3rd Annual SFR Galaxy Awards: Round Three by Laurie A. Green

Best Edge of Your Seat Mercenary Heroine

Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach

The heroine, Devi Morris, is Paradoxian by birth, and a professional mercenary by trade, who’s driven to achieve her ultimate goal. The man in her life and their on-again, off-again, just-in-it-for-the-minute relationship is no match for her ambitions. She's independent, career-oriented and beyond the influence of mere male persuasion. Proposal of marriage? Pshaw! Not when the adventure of a lifetime is calling. She's determined to win a security position on a ship called the Glorious Fool, a sought after gig that's led many a talented merc to graduate to the ultimate prize of mercdom—being accepted into ranks of the elite Devastators. Or else to meet a horrible, untimely death. More typically, the latter. But the MC isn't intimidated by the mere threat of death. Little does she know what lies ahead! 

The hero is Rupert Charkov. I didn't know what to make of him at first. He doesn't seem your typical hero material and he isn't employed in your typical hero's job. He's a...well...he's a cook. Yes. A cook. Oh, and he babysits the captain's daughter, too. Okay, he's got those classic good looks, he's an all-around nice guy to the heroine and he does have the ponytail thing going on, but....yeah. He's a cook.

This story features some truly alien aliens. I love me some Xith' cal! Devi's first introduction to the aggressive, killing-machine alien species is actually quite humorous. Her second encounter is anything but. The Xith' cal are a bit like the Alien franchise bad boys, but bigger, badder, meaner, lizardy-er and much more mobile. The stuff of pizza-driven nightmares. Can anything be badder or more deadly than the Xith' cal, you ask? Surprise! Yes. There is one thing. The cook. Wait! Seriously? Yes. The cook.

From Devi's deft handling of chauvinistic peers and overbearing superiors to the spine-tingling encounters with things that go bump, boom, and squish in the night, Fortune's Pawn was a rollicking, suspenseful adventure, and a superb introduction to both Devi Morris and the wild and strange universe she lives in. The romantic conflict between Devi and Rupert was beautifully developed, and author Rachel Bach crowned it all with an angsty surprise twist at the end that had me scrambling to order book two. 

Most Outstanding Alien Conspiracy

Honor's Knight by Rachel Bach

The second book of the Paradox Series took some of the mysterious elements in Fortune’s Pawn and expanded them exponentially. I had a feeling that there were big conspiracies swimming just beneath the dark surface in the first book, and in Honor’s Knight they begin to surface and develop. First there’s a monstrous threat that can’t be seen, touched or fought, but is powerful enough to destroy planets and bend time. Add then there’s the wonder surrounding the elusive Lelgis species, their huge and beautiful fish-ships, and their powerful, all-knowing, void-dwelling queens. And perhaps strangest of all, the “shields” used by the (supposed) good guys, a powerful but insane entity named Maat and Maat’s “daughters.” 

Honor’s Knight is almost non-stop action and tests Devi and her partner—a custom mech suit she named Lady Grey—to the limits. Devi is on the run from just about everyone, human and alien alike, and especially from Rupert. She survives Lelgis attacks, Xithcal gladiator games, and a knock-down, drag-out brawl with Rupert. The alien threat continues to grow until it seems there is nowhere Devi can go to be safe and no one she can trust. Except, perhaps, Rupert. If she dares.

Most Satisfying Trilogy Conclusion

Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach

By book three of the Paradox Series, Devi is in so deep she seems utterly doomed. Everyone and everything is trying to hunt her down, both for the deadly secret she carries and the grave threat she poses. The situation keeps going from bad to worse to impossible, until it seems there is no escape for her but death. Her only true ally, Rupert, is captured and slated for execution…or worse. But giving up isn’t in Devi’s DNA. She still manages to save the universe (literally) and Rupert in spite of insurmountable odds. She simply never gives up. 

Devi’s reward is to finally accomplish what she set out to do, although she pays a heavy toll to achieve it. Heaven’s Queen puts a positive wrap and a HEA on the end game, but still leaves the door open for more adventures in Devi’s future.

