Hey all,
I just finished reading Amy Lane’s “A Solid Core of Alpha”. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s the story of a boy, Anderson, who sees his entire world destroyed, and flees in a shuttle on a ten year flight all alone to find safety, and a man, CJ, who meets Anderson when he finally arrives at his destination.
A good portion of the book revolves around the shuttle journey. And if you think that one guy in a shuttle would make for boring reading, you’d be wrong.
Anderson learns to tinker with the shuttle holodeck, and builds a whole life for himself on the ship, complete with a variety of friends with different character traits. Along the way, he experiences his sexual awakening.
I was truly impressed with how Lane handled Anderson’s development, from scared 12 year old boy to sexually active adult.
There’s a surprise storyline here about sexual violence that’s also really well handled.
I’m not sure whether to classify Alpha as a romance or sci fi story – it really straddles both genres. There’s a lot more MM relationship stuff (and sex) than I’m used to in sci fi, but on the other hand, there’s a well thought out sci fi premise here, too.
Speaking of the sex, it’s well done too. And, importantly, it’s not here gratuitously. It is really an integral part of the plot and the characters’ storylines.
To me, the most rewarding thing was seeing how Anderson’s character managed to integrate all of the aspects of his personality by the end of the story – and CJ was pretty happy about it, too.
I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone looking for sci fi with a strong MM relationship running through the middle of it.