REVIEW: Venomous by Penelope Fletcher
Dear Ms. Fletcher:
I can’t remember who recommended this to me but it was sold as a sort of erotic Last Hour of Gann. I didn’t find it super erotic (there’s a polyamorous element to it which may be why it’s referred to as an erotic romance) and I didn’t find it as epic as Last Hour of Gann but it is memorable due to the very good world building.
While I was reading the book, some of the tropes were familiar but overall it felt like a story I hadn’t read before.
Lumen is captured on earth by an alien slave trader and brought to a planet where aliens of all stripes have been captured and put to work mining precious ore. She is deemed ugly and worthless by the aliens and they failed to sell her in auction after auction. Thus she is brought to L’Odo. The strongest of the aliens are put into a ring to fight for the slave traders amusement. The slave traders decide to throw Lumen into the pit to be captured by one of the gladiators to keep the gladiators from attempting to escape for another moontide.
Venomous One wins much to Lumen’s dismay for he is the stranger of the aliens. He has a six limbs–four arms and two legs. He has a forked tongue and ropey type braids erupting from his skull looking a bit like textured dreadlocks. His body is pierced with gold, medallions and knotted thread and his exterior is covered with serpentine scales. On the plus side, his lips are humanoid and he had pectorals and a chest worthy of Men’s Health.
From Venomous’ point of view, Lumen is just as ugly and worse, she’s weak and frail. She lacked any piercings of gold on her body. Her limbs were gangly and she had a “horribly inflexible spine”. She had a rounded tongue and she was soft all over. Venomous had not hoped for a beauty but at least a strong and sturdy mate but Lumen was puny and ugly.
he had seen uglier specimens. The brown membrane that covered her was not so deviant from the tawny umber of his anima though his under hide was paler, more similar to the membranes on her palms and the soles of her feet. Her filaments were unlike any he’d felt, not fur and not bristles.
Aliens he’d come into contact with in the mines called the filaments hair.
The care put into building Venomous’ culture was memorable. Venomous regularly flicks out his tongue to taste emotions. The fact that he has four limbs was never forgotten. Venomous and his kind are androgynous until the moment that their sex emerges in response to a mate. When Lumen is dropped into the pit, Venomous’ stem is called forward. He is then Rä’Vek where before he was a’Rä. The joining is called a clutch and it is usually painful. Venomous notes with wonder that Lumen’s vents are lubricated.
For those with triggers, Lumen’s first sexual experience with Venomous is a rape. Venomous doesn’t understand that he takes her against her will because the clutch in his culture is always painful and he believed that she called for his stem and that the Great Serpent controls his stem. It is biological, then, for him to rut with her. Lumen’s rape at Venomous’ hands has consequences later in the book which I appreciated. It wasn’t swept away simply because of “cultural” differences.
One of the things I thought more unique is that Lumen is of African descent but very little hints are given of that other than her brown skin and kinky hair. In a book where differences are emphasized, that is one issue that has zero importance. To Venomous One, the color of her skin and the texture of her hair are all different and would be no matter what type of earthling she was. But it was nice that the default wasn’t Caucasian.
The book is overlong and the heroine comes off as a bit of a dunce. She’s a stranger in a strange land and has enemies but she still wants to traipse around without protection. I could have had a little less independent Lumen and a little more careful and observant Lumen. She also becomes the most attractive female to all the strongest alien males. That might irritate people.
The best part of the book was when they were on L’Odo, the slave planet, working out their differences and trying to come to terms with each other in a hostile environment. More than once Lumen and Venomous are faced with difficult decisions. For instance, Venomous has to go and mine but he can’t leave Lumen alone. When he brings Lumen with him, he has difficulty mining and protecting her. What’s the only thing of value Lumen has? Her body. (Fortunately there is only one rape in the story).
Venomous is a really wonderful hero (despite the first taking). He’s careful with Lumen and wants to be considerate of her feelings. He tries hard to acclimate her to his new world and is constantly aware she’s been thrust into an unfamiliar and harsh environment. Further (and this is something Robin talks a lot about in captivity romances) the captive (Lumen) begins to exert change on the captors through Venomous. He challenges his world’s ban on interspecies mating. He begins to question other things like the lesser mating where you have to choose another Rä’Vek to join in a public clutch.
There is a polyamorous angle to the story and I would have been perfectly fine without it. I got that it was part of Venomous’ culture and that there was important reason for it. Because it was a harsh land and few females, it made sense to try to surround her with as many warriors as possible. I should note that there are strong female warriors too.
The differences were used for comic relief throughout the story.
“I marriage you,” Venomous declared in a clear voice as he pushed the cold metal onto my upper arm.
“I marriage you too,” Fiercely blurted as if at risk of being left behind. He slid his gold onto my other arm. His band wasn’t as thick, nor the narrative he’d written as poignant, but there was a compelling purity underlying the account that moved me.
“I like this custom much,” he announced with a stare that radiated masculine satisfaction.
Other reviewers who didn’t have as positive as a response as I suggested to sample the story. I think that’s a good idea. I really enjoyed the other world nature of this book and I thought the world building was transportive. B-
Best regards,
Jane
AmazonBNKoboAREBook DepositoryGoogle
i enjoyed this book a lot. It did seem far fetched in the way that some of the relationships evolved a bit too quickly or easily to be believed, but the world building was great and the characters were fun to spend time with. I am REALLY looking forward to the sequel which promises to be almost kitschy in its epic-ness.
SPOILERS?
I’ve read this too. I gave it 3 of 5 stars, with some rounding up. The polyamory did not add to the story, imo. It seemed to show the culture as being distinct for the heroine, because she really struggled with that aspect of it. However, the second and third partners impacted the sex, but did not add much in the way of romance, to me. The second one in particular almost seemed to have “middle child syndrome”, and I felt sorry for him. By far, the strongest and most meaningful relationship was the first one. It could’ve stood alone, with almost all of the conflicts in the book remaining in place and unchanged.
The other relationships also occurred in what was the weaker half of the book to me. By that point, the heroine, who had gotten little romantic attention on Earth, was approaching incredible levels of intergalactic attractiveness, and I was ready to raise a flag.
Nowhere near as epic, bleak or thought-provoking as Last Hour of Gann. Much more comedic though. I probably won’t read the sequel. The featured character and plot did not appeal to me.