Alien Heat
Susanne Marie KnightFantasy romance
Available from Wings Press
ISBN 1-59088-695-X
2003
| In the distant past the planet Venus was hit by a comet. Fragments of Venus bombarded Earth as meteorites, and brought about the total destruction of civilization. Now there are Outlanders and Villagers in a male-dominated society, always at war. Every 10 years Outlanders come and take the Villager's women of childbearing age. Twenty years ago when they came, one of them raped Gwyneth's mother, and she is the result of that rape. Ten years ago they returned and abducted her mother, who took her own life rather than live in captivity. The lands around them are contaminated with radiation. Radiation creates mutants and Gwyneth is a mutant. She has skin that changes like a chameleon, and she is sensitive to the thoughts of the earth. To make herself unattractive, she has bound her breasts and is wearing sackcloth.
Major Lucas Jefferson is at the head of a party of Outlanders. He is one of the heirs of the great and powerful Canusa, as is Bryce Anderson. It is unusual for these two men to be sent for the women, rather than going into combat. Lucas is engaged to be married to a women named Althea. A man named Devon thinks he is engaged to Gwyneth, but Gwyneth wants no part of him. The raids are made because most of the women of the Outlanders can have no children. Althea is unusual because it is supposed she can have children. In the village there is a prophecy that a man in white raiment will come and take away a prophetess clothed in sackcloth. He will make the land whole and unite the old ways with the new. When Lucas rides into town with his white armor, and takes away first a women with children, then returns that woman and seizes Gwyneth, the villagers believe the prophecy is happening. Gwyneth is a healer, and she treats Lucas for an arrow wound. An unknown attacker has shot him on their way to take Gwyneth to the altar of Canusa. Lucas becomes lost among the many magnetic craters, because he forgets his compass won't work correctly. Around the craters are flowers, white puffy flowers that all the Outlander women seem to love. Gwyneth takes one, and immediately a fissure opens in the earth and swallows her. With the aid of another man Lucas rescues her. This man tells him the Great Canusa once raped a women on a sortie to bring back women for mating. This is a very dishonorable deed and shocks Lucas. When they return to his home, he sees the resemblance between Canusa and Gwyneth. Gwyneth desperately hates the man who raped her mother and would like to see him dead. There are those around Canusa who would like to see Lucas dead. And worse than the usual political infighting, there is an unknown enemy, wanting all humans dead. Will they find this out in time? ALIEN HEAT is one of the most unusual after-the-world's-end novels I have ever read. The comet hitting Venus, and the Venusian fragments hitting earth is terrific. The interplay between the characters is good and Gwyneth being a mutant is an excellent ingredient. This is a very short book, and I wish it had been longer so more of what had happened after the downfall of civilization could have been told. I happily recommend ALIEN HEAT have 3 1/2 hearts.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Judy Cook |
