Smart Podcast, Trashy Books Podcast

343. Our Book Club Discussion of Mercenary Instinct by Ruby Lionsdrake

It’s our first book club episode! Amanda, Elyse, Carrie, and I discuss a suggestion from Holly in our Patreon: Mercenary Instinct by Ruby Lionsdrake.

We have a lot to talk about, and I have a few notes for you before we start.

First: TW/CW for discussion of threat of rape and sexual assault off and on throughout the episode.

Second: Spoilers ahoy. We can’t really talk about the book in detail without sharing the details, right?

Our hope is that you read the book, too, and can follow along and respond to our discussion. But don’t worry – I’m going include a plot summary just before we start our conversation.

Among the questions we answer:

What were our reactions to the story, the world (and the space), the hero, the heroine, and the surrounding characters?

Did the bad guy need to put out a bounty on them in the first place?

Does hanging out in space make you 22% dumber because of low oxygen and bra strangulation?

How many other science fiction/space ensembles can we mention in one episode? HARD TO SAY.

Which is your preference: hot shower or scary horny?

How many missed opportunities were there for epic poop jokes?

When there’s carnivorous plants, velociraptors, a massive storm, and a spaceship crash, when is the best time to make out?

We take a brief side tour into what we’re currently reading and then wrap up with our grade.

What about you? What did you think of Mercenary Instinct? We’d love to hear what you thought of it!

Read the transcript

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Caravan Palace double album set of Caravan Palace and Panic Our music is provided each week by Sassy Outwater, whom you can find on Twitter @SassyOutwater.

This is from Caravan Palace, and the track is called “La Caravane.”

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Transcript

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  1. Pre-Famous Indie says:

    Mercenary Instinct sat in my TBR for ages, and I finally got to it because of this book club. Thanks!

    I’m more or less on board with “fun but kind of silly.” I bought this book originally because I wanted to try sf romance. I love science fiction, but “mail-order bride to space warlord(s)” isn’t my jam – it’s fine, just not my thing – and that seems to be the most popular form by miles. (light-years. ha.)

    So I had high hopes for “plucky band of mercenaries” instead. This wasn’t that, really. But it was okay, apart from JayneIMeanStrikerUghhhh. Mostly I thought “I could be reading Mass Effect fanfiction right now, y’all.”

    Or Murderbot, for that matter!!!! There’s one more novella I haven’t read so far, and I’m going to be so sad when it’s over.

    What bugged me about the hero wasn’t the chair allergy or the ball stank, it was throwing apples directly into the blender, seeds and stems and all. I know the cyanide risk is overblown; it’s more of a texture thing. Maybe the space blender pulverizes them to atoms, okay, but I kept imagining swallowing little seed fragments. Bleaaah.

    So yeah, this book was fun at times, had some flaws, and I will basically forget about it from here on out. One less on the TBR pile, though, and that’s always worth it!

  2. vasha says:

    I really enjoyed the heroine but I wish she’d had a better book to be energetic, ingenious, amid funny in.

  3. Ayuun says:

    Is your jam – unexplained attraction, sex scenes with questionable consent, and illogical power scenarios? Then this is the book for you.

    Let me give you some examples – The bad guy puts out a giant bounty on our heroines, why? They are a brand new start-up, they would have been highly motivated if he just offered them the cash instead. — Sexual intercourse between a prisoner and her jailer is okay if she gives her ‘consent’? — A Mercenary captain blithely sets aside his “Mercenary Instinct” for his new prize/hot babe and his crew doesn’t space him?? — The bad guy confesses to being an even badder guy and really ticks off our H/h. There is no explanation or motivation for this confession, except the author wanted a big shoot out scene?

    To summarize, I feel like the author had a giant pile of ‘sci-fi tropes’ and at arbitrary times, she pulled out an absurd scenario and threw it into the book. If you aren’t okay with completely suspending your desire for multi-dimensional characters who make decisions based upon their needs or their social groups expectations then don’t pick up this book.

  4. Escapeologist says:

    I was skimming a lot, only slowing down for the scenes with the women talking to each other. I would read a book of those three bantering and doing their jobs.

  5. Noel Stark says:

    I agree with everyone’s feelings about the book and basically forgot a lot of it once I was done. I will say however that I didn’t want to give up the world so quickly and so I read “Trial and Temptation” right after and I felt that this was the better book. The main characters were more developed with the male lead on the autism spectrum (is it me or is that really “hot” right now?) and the action was more edge-seaty. That said, it didn’t make me want to go on to the third.

