Scan barcode
A review by krysley
Antidote by R.A. Steffan
2.0
I was so aggravated by this book that I began skimming around the 75% mark. My personal rule is I don't rate books that I don't finish, but I really wanted to rate this one so I forced myself to finish it, even if that meant skimming the last 80 or so pages.
First of all, for a book that is supposed to be a science fiction romance, there isn't much science fiction. Or much real romance for that matter. I think this book easily could have been a modern "suspense" (because, let's be honest, there really wasn't any suspense either) rather than tagged as science fiction. The most science fictiony bits came in the form of spacecraft, teleportation, laser guns, and a cyborg. The rest of this was thinly veiled science fiction by adding random words.
There was no world building at all. We know that the Vithii are the dominant species (though the only thing that really separates them physically from humans is their weird dicks). We sort of know that they use humans as sex slaves, though this section seemed superfluous to the entire book since it was only brought up once. What else do we know about the Vithii? Not much. In fact, they use military time, drive vehicles that appear to be identical to what we as humans use, and act pretty much like humans. As I said, there was no world building or differentiating between Vithii and humans.
As for the romance, I don't understand how Hunter and Skye managed to fall in love when they had very few interactions and even fewer conversations. It was just, boom! We're in love. This is a clear cut case of instalove with no base for emotions to develop.
I think this plot would have been great if there had been better world building (or any at all!) and any kind of emotional development by either main character. The fact that they needed an antidote to protect an entire species from genocide is intriguing, but the story was handled poorly.
What I did like about the book: the secondary characters. I'm specifically talking about Kade, Draven, and Ash. Kade is an interesting case because of his addiction. I definitely felt some vibes between Draven and Ash, but I think there's a lot more going on with Ash than he's willing to tell the rest of the crew.
Though those three hold the potential for good stories, I won't be continuing with this series.
First of all, for a book that is supposed to be a science fiction romance, there isn't much science fiction. Or much real romance for that matter. I think this book easily could have been a modern "suspense" (because, let's be honest, there really wasn't any suspense either) rather than tagged as science fiction. The most science fictiony bits came in the form of spacecraft, teleportation, laser guns, and a cyborg. The rest of this was thinly veiled science fiction by adding random words.
There was no world building at all. We know that the Vithii are the dominant species (though the only thing that really separates them physically from humans is their weird dicks). We sort of know that they use humans as sex slaves, though this section seemed superfluous to the entire book since it was only brought up once. What else do we know about the Vithii? Not much. In fact, they use military time, drive vehicles that appear to be identical to what we as humans use, and act pretty much like humans. As I said, there was no world building or differentiating between Vithii and humans.
As for the romance, I don't understand how Hunter and Skye managed to fall in love when they had very few interactions and even fewer conversations. It was just, boom! We're in love. This is a clear cut case of instalove with no base for emotions to develop.
I think this plot would have been great if there had been better world building (or any at all!) and any kind of emotional development by either main character. The fact that they needed an antidote to protect an entire species from genocide is intriguing, but the story was handled poorly.
What I did like about the book: the secondary characters. I'm specifically talking about Kade, Draven, and Ash. Kade is an interesting case because of his addiction. I definitely felt some vibes between Draven and Ash, but I think there's a lot more going on with Ash than he's willing to tell the rest of the crew.
Though those three hold the potential for good stories, I won't be continuing with this series.