Book Recommendation: Star Justice
I decided to make a stand-alone post about this so people can comment on it if they get around to reading it. Please use the spoiler tag for anything remotely spoilery. Just wrap your comment with [spoiler]Your comment[/spoiler]
I’ve found a new book series I’m enjoying immensely. Star Justice. The short version is; Space Marine gets experimented on and essentially turned into a were-tiger. Hilarity ensues. Actually mostly violence… and technically it’s a harem setup, in the sense that the main character is male and nearly every other significant character he meets is female, many of whom join him on his adventures, and most of whom express sexual interest in him to some degree. Well, okay, that doesn’t sound like I should be saying “technically” at all. That’s flat out a harem setup, but I feel like there should be some sort of asterisk on “harem” because the female characters are significant and important parts of the story, not just notches on his bedpost – and they’re all likeable (IMO) either straight away or after some initial antagonism is resolved. The sex scenes are terse and non-graphic which is really my preference in novels. I like it when characters I like hook up, but I don’t really need the gory details.
I won’t spoil anything, but one night I went to bed planning on reading a few chapters, and I got to a point where there is a rather significant turn of events, and I wound up finishing the book and reading like 30% of the next one before I had to quit because it was 5 in the morning. :P
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, maybe you will too.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Just to be clear: Is this a paid/compensated/etc advertisement?
No not at all. The series had been sitting in my Amazon wishlist for a while, and I decided to take a chance on it after I finished the previous novel I was working on. I’m really glad I did because it’s now one of my favorite series, so I had to throw out a recommendation to you guys.
I just started reading this on your recommendation (I’ve learned to just assume i’ll like whatever you link, since finding Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain, and Wearing the Cape due to you) and I agree with your description. I would also add that it’s like Sci-Fi poly-amorous Dresden Files, but with more blood and violence, at least as far as tone is. that is to say, that it’s a thrill ride with characters that are generally likeable, and resourceful (they sure need to be!). all in all, another book that is fun to read from your recommendation. I will add that the Lion’s Quest series by the same author is really good too.
I liked the first few books in the series, but I found that it went downhill soon after.
First of all, the whole “we forgot to buy food for our spaceship again” thing was stupid. The first time you nearly starve to death on a spaceship should be a wake-up call to at least buy a crate of MREs or the equivalent as soon as you get to the nearest space station. Not mulling around like a tourist.
Adam’s dialog is very, very boring to read because he’s so prone to repeating the same profanities over and over. I don’t care that he swears, but it would be nice if he’d at least use three or more different obscene words.
Third: Space Valkyrie and her Space Vikings. Annoying and arrogant bitch of a character with a ridiculous society that the author keeps shilling as so much better than everyone else. I quit the series because of them.
The series isn’t perfect, there are a dozen things I could nit-pick about it. I agree Adam’s dialog could use a bit more variety for instance, especially how many times he refers to someone he’s shooting at as a “fucker” but overall the important thing to me is that he seems like a decent person overall and is consistent and honorable, which is more important to me than him being a poet.
I liked Madalena (the Prime Valkyrie) – well, not at first of course but I liked her because I thought she highlighted a weakness in my own writing, in so much as all the characters in Grrl Power get along really well. Not the bad guys of course, and there are little pranks and annoyances between Sydney, Dabbler, Max, etc, but ultimately no one is really butting heads over anything. Part of that is the setup of the story. It’s a military organization and ultimately it’s Max’s way or the highway, but I would like to introduce some more antagonism amongst the good guys. I wish I had pushed the disagreements between Archon and The Council harder, but I can circle back to that.
As far as the whole space valkyrie thing goes, I didn’t mind it. I like the setup for the universe, where FTL communication doesn’t exist, so it’s easy for societies to become insular for generations and develop in their own path, so of course the one that goes all “honor battle glory” is going to generally kick the shit out of ones that wallow in corrupt democracies or government by corporation. It made sense to me and I thought it was an interesting turn to add someone to the crew who was arguably more dangerous than Adam. Personally, I couldn’t put it down until the events of the prior novel had been resolved. I don’t think a novel has ever wound me up that hard, which mostly comes down to me actually caring about the characters.
But each to their own, I’m glad you gave it a chance. :)
Honestly, one of the things I like about Grrl Power is that the main characters get along so well. I’m rather sick of superhero teams where team members spend more time fighting each other than fighting villains: X-Men being a prime example. Intra-team fights are one of the worst ways that authors shill their pet characters.
I’m not talking about getting teammates into literal fights, (beyond sparring) just having the occasional disagreement that goes beyond Max getting mad at Dabbler over gender roles or something.
