You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO comes to us from Minutestapler, who is trying to track down a crazy-sounding scifi romance:
It’s an alien scifi romance, and I believe this book is available on Amazon as an ebook and was probably published in the last 5 years.
I don’t remember a whole lot about this book except that the heroine is given some sort of injection (?) that allows her to communicate/give orders to the spaceship (the ship does not communicate back). She figures out how to use it when the hero leaves her in the company of a guard in order to fight off other alien invaders from their spaceship. The guard leaves her in a vent/closet, and she figures out how to use her new communication abilities to open the vent and sleuth around. She finds the hero and his friends locked up and manages to save them.
I think at some point all of the alien invaders are on the bridge and she turns off the life support/shielding for the bridge with her mind. Apparently, this was a Big Deal and she was only supposed to turn off a minor part of the shielding. One alien invader manages to save himself, but he is quickly killed once they retake the bridge.
It has been bugging me that I can’t remember or find this book. I’ve looked through my whole Kindle catalog, but can’t seem to figure out which book it was.
I would also read a romance with a talking spaceship.
This sounds like it could be one of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Probably book 2 or 3.
The whole series is great – dystopian futuristic retelling of classic fairy tales with a cyborg Cinderella! in space!
I can’t help you with the book you’re looking for but “Dark Minds” by Michelle Diener would fit your request for a sci-fi romance that has a talking spaceship. The romance involves two people but the spaceship is a major secondary character. The other books in the series also have talking spaceships who are both intelligent and self aware.
Oh, man. I’ve read this, I remember it being a good one, but I’m having trouble finding the title. From what else I can remember, the heroine enters the spacecraft with one hero who has “imprinted” on her/mated with her and leaves the spacecraft with an additional mate. This is killing me!
Might be Venomous by Penelope Fletcher…
It is one of Michelle Diener’s books – Dark Horse, Dark Deeds or Dark Minds. I don’t remember which one (I think Dark Deeds) but they are all connected and the talking spaceships are fantastic. Highly recommend these books.
Not what you’re looking for, but other talking spaceship books include the Anne McCaffrey Brain & Brawn series – https://www.goodreads.com/series/40397-brainship
It’s either of the following:
Warrior’s Woman (Ly-San-Ter Family #1)
by Johanna Lindsey
In the year 2139, fearless Tedra De Arr sets out to rescue her beleaguered planet Kystran from the savage rule of the evil Crad Ce Moerr.
OR
Keeper of the Heart (Ly-San-Ter Family #2)
by Johanna Lindsey
In search of a true and gentle love, fiery Shanelle Ly-San-Ter flees the lustful advances of the blue-eyed barbarian who has been chosen as her lifemate, confused and frightened by the fevered yearnings the handsome brute has awakened in her innocent soul.
YAY Christina at #6!
My first thought, after “a romance with a talking spaceship” was The Ship Who Sang. It’s a un-consummated (and un-consummatable) romance, but it does have a romance.
The follow-up pairings aren’t quite as interesting, although Lackey’s Ship Who Won has the possibility of romantic consummation that the other books don’t.
The setup for this reminds me of A Plague of Angels by Sheri S Tepper, a book I stalked at my local bookstore for the longest time in the 90s because it was so long and I didn’t quite feel up to the task of a 500+ page book. However, it ends really badly and I hated it in the end. It might be the book you’re looking for, though!
^ this book came out originally in 1993, but was published in ebook in 2011 when the ‘sequel’ came out, so it does fit your timeline.
Ooooh! Never posted here before, but I’m pretty sure I know this. It’s Venomous by Penelope Fletcher.
#8: If memory serves, Mercedes Lackey’s contribution to the ‘ship sequence was The Ship Who Searched (and yes, that one is indeed the one that solves the consummation problem). The Ship Who Won was by Jody Lynne Nye, while The City Who Fought and The Ship Avenged were by S. M. Stirling — and bear some resemblance to the HaBO, but are probably not the right book(s).
The “turn-off-the-life-support” thing is also in a Linnea Sinclair called “Finders keepers” (I think). How many times does it have to appear before it becomes a trope?
I also thought of Venemous. I think they should have definitely remembered more crazy things from that book, though. It was INSANE and 600+ pages. I remember I would read parts and update my coworkers at lunch every day because it was just so nuts and also hilarious.
This was sticking in my head because I feel like this book is Venomous! Here is the quote when she uses her thoughts to get out of the vent:
“I’d have assumed they would have ensured I was unable to exercise control of my environment as their prisoner. I have to think the vent open? Dropping my head back, I pretended to stare past my metal cage into the vastness of outer space to stave off the encroaching feeling of claustrophobia. Ra used mental commands to control minor functions on the Trekker. A logical conclusion and not a crazy one? As crazy as being kidnapped from Earth then falling into lust with an alien warrior? I blew out a breath then shifted to face the wall. Trying not feel stupid, I directed ‘open’ thoughts at it. “Come on, come on. Melt or whatever.” The wall rippled as if a pool dabbled in the middle.” Sound familiar?
It was funny because I had to do a search for “vent” and then skim past all the times that human orifices were referred to as “vents”…….. THIS BOOK! omg, you guys, THIS BOOK! It was crazysauce x100.
Sadly, I can guarantee it’s NOT one of the two Johanna Lyndsay’s mentioned above – yes, she can talk to the ship, but the ship also talks back.
