It doesn't help that there seem to be far more than just two sides. It also doesn't help that unknown alien creatures walk (and fly) in the area, that Kimo will talk only in obscure riddles, or that Bas's infatuation for a dead man is turning into a serious hard-on for a potentially insane or criminal live one.
This is a slow, slow burn story with a lot of details. Both the action and the characters take a long time to unravel, and I spent the first half of the book alternately thrilled, charmed and baffled. Had I read straight through (and paid better attention) I think this would have been a 5-star read. But, because I didn't quite make that effort, some of the details of who among the wide cast of secondary characters was subject to whom, or had what abilities, or what past, escaped me. For that reason the climactic action, thrilling as it was, still confused me slightly.
On the other hand, I adored Bas, and Kimo, and felt for both of them in the impossibilities of their situation. I was invested in their safety, and their attraction. I definitely wanted a happy ending for them. The book does provide a HFN, in beautifully-chosen words that let me set it down with a sigh. I love this author's prose, and recommend this for anyone who likes detailed fantasy or paranormal, with a side of slow-burn romance, and great characters.