Exceptional Story Elements

Spark Rising by Kate Corcino

Spark Rising is a fresh, imaginative tale that takes place in a recovering post-apocalyptic Southwest US where select humans have been bred for the ability to generate power by interacting with Dust, a mysterious substance left behind when a cataclysm destroyed all fossil fuels on Earth centuries before. These special individuals are called Sparks, but their level of power and control can vary. The heroine, Lena, is an extremely talented--and very dangerous--renegade Spark who lives "off the grid" and avoids capture by those who control her zone. She's been in hiding or on the run for most of her life, ever since her parents reported her dead as a young girl in order to protect her from their malicious leaders. 

The hero, Alex Reyes, is an agent sent to find and recover Lena to deliver to those in power, but he's also secretly working as an underground activist. When Alex first confronts Lena he immediately recognizes—and is affected by—her rare and potent abilities, and knows he must get her to safety before she falls into the hands of those who would use and destroy her. Alex recognizes that this is a game-changer. Lena could change the future—for everyone. But getting the wary and untrusting Lena to accept him as an ally may be impossible. 

The intricate world building in Spark Rising is a real delight, as are the high stakes of the plot and lush descriptions. But perhaps the most spellbinding is how the abilities of the two main characters create a compelling romantic conflict that crackles with tension and energy. Spark Rising is the first book in the very promising Progenitor Saga.

Most Entertaining Motion Picture with SFR Elements

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Marvel Studios

Directed by James Gunn

Screenplay by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Vin Diesel

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is a Science Fiction romp with romantic elements that makes for a fun, feel-good Sci-Fi celebration. The film took great strides in bringing the entertainment value of quality Science Fiction back to the forefront of the American consumer's mind, with its huge scopey sets, interesting characters, action-packed storyline and nostalgic sound track. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is an engaging, energetic cinematic experience.

3rd Annual SFR Galaxy Awards: Round Two by Donna S. Frelick

Best Steampunk Series

The Iron Seas by Meljean Brook

This sprawling steampunk tour-de-force (five novels, six novellas) has it all: detailed, vivid worldbuilding; fast-paced action; finely-drawn characters; fantastical creatures and marvelous machines; and, above all, love.  

Author Brook has set her action-packed stories of love and adventure on an intricately-imagined alternate Earth where the Mongol Horde has overrun much of the world (with the help of nanotech-directed mind control), where zombies roam Europe and Africa, where airships fill the sky and the integrated mechanical technology that enhances human bodies is viewed largely with suspicion.  The series began with The Iron Duke, the story of the mechanically-enhanced hero of the battle to save Britain from the Horde and the female detective who is charged to investigate the body that literally drops out of the sky onto his doorstep.  

The latest novel in the series, The Kraken King, debuted in 2014 as e-serial novel in eight parts.  (All eight parts are now available as a single integrated volume.)  Brook keeps up the pace in this recent addition to the series, with a spunky writer heroine (sister of one of her earlier heroes) and the former leader of a rebellion against the Horde carrying the rousing tale.

So much fun I wanted to grab my sword and jump aboard the next airship!

Best Shipboard Mystery

In the Black by Sheryl Nantus

A murder onboard a “courtesan” ship visiting a mining planet kicks off this compelling read.  The investigation of the crime would be interesting enough, what with a shipload of suspects in the dead working girl’s, uh, colleagues, and a planetful of them in the girl’s clients.

But author Nantus has created some memorable characters in Sam Keller, Captain of the Bonnie Belle, responsible for what happens on her ship, and marshal Daniel LeClair, brought in by The Powers That Be to “assist” with the investigation. The two are attracted from the start—when they’re not scrapping over how to go about solving this murder.  The captain and the marshal make a great pair, and with the sexual tension between the two at a constant boil, it’s only a matter of time before they give in to each other.

Nantus sets her mystery in the believably bleak, gritty world of a workaday future.  Space travel is no adventure for the people in this story; it’s a means of getting from one not-very-exciting place to another.  The miners work hard for months at a time, with not much to look forward to except the arrival of the courtesan ship.  The courtesan ship makes its rounds of similar places.  Sam, a military vet, keeps trying to escape her past in this backwater job.  And Daniel tries to work his way back from an incident that derailed his career and his life.  That Sam and Daniel find each other in all this seems a minor miracle.  But isn’t that what romance is supposed to be all about?

Most Thought-Provoking SFR Onscreen

PERSON OF INTEREST (CBS)

The small screen captures the prize for engaging our interest in a year when large-screen efforts bypassed any romantic elements in SF.

