2nd Edition
First Edition published as Pandora in the Deep Into Darkness: Aliens, Alphas and Antiheroes Anthology by Smashwords, 2015.
Haunted by the screams of the men he murdered, ex-Marine medic Riff Khora is serving a life sentence on board a prison ship. Seeking more punishment for his crime, he strikes a deal with the corrupt Captain Vidal—an exchange of pleasure and pain—and forges a new life leading the team that surveys space wreckage for salvage.
Ship engineer Zed Jakobsen’s psychometric abilities make prison a sentence worse than death, and the barrage of emotional stimuli is an unending torment. His only regret is that he didn’t kill the monster who sent him to prison, and only a glimmer of hope to escape a judgment he doesn’t deserve keeps him clinging to a brutal existence.
When they board derelict ship Pandora and discover a lone survivor, the hell of prison life plunges into abject horror. An epidemic of violence and insanity consumes their ship, driving the crew to murder and destruction. Mutual need draws Riff and Zed together, and their bond gives them the strength to fight a reality they cannot trust. But Vidal possesses the only means of escape from the nightmare, and he’s not letting anyone leave alive.
Buy links: DSP Publications | Amazon
Tams gives this one 3.5 stars...
This was a.... different type of book than I usually read, but I was intrigued by the synopsis. The story starts out slow with lots of twists and turns that sometimes confused me. So, there's this seemingly abandoned ship, evil things afoot and two men, Riff and Zed, trying to navigate the chaos and horror while also dealing with their growing attraction to one another. Riff is smart and kind, but also a tortured, submissive soul. Zed is Compassionate and more dominate and as their mutual attraction grows, so does the danger they are in.
It's a bit syfy with suspense, intrigue and sadly, often confusion. I had to go back a few times a read a line or paragraph again to make sure I knew who's POV I was in at the time as the book is told through alternate POV. There is blood, death and violence littering many of the pages, but that was balanced with the relationship between Riff and Zed. I think my favorite part of this book was when these two came together physically. Riff needs to be submissive, needs someone else to be in charge in the bedroom which is the one place he is not. With Zed's psychic abilities he goes from an inexperienced dom to the man in charge quickly, using Riff's emotions and ques to please his lover. I'm not a huge BDSM fan but I really, really liked that aspect of this book because of the way it's conveyed and then acted out. It was one of the sexiest things I've ever read.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were a few hurdles, the story started out a bit slow, but once you figured out the setting and characters, it flowed better. There were times where I was confused as to which character I was reading, but not often enough to make me not want to continue reading. Honestly, I was intrigued by Riff and Zed and how they would move through the obstacles laid out before them in the story as well as their chemistry. I'd still recommend this read to fans of syfy, steaming hot romance, suspense, intrigue and a suspenseful story. I won't say full on horror, though there was some horror story here.
Click >>HERE<< to read an Excerpt from Pandora...
Teaser...
Author Interview with Marguerite Labbe
Where are you
from, and where do you call home?
I’m originally from New
Hampshire and most of my aunts and uncles still live in New Hampshire and
Vermont, but my dad was in the military so we moved around often. I married my
husband in Southern Maryland and always thought we move out of the area but we never
did. Most of my siblings have moved to Charleston, SC and they keep asking if
I’m going to follow. But I don’t think we will anytime soon. There are many
mixed race families here in Southern Maryland and it’s really nice to go to
restaurants and the grocery store and see other families like ours.
What inspired
you to start writing?
A third-grade poetry
contest which I won and got my poem published in the school newspaper. I still
have that poem. I’ve been writing ever since, poems, plays, stories, and now
most recently comics.
How long have you been writing?
My earliest
memory is of third grade, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was
earlier. I sure made up one doozy of a story when I was five to the school bus
driver and managed to get myself dropped off at my friend’s house instead of
going home. The entire base in Wyoming was in an uproar. Or at least that’s
what my mom would have me believe. I’m not sure if I ever managed to get in to
as much trouble as I did that day.
What advice would you give a new
writer just starting out?
Write
consistently and keep pushing even when it feels like you’re dragging each word
out of your head by its hair. Find out what works for you. Some people are
plotters, some are pantsters, some like me are a combination. Some people, like
me, have to write a little every single day. Others write in spurts. Go like
crazy for a couple months and push out a book. Then take a break before going
again. There isn’t one way to do it. So find out what works for you and do it
with consistency.
Do you ever
suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
Not really.
If words aren’t coming something is wrong with the story or it needs to
percolate in my head a little longer. I push through and keep writing. If it
remains difficult, I set aside that project for a while and pick up another. I
always have multiple stories going. Some stories I’ve poked at for years before
all the elements finally clicked. Pandora
was one of those stories.