It’s gotta be tough to write an honest disagreement between two characters who fully understand their opponents’ positions, but disagree strongly enough, and with enough conviction, to keep disagreeing as the stakes rise. Each character must believe that winning the disagreement is more important than compromising…(Chin stroke emoji)
‘ I wish I had pushed the disagreements between Archon and The Council harder, but I can circle back to that’
Please do. In your copious free time ^.^
Adam was a Marine, I’ve worked for the 3rd Marine Air Wing. Take the “fuckers” out of their conversation and it’d get really quiet.
On book two. Liking it so far. Not too much of a harem so far, and only a single kiss, lol. I’m a great fan of “Wearing the Cape” and “Don’t Tell My Parents” because I love Superpower genre, which is why I am following Grrlpower :D
I recommend having Kindle Unlimited because you pay a small flat fee and then can read all you like in tons of independent or small press series. If you read voraciously as I do, this saves a lot of money and lets you sample a lot of works you might otherwise overlook due to budget limits. If I like an author I’ll buy other works from them, so it’s win win.
My current binge reading is LitRPG, and Star Justice seems not too far from this Genre and I saw adverts for it quite a bit when going through Amazon recommends bits in LitRpg. My recommendations into something similar except less harem is Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko. This is a classic fantasy dungeon and dragons esque setting via virtuality gaming, but is also very action oriented with detailed fight scenes. I think if you like Star Justice, and like fantasy, you’d like Ascend Online too.
I really like that the harem elements take rather a long time to present themselves. Granted by book 9 it does take up more of the characters’ time, but that’s simply because the size of the party has grown considerably.
I’ve considered Kindle Unlimited, but I like keeping things I’ve read in my library, and I know it’s cheaper considering how much I’ve been reading lately, but for me, time is more of a factor than $3-$6 for a book.
this post actually convinced me to give it a shot. Build over time harem is the most important thing for any harem genre. You want to have a dynamic between the characters already going before you introduce ANOTHER romantic interest to shake things up, cause if you don’t then it’s just bed post notching.
Harem books that wind up 3 or 4 deep by the end of the first novel don’t do a lot for me, because the relationships don’t have much weight. By the time it happens in Star Justice, I was like “finally, they deserve to be happy!”
Only book series I ever saw that managed to get a harem running by the end of the first book and -not- suck was the Meredith Gentry novels, but they also were far less action and far more mystery and character development. Action-Harem has to be far slower build than other types because action, by it’s very nature, takes away from character development, whereas Mystery/political intrigue, by it’s very nature of being about character interactions and motivations, making it easier to build real relations in a single book.
MSE has a ‘classic’ LitRPG series called Lion’s Quest. It’s also available on Kindle Unlimited IIRC.
He’s a really prodigious author…puts out books the length of the SJ ones every couple months, and they’re universally good. He puts the majority of them on KU as well, which is nice. I’ve bought a couple of his others that weren’t KU…he ‘sold’ the first books in the series for $0.00 so people could get to know him, and they’re definitely worth it as well.
I’d check out his facebook page for more info if you’re interested. It’s an active community and he is there pretty much every day. I wont direct link it…dont know if DaveB is ok with that, but if you just search his name, you’ll find it.
Yeah I joined his page, just to keep up with his release schedule. This guy is like the Fred Perry of novels, which is to say an absolute machine when it comes to his production schedule.
Linking to something relevant like that is fine BTW.
I’ve noticed from reading Star Justice that this author is a master of the Scheherazade gambit. There’s always a twist in the last chapter of book X that doesn’t resolve until at least the middle of book X+1. Is this true of the Lion’s Quest series as well? Or is it just how serial books work these days?
From a strategic standpoint, it makes sense that an author would want to set things up that way to encourage you to continue reading. It’s like a subtler version of a cliffhanger. I don’t mind it at all, personally, as long as the rest of the book is good, I’m going to want to keep reading anyway.
The story in lion’s quest is pretty fun so far but the character interactions between the MC and basically every female really just seem to play out the worst stereotypes of the harem genre
Yeah, it’s harem pulp, but I think it’s pretty good harem pulp. I haven’t read Lion’s Quest yet, but in Star Justice for instance, yes the women are all super beautiful, but they’re also critical and competent members of the crew, and in 9 books he only takes four of them to bed, and the last two are only after considerable antagonism, and that’s with at least seven other willing candidates, which again, serves the whole harem setup.
Yeah, these books aren’t exactly feminist manifestos – they’re action hero books for dudes, but within the constraints of that genre, I think they’re pretty good.
Well if you get around to Lion’s Quest you will know what I mean, it’s on kindle unlimited ad well.