They’re still your wonderfully cheesy “Barbarian Meets Modern Woman, who finds she likes to submit to the Alpha Male” JL romances, with an awful lot of hints of John Norman. On the other hand, when a librarian friend was doing a display on “Science Fiction from authors you wouldn’t expect it from”, I was able to simultaneously horrify and stun her with the above mentioned “Warrior Woman” and “Keeper of my Heart”
Victorious Star by Morgan Hawke.
I was also going to mention the Linnea Sinclair roserita mentioned. It’s not the right book because the heroine has to interface with the ship through a computer terminal, but she does turn off the life support and kill all the aliens. I love that book.
I thought this might be the Sirantha Jax books but it has been awhile since I read them and I remembered wrong. The psychic connection is between the pilot and navigator, not the ship itself. They re good badass space lady books though
I think you’d remember if it was Victorious Star because of the extremely intense BDSM. (The pilot-ship commenction parts of that book were really good and interesting to me! But the BDSM was like 4000% more than I had bargained for.)
Hey guys! Thanks for all of the replies!
It isn’t one of the cinder series (although I love those and just finished a reread).
It also isn’t the dark minds series. I did a reread of those as well trying to find this book. I really like those as well.
Jessica, if you aren’t thinking of venomous, you may be thinking of mated (the sandaki book 1) by Gwendolyn cease. That was one I also reread because I thought it might be it. ***spoilers***The heroine bonds with the hero and then it turns out he’s a co-ruler with another dude, and both dudes are sad because they think they have to give up their relationship over her. Turns out they don’t. ***end spoilers***
It definitely might be venomous. I remember other parts of venomous, so I didn’t include it in my extensive scifi romance reread when searching for this book, but the excerpt posted by laura brown seems spot on. I will be rereading it shortly to satisfy my craving/need to know. So thanks jessica, laura brown, and annsunny!
Roserita, I think I have all of linnea sinclair’s scifi romances. They are fabulous.not the right book in this instance, but I recommend all of her work!
Teev, I really loved the sitantha jax books, but I have them in paperback, and I definitely read this particular book on kindle…though I may need to do a sirantha jax reread following my venomous reread!
Christina, saphia, bea, john, gillian, and nora, I believe you all have just extended my tbr pile significantly!
Katie, if it ends badly, I think I’ll spare myself the heartache and skip it, but thanks for trying to help me out!
Thanks again for all of the responses! I knew the bitchery could help me out! Now I’m going to scurry off and immerse myself in ALL the SCIFI ROMANCE!
I have only just recently read Venomous by Penelope Fletcher and it is definitely that book. Completely crazy sauce plot that never relents and is hugely fun. The above plot info is only the beginning, and things get even crazier when she ends up on Venom’s planet.
Highly recommend the read.
On a side note, has anyone heard anything recent about Penelope Fletcher?
She has written a number of books, and has an incomplete series starting with, I think, Smoulder. There was also supposed to be a follow up to Venomous.
She seems to have disappeared into the ether. I hope nothing is wrong. I would like to read more of her books and would definitely buy the sequel to Venomous.
Just pitching in another recommendation for The Ship Who Sang series. So good! The last few that aren’t by Anne Mccafrey aren’t as good, in my opinion, although the only one I didn’t like at all was the very last one which involved a ship acting as a linguist and alien translator and the whole thing was just not my thang. But yeah, in terms of excellent talking spaceships, those are great.
Can I just say that I love how many talking spaceship books exist.
Parts of your description remind me of Demon Possession by Kiersten Fay. This is book 1 in the Shadow Quest series which are scifi/paranormal romance ( complete with a space ship and a heroine who can communicate with it). There are 3 books in the series so far and these are interconnected standalones. I would highly recommend. Very good!
Okay, so now I have to reread Venomous. Yeah. There go many productive hours. lol
I am pitching in with more talking spaceship and AI books. Cause I love them.
The Veiled Web by Asaro, Catherine
Govern (Terran Times, #68)Grace, Viola There is a little set of four books with talking ships.
Heart Thief (Celta’s Heartmates, #2) Owens, Robin D.
Anyone who wants talking spaceships really ought to know about Iain M Bank’s Culture series, even though they are not romance. Excession is not the first but a good place to start.
And if you are interested in Intelligent Spaceships that can talk there is also Ann Leckies’ trilogy beginning with ‘Ancillary Justice’. I highly recommend it but they are straight Science Fiction, not Romance.
The main character is a “woman” that is all that remains after the spaceship that used to be ‘her’ is destroyed.
@Bea: if I remember right, Helva and Niall from The Ship Who Sang found a way to consummate their romance in one of McCaffrey’s short stories, Honeymoon (from the collection ‘Get Off The Unicorn’).
City who Fought by Anne McAffrey? Linesman by SK Dunstall?
Sarah has this marked as solved, so does that mean it’s absolutely, positively Venomous?
(I was surprised how many of these books I own/have read, including Venomous, which has been in my TBR pile almost 2 years since it was first released. I’m kinda scared to start it now, tho, tbh.)
And now I’m re-reading Venomous after having read this column yesterday. I’d forgotten that scene in the book so need to refresh my memory.
For intelligent spaceship romance recs, Becky Chambers ‘Long Way to a Small Angry Planet’ is brilliant. There’s romance, am intelligent spaceship, romance with an intelligent spaceship.. The whole deal.
@Liska
Oooh I need to track down that short story ASAP.
Okay after all the teasers about Venomous I had to check that one out. You all are spot on – awesome crazy sauce! I only have a few chapters left and it does not let up. I will never think of gardening (er “seeding”) quite the same again.