Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: Sub Zero

SERIES: An ESTO Universe Novel

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: Amberquill Press/Amber Allure

LENGTH: 173 pages

BLURB:

Major Aren Dalsgaard’s newest assignment is to investigate a series of murders on the frigid planet, Drass, where relations between the Treaty settlers and the natives have taken a nasty turn. A linguist and trained xenologist, Aren should be the ideal Special Investigations officer for the assignment. So what’s the problem? Drass is where he died, more than a hundred and twenty years ago.

Sent by his family to the chigyel city, Nyachung finds himself confronted with a murder charge, racial prejudice, and a cryo-revived investigator who claims to be a hero from his grandmother’s generation. Major Dalsgaard could be crazy or he could be lying, but the sincerity in his spring-green eyes disturbs Nyachung more than anything else he encounters in the foreigners’ city.

Now, confronted with mysterious black boxes and a beautiful yet evasive young man as a prime suspect, Aren hopes he can solve the murders before his fierce sexual attraction to Nyachung gets the better of him…

REVIEW:

It’s a challenge writing a science-fiction adventure/mystery romance. It’s such a balancing act getting all the pieces right and working well together without burying the reader in all the dressing. I’m intrigued by this author — Angel Martinez seems to get it right. I’m new to her stuff, have only read one other piece by her, Prisoner 37425. Written for GoodReads’ gay romance group 2013 writing event, ‘Love Has No Boundaries’, that excellent short story had such an impact, it made me want to try more of her stuff.

While Sub Zero feels like an earlier piece (I would have liked a darker treatment of the psychological trauma to it’s main characters, Aren and Nyachung), it still shows the same wonderful attention to character and world building as last year’s Prisoner. After the typical beginning setup, you feel totally immersed into a small part of this strange ESTO universe.

I especially liked the use of foreign terms which are well integrated and never overdone. We get a feel for the political and social tensions facing the two groups of people inhabiting Drass, a cold, ice-covered colony planet. Aren Dalsgaard is sent there to investigate the murders of some of the chigyel settlers/colonizers. The indigenous group, the dangpo mimang (first people), are being blamed for the murders. This does nothing to help the phobia the settlers have against the dangpo who are seen as savages. Nyanchung is a young dangpo singer/storyteller, arrested for committing or having a hand in the settler murders. Lucky for him, Aren is open-minded and diligent in his investigation… very much unlike the local authorities.

I was really interested in the dangpo people… they are reminiscent of the ‘Freemen’ of Frank Herbert’s Dune. They have their own intricate culture set apart from any technology. We also find out that Aren has a very close connection to these people. From a previous incarnation.

And that’s the other very interesting premise… Aren has been resurrected from a cryo-sleep. Such a cool juxtaposition… he is ‘thawed out’ one hundred years after his death, finding himself thrown back into a world that is greatly changed, feeling himself still frozen in a past time.  And investigating crimes on a snow-covered planet.

I would have liked more development of Aren’s psychological adjustment to this ‘new world’ he wakes up to. Nyachung, too, recovers very quickly from his torture at the hands of the chigyel. The romance itself is fine. Aren and Nyachung are thrown together, and then drawn together because of mutual admiration, and Aren’s connection to the dangpo. But I would have liked more time with them together and alone. The mystery itself is good, too. Even though it’s not too difficult to figure out who the bad guys are, the ‘why’ of it all is well done.

This is an engaging and very well written piece of science fiction. I will definitely be reading more of this author’s work (and wouldn’t mind a revisit with Aren and Nyachung).

RATING:

BUY LINKS: AmberAllure Amazon