What Author’s
in the genre do you read?
If you mean in the genres
of my latest book, for m/m there’s C.M. Torrens, Ariel Tachna, Andrew Grey,
Aleksandr Voinov, Rowan Speedwell to name a few. For Science Fiction there’s
Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, Octavia Butler, Ella Drake. For Horror, there’s
Stephen King, Dean Kootz, H.P. Lovecraft, Rick R. Reed.
What comes
first, the plot or characters?
The ‘what if’ comes first
90% of the time, then the characters, then finally the plot. There’s always a
scenario that hits me first that gets me asking the questions. For Pandora it was – what if this guy wakes
up from a bout of insanity, trapped in a prison, where only the dead or insane are
left. Well then I want to know who this guy is. Why is he in prison? How does
he feel about what he did? After I get the characters settled, then I start
asking, well, what’s next, how’s he going to get out of this etc.
Describe the
perfect writing space.
I’m most productive in rooms where
there are no TVs. I love coffee shops and libraries. I usually end up writing
in front of the TV because that’s where my husband is and I want to be with
him. He’s an artist and he has to draw with the TV on. So I’ve learned to live
with it. I most love writing with a view. When I do actually write at my desk I
can see all the lovely trees in my yard. When we’re on vacation in the Outer
Banks I always wake up early so I have time to myself with my computer, a view
of the ocean, and a nice cup of coffee.
Do you do
research for your books? If so, what does that entail?
So many
things. I think the most extensive research I’ve done was for Other Side of the Line which included
library research, online research, interviews, you name it. I think the list of
cites that I sent to my publisher for that story was at least two pages long.
I’ll visit a place that I’m writing about if I can and try to walk along the
paths my characters take. If a character has a particular career I speak with
people with the same career just to get a feel for it. So lots of research,
even Pandora which is science fiction
I researched mechanical tools for one thing.
How many
books have you written? Which is your favorite?
Eleven
novels and thirteen novellas/short stories. I have two favorites. The first is Ghosts in the Wind. I love the
characters so much. This is the story that I said couldn’t be written when I
first got the idea. It didn’t have a traditional ending. But the main character
Dean kept at me for a solid year. Poking me at every quiet moment until I wrote
the book. It’s a story about murder and while I was writing it, my uncle was
murdered and it gave me a perspective on the characters, an empathy that I
didn’t have before. I think Andrei and Dean will be with me for a long, long
time. My second favorite is Other Side of
the Line. That’s another story that wouldn’t leave me alone. When I saw the
pictures for the prompt, of an interracial gay couple, from childhood friends
to old age, I wanted to write that story so bad because it was deeply personal
to me. Some of my family’s history, my husband’s family history is woven into
that story. Both of those stories hit me in a personal way that others haven’t.
Do you hear
from your readers much? What do they say?
Actually, I don’t hear
from reader’s online much, but I love to. I do tend to meet readers and that is
always an awesome moment. I think I’m more excited than they are. The comments
that stick with me are the ones where they say I made them cry and laugh, because
I love a book that can make me do the same. Or when they point out an
observation that makes me look at my own story in a new light. I love that.
Are you
working on anything at the present you would like to tell us about?
I’m working on a comic book convention geek trilogy. The
first book A Little Side of Geek is
about Morris Proctor, indie comic book artist and writer who falls for a local
chef Theo Boarman who has no geek side to speak of. The second book A Whole Latte Sass is about Morris’s
best friend and cosplayer Felipe Suero and his pursuit of the con’s silver fox
Trask Briscoe who owns a gaming store. The third story is untitled, but it will
be about the promoter for the local cons, Brenden Wade and his step-brother and
nemesis, Dakota Nye who does a podcast on geek culture. I’m hoping to have the
first book submitted within the next couple months.
Marguerite Labbe has often been called both Trouble and Sunshine by those who know her. She’s not sure how she manages to make both those nicknames work together, but apparently she does. She’s a New Hampshire girl who married an Alabama boy, an Air Force brat who has somehow managed to settle herself firmly in Southern Maryland, with one overgrown son and two crazy cats.
Marguerite loves to spin tales that cross genre lines, where stubborn men build lifelong ties of loyalty, friendship, and family no matter the odds thrown against them, and where love is found in unexpected places. She has won the Rainbow Award for Historical Romance with Fae Sutherland, as well as the Rainbow Award for Paranormal and the Rainbow Romance Award for Excellence, also in Paranormal.
When she’s not working hard on writing new stories, she spends her time reading novels of all genres, enjoying role-playing and tabletop games with her friends, and helping out her husband with Apocrypha Comics Studio.
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Great post. I am intrigued.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Thanks for the review & interview!
ReplyDeletelegacylandlisa(at)gmail(dot)com