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A review by mx_manda
Hunted By The Alien General by A.M. Griffin
4.0
Another enjoyable installment of The Hunt series, this time we finish off Esme's group with Ben's story...and we finally get to meet those Sket we keep hearing so much about. (And find out what happened to some of the others near the end.)
Possible mild spoilers ahead:
Though not as strong as some of the other stories in this series, HBTAG still has many of the elements that make these work. Griffin has a talent for revisiting events multiple times over without feeling like that annoying recap at the beginning of shows—remember those? Ugh, worst. There's just enough overlap and touching points to remind the reader what was happening at the time, then moves along with a unique storyline from then on.
And Ben, the US Marine who seemed like he should be a shoe-in to go far in the games, has a very interesting journey. Which leads to another strength in Griffin's writing: she subverts expectations and keeps things fresh and out of cliché land.
This story is fairly short, but a slower burn. The relationship build in this was pretty satisfying. I liked that before Ben knows who he's really talking to, he's already developing an attachment based on personality and enjoyed company.
The Main Conflict...eh, that's where I felt some of the weaknesses came in, since so many Big Things had to be conveniently omitted to make it happen.
OOPSIDOODLE.
With that topic having been an issue for more than half Adiya's life, and something she and Ben talked about regularly, it really didn't make sense in the context of the story that neither he nor his assistant would have had it mentioned to them. Both Adiya and Nasir conveniently forgot about it?
With soldier stories, there's often a lack of softness and depth to them, which wasn't the case here. I appreciated seeing a service member who wasn't a two dimensional caricature, constantly waving a flag and screaming that Freedom Isn't Free while his lady swoons at home for his bravery and waxes poetic about his service.
Even being part of a military family, I really hate Military Fap material and usually avoid it in my reads.
Ben struggles to figure out what to do with himself since he's not working anymore, a large part of his identity was his job—which happens often with men—but he has hobbies and interests to fall back on. He's kind and thoughtful and figures out how to pivot, even if he's not totally thrilled with the initial description and experiences in his new life.
And.
Probably my biggest niggle with this story.
So.
How human sperm was somehow different from Sket sperm and rendered their birth control ineffective? That's like arguing if I went back several thousand years in time, I could get knocked up by any of our human ancestors despite having effective and ideally used birth control in place, because their guys somehow swim differently.
SFR loves this trope, because they conveniently forget—or perhaps more worrying, genuinely do not know—that hormonal birth control effects ovulation, not sperm. No egg, no baby. End of story. Sorry, y'all. Strong swimming doesn't help hit a non-existent target.
Unless the Sket have some different form of birth control they use for uterus people? Based on how high tech they are, I assumed it was a hormonally based one to prevent ovulation like we use now and is most effective. Probably with a much more reliable and more effective hormonal regulation method.
I've hit the point where I've thought about this way too long.
Despite getting hung up on these things, I still really enjoyed the story and there's a lot to like in it. I can not wait to see who we follow next, as we have a second group of people with yet-unknown fates. And. I'd even like to see a short about the two vapid socialites who were immediately caught. It was great to hear they're happy, but I will not deny being curious about their fame now. And. The opportunity to write lots of interesting alien smut.
P.S. Penis is the absolutely least sexy word for a dick, even worse than prick—unless it's orcs, then I'll go with it. 5 times on a single page and never using any other name for a phallus—not even length, really??—the entire time was too much penis.
Possible mild spoilers ahead:
Though not as strong as some of the other stories in this series, HBTAG still has many of the elements that make these work. Griffin has a talent for revisiting events multiple times over without feeling like that annoying recap at the beginning of shows—remember those? Ugh, worst. There's just enough overlap and touching points to remind the reader what was happening at the time, then moves along with a unique storyline from then on.
And Ben, the US Marine who seemed like he should be a shoe-in to go far in the games, has a very interesting journey. Which leads to another strength in Griffin's writing: she subverts expectations and keeps things fresh and out of cliché land.
Spoiler
And can I get a rAmen for trauma finally being dealt with via mental health care and other treatments instead of sex or love curing all?This story is fairly short, but a slower burn. The relationship build in this was pretty satisfying. I liked that before Ben knows who he's really talking to, he's already developing an attachment based on personality and enjoyed company.
The Main Conflict...eh, that's where I felt some of the weaknesses came in, since so many Big Things had to be conveniently omitted to make it happen.
OOPSIDOODLE.
With that topic having been an issue for more than half Adiya's life, and something she and Ben talked about regularly, it really didn't make sense in the context of the story that neither he nor his assistant would have had it mentioned to them. Both Adiya and Nasir conveniently forgot about it?
With soldier stories, there's often a lack of softness and depth to them, which wasn't the case here. I appreciated seeing a service member who wasn't a two dimensional caricature, constantly waving a flag and screaming that Freedom Isn't Free while his lady swoons at home for his bravery and waxes poetic about his service.
Even being part of a military family, I really hate Military Fap material and usually avoid it in my reads.
Ben struggles to figure out what to do with himself since he's not working anymore, a large part of his identity was his job—which happens often with men—but he has hobbies and interests to fall back on. He's kind and thoughtful and figures out how to pivot, even if he's not totally thrilled with the initial description and experiences in his new life.
And.
Probably my biggest niggle with this story.
Spoiler
Even though the Sket have been off Earth for 5,000+ years, they seemed to be at best, a slightly differently evolved version of humanity—meaning minor cosmetic differences. Drastic evolutionary changes take way longer than the Sket had been gone from Earth, even considering they were likely from the Old Kingdom time period, because...pyramids. It was mentioned several times that yeah, technically they were still human, but had undergone a name change and had a separate identity from humanity.So.
How human sperm was somehow different from Sket sperm and rendered their birth control ineffective? That's like arguing if I went back several thousand years in time, I could get knocked up by any of our human ancestors despite having effective and ideally used birth control in place, because their guys somehow swim differently.
SFR loves this trope, because they conveniently forget—or perhaps more worrying, genuinely do not know—that hormonal birth control effects ovulation, not sperm. No egg, no baby. End of story. Sorry, y'all. Strong swimming doesn't help hit a non-existent target.
Unless the Sket have some different form of birth control they use for uterus people? Based on how high tech they are, I assumed it was a hormonally based one to prevent ovulation like we use now and is most effective. Probably with a much more reliable and more effective hormonal regulation method.
I've hit the point where I've thought about this way too long.
Despite getting hung up on these things, I still really enjoyed the story and there's a lot to like in it. I can not wait to see who we follow next, as we have a second group of people with yet-unknown fates. And. I'd even like to see a short about the two vapid socialites who were immediately caught. It was great to hear they're happy, but I will not deny being curious about their fame now. And. The opportunity to write lots of interesting alien smut.
P.S. Penis is the absolutely least sexy word for a dick, even worse than prick—unless it's orcs, then I'll go with it. 5 times on a single page and never using any other name for a phallus—not even length, really??—the entire time was too much penis.