I’m almost finished with LQ book 2, and it’s interesting in that it hasn’t become a harem of any kind yet, but I like that it totally tracks with the story. Maybe it goes crazy in book 3 but so far not.
In the middle of Book 4 right now. I’d call it “Tenchi Muyo meets Firefly meets Mass Effect” with vampires and were’wolves’ (themselves with mostly science fiction explanations). Granted, it’s been almost thirty years since I’ve seen the first 6 episodes of Tenchi Muyo, so I could be referencing an entirely inappropriate harem anime.
So far, I’m entirely enjoying the harem elements. I’d had a notion that harem fiction needed too many contrivances, and would have too much author-insertion, to be enjoyable. This seems much better, likely because of the Firefly influences. (Harem connoisseurs, any thoughts or recommendations? Any harem works written from another point of view?)
I could see how this series could grate after a while. Crapsack universes turn me off, especially when the author just doesn’t give his characters any breaks. Too much of that, and I will just lose interest, rolling my eyes as the author tortures his characters again. I’m rooting for these folks, and I hope they can find some peace for a while.
I really think I’d like to give a reverse harem series a shot. I think that would be really different because of basic sociological differences between how men and women view sex. At least I think that sort of book would be very different depending on the gender of the author.
“Firefly influences”? Neat! What in particular?
Yeah, the harem genre doesn’t really work like that. Usually the harem members are at least as sometimes often more dynamic and significant to the action than the harem fulcrum, who may nearly be reduced to a maguffin driving the conflict and cooperation of the real protagonists. Which is to say the women. Even if the fulcrum is an equal, the members are never just bedpost notches. For one thing the fulcrum usually doesn’t get to sleep with them anyway.
Yeah I disagree with the typical manga harem setup, where the lone male is the most boring character in the story. To my understanding, it’s largely done because the authors don’t want his personality getting in the way of the readers being able to self-insert themselves into his role, but that often leaves me baffled as to why all these women are fighting over the guy. (Partially it’s because a bunch of slobby otakus want to imagine that they too could have a bevy of amazing space ninja woman fighting over them without them ever having to lift a finger to become someone women might actually be interested in fighting over.)
My favorite manga harem (of an admittedly small sample, I never really read any harem mange because they were harem manga, they had to have another hook to get me to read) was AIKI. In that, the harem fulcrum (that’s a great term BTW) was an insanely good martial artist and everyone wanted to either beat him for the prestige of having done it or they hung around cause they wanted to learn from him. He was the source of the best action in the comic and nearly all the humor as well.
That actually sounds fun! All those generic protagonists that seem to be designed so readers can identify about them turn me off.
So, on your recommendation I’ve picked up this series and I’m already on book 5. It’s been an entertaining read so far and I think I will keep reading the rest (it looks like he comes out with a new one practically each month), but there have been a lot of little things which have annoyed me about the series. I don’t think I will get into them hear because I’ve been able to overlook them easily enough and I am enjoying the series as a whole so far.
One thing that has me scratching my head though… the author’s profile on his website, Amazon and on GoodReads all say that he’s a “a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of adult fiction.” However, I cannot find ANY evidence to support this on the internet and that kind of annoys me.
I think he’s the #66 top-selling author on all of Amazon currently, which is pretty impressive, (but that may have to do with the volume of novels he’s released in the last few years. I don’t know how Amazon tallies that stuff.) A few of his books are #1 in their specific category, like “Adult Space Action” or whatever super specific categories Amazon uses.
As far as NYT and USA-T, I’ve no idea. It does deem to me that nearly every book that comes out from anyone at all manages to be a top seller according to some publication or another. I don’t know if that means on a certain day an author outsold every other book or every book in a category, or if they’re in the top 10 for an hour or a day or a week.
It may just be hyperbolic marketing. I suppose I could claim to be the #1 webcomic since I’ve hit #1 on Top Webcomics more than a few times, but I’m not that an aggressive a marketer.
Not Pleased with this book [read only the first]. Interesting ideas, but the dialogue is flat and the character interactions stilted. I never got a feel for the planet, but I guess that’s because it was a throwaway backdrop to get them into place to start. Bleh too much complaining. If you like the trappings I feel like I should ask if you’ve read this: https://smile.amazon.com/Moreau-Omnibus-Daw-Book-Collectors/dp/0756401518/
On book four, and thanks for your recommendation. I’d passed on the series previously due to its cover art and premise, though I have already read his books in the Tamer series. As former military, and long time gamer, some of his (the main characters) choices are frankly wrong but understand the writer wanting to keep the MC at the center of the story.