    Question for Carrie and the greater community — I’m getting into sci-fi romance and I’d love some recommendations.

    Thoughts anyone?

  6. I agree “Trial and Temptation” was a much better book.

    For Sci-Fi romance, I always recommend Linnea Sinclair. Especially Games of Command or Finders Keepers.

  7. Jeannette says:

    I liked this book. Could it be better? Yes. However it was much better than so much sci-fi romance I have read. I especially enjoyed the heroine’s healthy relationships with other women – which is a refreshing thing. I have gone on to read the rest of the series and there are peeks into their relationship deepening in further books.

    @Evelyn Hill – Linnea Sinclair is one of my top sci-fi recommendations too! Accidental Goddess and Finders Keepers were my favorites of hers. I wish she had come out with anything new!

  8. Amanda says:

    @Noel: Seconding everyone’s suggestion for Linnea Sinclair. Other options: Ada Harper, Jessie Mihalik, and Robyn Bachar.

  9. Noel Stark says:

    Amazing! Thanks everyone!

  10. Emma says:

    Ok but a discussion of the expanse needs to happen. I personally love that it’s space opera about PEOPLE. And that all of the people are so trophy but so real all at the same time.

    And how Holden and Anna are the bi paladins of my heart

  11. Emma says:

    Whoops I meant to say *tropey

  12. Cheri says:

    Thank you for the book club! I haven’t read any scifi romance before, but I love most adventure style romances. I am about 30-ish % through the book, and I keep looking to the secondary characters for more depth, but from what I hear, it just isn’t going to happen.
    I am glad to have the chance to try something new with all of you!

  13. Kareni says:

    Thanks for an enjoyable post.

    Michelle Diener’s Dark Horse is a fun science fiction romance.
    A favorite series of mine is the Linesman series by SK Dunstall; it’s science fiction with the barest hint of romance by the end of the trilogy.

  14. JenM says:

    I’ve just recently started reading SF Romance after a long absence from “hard” SF in general. I do enjoy the campy alien guys/human women trope (best exemplified I’d say by Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians series), but for books on the space opera end of the spectrum, I have a few recommendations:
    -Rachel Bach’s Paradox series, starting with Fortune’s Pawn
    -Carol Van Natta’s Central Galactic Concordance series, starting with Overload Flux.
    -Anna Hackett’s Galactic Gladiators series, starting with Gladiator
    -Veronica Scott has been recommended to me, but I haven’t tried any of her books yet.

  15. Christine says:

    I sort of agree with Carrie. I love sci-fi, and …this was a great set-up, but…I was bored and did a lot of skimming.

    It fell into a lot of well-established romantic tropes…and I found myself wishing at one point that the writer had flipped the genders. Made the big alpha mercenary captain – female, and the scientists and marketing/petty thief male. Instead of falling into the formula. Also, I’d hoped there’d be a big twist at the end regarding the villain, but no, he was your standard by the numbers, nasty irredeemable bad guy.

    The characters are betrayed at one point — predictably by a character jealous of the leads romance.
    And that’s the problem — the plot is a bit too predictable. And the characters don’t really drive it nor are they developed through it.

    At any rate, I was disappointed in it — because I rather liked the set-up of a bunch of microbiologists attempting to setup a business that uses alien poop transplants to heal gut ailments, and gets grabbed by a bunch of mercenary’s collecting a bounty. That has potential. But…too much focus on getting the lead characters into each other’s pants and not enough on world-building and character. A weakness of the sci-fi romance genre, unfortunately. Too often the writers focus more on well the sex, then the characters, plot and world.

  16. Sarahjane Cottrell says:

    What was the U-boat tentacle sex novella? Asking for a friend who is actually just me. 🙂

  17. Elyse says:

    @Sarahjane First Watch by Peter Hansen

  18. Wub says:

    We’re all different — I’d find tentacle!sex relatively easy to write because “alien-ness” is my catnip and I’m a Big Weird Aspie that finds it much harder to get into the head of someone complying with social norms. Unfortunately this probably means I have more difficulty with the rest of the book, so I think just being weirded out by the tentacles is probably the better option!

  19. SB Sarah says:

    The responses to the discussion have been so interesting – thank you! I’m really glad you gave this book a try and let us know what you thought. We’re going to be selecting our second quarter book club title soon, so stay tuned. And thank you again for reading along and discussing with us!

  20. SandyH says:

    What happened to this author? It appears she never delivered on books promised in 2018. Does she write under another name?

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