This creation of writer Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight), with backing from J.J.Abrams’ Bad Robot production company, Bad Robot, Kilter Films, and Warner Bros. Television, captures the post-911 zeitgeist perfectly. Michael Emerson (LOST) stars as Finch, a wounded cyber-genius who has invented a supercomputer for the government to track communications for any possible terrorist activity.  The Machine is capable of more than this, however, and begins to identify ALL possible crime. Finch uses this “irrelevant” information to intervene and stop the crime before it happens.

He recruits an ex-CIA agent named Reese (Jim Caviezel) for the active part of this job.  Reese has been living on the street, trying to forget his former life.  Working with Finch and The Machine provide redemption for Reese.

Others are added to the mix—two NYPD detectives, a former enemy-turned-ally named Root, who is linked to The Machine, a sociopathic former mercenary (Shaw), a sympathetic crime boss (Elias)—as subplots interweave with the main line of the story over the series’ four seasons.

The series’ underlying questions have begun to take on increasing importance in Season Four: When does an artificial intelligence acquire true sentience?  How do we define self-awareness?  Can we expect a machine to understand (and abide by) human moral constructs?  What happens when the intelligence—not just the knowledge--of the machines we create far outstrips our own?  The Machine has a rival now in the equally super-intelligent (and self-aware) Samaritan, a computer that has not been created with any moral constructs.  Who will win?  And, in the end, will it make any difference for humanity?

PERSON OF INTEREST has had one major romantic arc (between Reese and Detective Joss Carter) that ended in tragedy at the end of Season 3.  Another arc has begun between Root and Sameen Shaw—an odd pairing, but a touching one.  In both cases, the romantic arcs were/are integrated into the main story line, not just an add-on. That makes POI the best SFR on screen in 2014.

3rd Annual SFR Galaxy Awards: Round One by Charlee Allden

Best New SFR Series featuring the Alien Warrior Meets Human Woman Trope
The Alliance series by S.E. Smith - Hunter’s Claim and Razor’s Traitorous Heart

In Hunter’s Claim and Razor’s Traitorous Heart S.E. Smith takes the decades old alien warrior meets human woman trope and updates it for a modern audience. She’s kept the broad scope, space travel, and warrior heroes of the futuristic genre and added a post-apocalyptic feel to the earth-based portion of the novels. More importantly she has drawn smart, strong, multi-faceted heroines that will appeal to the modern romance reader. The women in these books are allowed to really challenge the warrior heroes and the tough, powerful warriors respect their heroines’ ingenuity and bravery. I love the depth and dimension given to both the fictional world and the characters. 

Best Reformed Villain Romance
Voodoo ‘n’ Vice by KC Burn

I’m always in awe of authors who can redeem a villain from an earlier book in the series and turn them into the hero of the next. In Voodoo ‘N’ Vice, KC Burn achieves just such a transformation. The author convinces us to take another look at former villain Gideon by helping us understand where his cold demeanor and his ugly beliefs have come from. Once that is done we watch as things start to make him question those beliefs and his own motivations for sticking with them in the face of good sense. As he changes and begins to fall in love with sexy tattooed fire dancer, Tai, the reader has seen Gideon’s true personality emerge. In Voodoo ‘n’ Vice gives the readers woon worthy heroes that are well developed and unique, world building that is rich and consistent, and romance done right. Highly recommended!

Best Two-Heroes-Are-Better-Than-One Romance
Flesh by Kylie Scott

You might think it would be great to have a person that would love you the way you’ve always wanted to be loved. A person who would know what you needed even before you did. Someone to make you laugh and make you sigh with pleasure. But what about someone who would protect you with the skills of a kick-ass cop, never flinch at doing whatever it took to keep you alive, gladly lay down his life for you?  Why chose if you could have both? 

In Flesh, Kylie Scott does a great job selling the idea that the heroine really can have her cake and eat it too. The post-apocalyptic setting helps—desperate times and all. But the well-crafted characters really make the readers believe such a relationship would make sense and work for three people who would never have considered a multi-partner relationship before the Zombie outbreak. Flesh is a fun, sexy read with plenty of excitement, danger, and end of the world challenges. It’s well written and more traditionally romantic that you might expect from a threesome story. It also has a great Australian flare and setting. I could almost hear the kookaburras laughing in the trees.