I found an interview he did (with terrible audio, unfortunately) where he says he wanted to write books he’d want to read. Basically unapologetically books for guys, which makes a lot of what I’ve read of his make total sense. It’s Schwartzenegger era action hero stuff, even if not all his main characters are musclebound monsters necessarily.
Adam, obviously is though, and I guess I dig that enough to not mind that he’s a pretty straightforward thinker. He’s out fighting his enemies, not outsmarting them for the most part, which doesn’t mean he’s not into pre-battle prep work when he gets the chance. I mean, he’s not just pulling the trigger until he’s the last guy standing. Well, that happens some of the time, but it’s not just that. The action in the books is good and visceral, though the author does eventually need to come up with some creative ways of saying “and half his head turned into red confetti”
I think the thing I really enjoyed about the Star Justice series so far is even though it’s Space Opera Harem Action, Adam is almost the most reluctant one about growing the harem. He really cares about each one of them, they’re not notches on the headboard for him, and any new woman that comes along takes at least an entire novel (at least) to get him to warm up to the idea. That doesn’t really come up until the Star Valkyrie book, since the entourage is still pretty small up to that point, so people that only get through book 4 or 5 don’t see that as much, beyond his restraint with Juliette and the twins.
Hey David, love the series currently on Shadow eagle but i’m also reading the tamer series as well. his death ship was a nice read and i hope he continues that series as well. check out Jan Stryvant’s Black Friday. its a nice harem setup as well and the idea behind it is pretty sound, the MC get turned into a Where Lion and then starts building a pride. on book 6 and so far he has not turned anyon ito a where lion but he had had other were’s turn people.
Already read the whole Valens Legacy books. (I’ve read about 30 novels since the beginning of the year.) It was good. Not Michael-Scott Earle good, but worth reading till the end. I think Tamer is my second favorite MSE series, which is weird because it is a little… tedious is the wrong word, but very detailed with the fort building stuff. Still, I like it a lot, and it’s shaping up nicely with the 3rd book.
If you haven’t read Lion’s Quest, it’s another good one. I was hesitant to start it at first because books that mostly take place in a virtual world have little weight with me. It doesn’t matter if the characters there die because it’s all just a database on a hard drive somewhere. Lion’s Quest is a little different because in LQ there’s some question as to whether it’s a virtual world or if the VR machine is actually some kind of portal to another world. I guess that’s kind of a spoiler, but that came up in an interview MSE did and it’s what got me to read the series. I’m glad I did, cause it’s pretty good.
Dragon Slayer is good too. Really his whole catalog, honestly.
Dave, you’re what’s known as a whale, but a small whale, probably something like a bowfin. Myself, I’m a blue or maybe some kind of prehistoric leviathan – :) – it’s a term the publishing houses use to refer to heavy readers. I’m probably closing in on 100 books for the year already, or possibly more, I don’t even try to count. Amazon does NOT make a profit off my Kindle Unlimited sub. Not even a little bit. Though they are bugging me more to leave reviews.
Earle is a pretty good writer, he’s similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs in some ways, though more modern in the sexual tone. I’d bet on movies of his novels showing up eventually.
Star Justice is decent, the Tamer series seems better to me, more interesting in it’s tone and background. It did annoy me that none of them had ever heard of a trunnel (tree nail) but it is a bit uncommon to know what that is in a society that uses metals constantly. (Imagine a dowel that fits a hole drilled into two members, split the ends of the dowel slightly and affix a wedge on each end, without driving the wedge in. Place this between the two members together with the whole assembly between them, and hammer them together hard and fast. You can’t separate them without breaking the dowel, they’ve been permanently joined.) Given that Coronados men apparently never heard of them either (they burned their boats to recover the iron to make nails) I suppose I can’t blame him.
They use dowels I think starting in book 2. I guess a trunnel is a leveled up dowel.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading this year, (not quite as much as you, but I think I’m up to about 30 novels since January) and I’ve considered Kindle Unlimited, but I’ve connected with a few authors on facebook and twitter, and according to them, they make next to nothing of KU reads. They only participate in it because Amazon bases book recommendations based largely on the popularity of a book, and if you’re not in KU, your book is missing out on a ton of visibility, so it’s more of a marketing tool than a source of revenue. Plus I’d rather have stuff in my permanent library, even if it means blowing $4 here and there on a book I only read a few chapters of.
I suppose leveled up dowel is a good way to put it. Once that wedge is in tight, you can’t separate those members without damage.
You’d probably like the Bobiverse series, “We are legion (We are Bob)” is the first book. Space Opera on a fairly grand scale, and reasonably hard SF.
thanks, having fun with the bob’s right now :P
Did you read MSE Deathship? also i think i asked but have you checked out Daryandra Jones grave series (First grave on the right (or was it left) the mc has ADHD and as a ADD person i laughed my but off going ive said that….. ive thought that…… thank god ive never done that.
Hmm… I’ve been glancing at this more than a couple times, and I gotta say. I’ve learned something about it.
But since it’s a spoiler….
It’s a book.
Have you checked out the Death Ship books that they wrote? I just devoured them and loved them. The second is good but the first one really shines.
Yeah, I’ve read his whole catalog at this point. I liked Death Ship 1. Death Ship 2 was a little odd I thought. Well written, like all his books, but I liked the first one better.
have you read the viridain gate online series by james hunter? its on kindle unlimited and pretty good if you like the world is ending and so i might as well download my brain into a game kinda thing.
I haven’t. I have trouble getting into stories where it all takes place in a game, because it feels like super low stakes to me. I like LitRPG in theory, but really only when there are gamelike stats somehow present in the real world. Tamer does it, as does Death Ship, but most of the genre loses me when I look at the blurb for the book and it says that the meat of the novel is just someone playing a game.
Honestly sounds like a reversal of the setup of the Meredith Gentry Novels. Sci-Fi rather than Urban Fantasy and Multi-Fem Harem rather than Multi-Guy harem.
A thought that just occurred to me last night, and then inspired going through the first couple years of the archives again, has the concept of someone else grabbing one of the orbs been mentioned at all? All I found as far as limitations go, was that they have to be held in hand, and possibly one per hand. If someone else can grab and operate a third orb that would open up a many more opportunities. Sydney could fly, and operate the shield, while a second person could operate the oxygen generating orb.
I read the first 2 books on Kindle, it now appears that Amazon no longer has the series, any idea where i can get the rest of the books in a digital format?
Amazon has banned Michael Scott Earle, at least from KU. Not sure at this point whether he was totally removed, or he removed his books himself, this is making a lot of noise on the writers blogs. Very much a developing story.
Amazon has flagged Michael-Scott Earle’s account for some nebulous violation of their self publishing platform terms. He had no idea what’s going on and Amazon isn’t being helpful. If the ban his account, he’ll start publishing on other services and I’ll update the links. If Amazon sorts out there end, then the links will be good again.
So basically, his books are in limbo for the next week or two probably.
Or three months and counting. :(
That may be because I grew up reading too much Philip José Farmer, but what’s the point of even having sex scenes with a dude who’s half tiger if they aren’t graphic!?
Just read one called Life-Reset, if you like the LitRPG genre. Very good, and the first book, at least, is on Kindle Unlimited.
I see that the books STILL aren’t available on amazon again. Does he have a webpage where one might check out his catalog?
The best place for updates is his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1562248853809471/ He has a personal webpage too, it’s https://www.michaelscottearle.com/ but he updates the FB site several times a week.
Crying shame he doesn’t ever put those updates on his web page.
Facebag is a complete black hole to me since I will never get an account.
While I generally agree, I’ve found if you only visit certain groups and use them like a forum, it’s pretty decent. I only hang out on the MSE facebook page I linked and obviously I post updates to the comic on the Grrl Power page. I visit a few other groups like the MSE page on occasion, but I stay off my own and my friends’ timelines.
I’ve only read MSE’s Star Justice series. Managed to snag the 12th one before Amazon removed all of his books. His audiobooks are still there.
Sorry I meant the 11th book not 12th. still waiting for the next one.
Any word on when/if they will be a viable again? The Audiobooks are gone now too.
Not yet. Amazon is telling MSE to talk to them in “January” so he’s hoping he’ll be back up in February some time, but who knows?
I am really enjoying the Valens Legacy series on Kindle. Its a harem lit rpg that has were- lions, tigers, wolves, etc, as well as mage families and the like. The author is up to book 13 in the series, with plans for 3 to 4 more to finish out the main series.
Yup, Valens is pretty good.
Is there any newer word?
He has a hearing with them in May, and the only evidence Amazon’s been able to provide doesn’t even show they think he violated any sort of Kindle Unlimited terms of use or anything, so everyone is hoping it will go well.
Just looked at Star Justice again today and the Star Justice audiobooks are back up, but the kindle versions are still MIA
As far as I can tell, all the audiobooks are back, not just Star Justice. No Kindle versions.
books are still down
Hopefully this may be resolved in the next month or two. I’ll keep readers here updated as I will myself have a backlog to read if he gets reinstated.
Actually, that looks like a piece of debris from the exploding building, which would fit with the trajectory much better than a railgun shot.