50books_poc | Entries tagged with action

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee is a mystery written by a Scot of Bengali descent, taking place in 1919 Calcutta: "Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta’s police force." I agree with this book's politics but it really shows that the author had never written a novel before, in particular in the dialogue. Characters speak their subtext or otherwise exposit in that "unrealistically monologue coherently about national politics for six paragraphs" kind of way. I am a little interested in reading the next books in the series, because maybe the writing will improve.

sumofparts.livejournal.com

( Cut for length and mild spoilers )

rachelmanija.livejournal.com

Dr. Adam Gary is the sexy African-American inventor of a fuel cell that will revolutionize the world by producing its own energy. (Is that even physically possible?) But when South African white racists attack him and try to steal his prototype, he needs protection. Enter Maxine “Max” Blake, tall and gorgeous, ex-cop, ex-Marine, current bodyguard, accompanied by her beloved rottweilers. Too bad Adam has a post-traumatic dog phobia!

This plot description is so completely up my alley that I’m sad that I didn’t actually like the book. Jenkins’ prose wavers between flat and terrible, the characters are more collections of attractive traits than believable people (and at times hilariously Mary Sue/Marty Stu), and the pacing is uneven.

I tried a different book by Jenkins, Wild Sweet Love, a while back. It also had a great premise – an African-American former outlaw starts a new life in the Wild West— but though the prose was significantly better, the story failed to grab me after a killer prologue.

Click to see on Amazon: Sexy/Dangerous

Wild Sweet Love

Jenkins seems to be not for me, but does anyone have recommendations for other African-American romance writers? I know there are many out there and I’ve looked at some websites, but the websites haven’t been that useful in terms of helping me find writers I like.

My romance likes: Tough women. Nice men. Action and adventure. A sense of humor. Totally insane elements, like mermen, time-travelers, shapeshifters, angels, psychic detective agencies, etc. Anything that could remotely be considered out of the sexual mainstream. If the main characters are of color, I’m interested in historicals; if the main characters are white, this is a neutral rather than a plus.

My romance dislikes: Anything that could conceivably be marketed as chick lit. Passive women. Domineering men. Babies.

alias_sqbr

Supernatural romance set in Taiwan. This was flawed but a lot of fun. I wrote a longer review at my lj (since we've had a bunch of reviews of her stuff here recently).

Yay for this comm introducing me to a new awesome author :)

Current Mood: chipper

rachelmanija.livejournal.com

Cat and Jax are private investigators, bad-ass martial artists, and exes. Though their marriage failed because of their inability to cope with their traumatic pasts, they still work beautifully together and have sizzling sexual chemistry. When they get hired to investigate the leaders of a cult - former conjoined twins Tomo and Joy, who have poorly defined psychic powers that may involve ectoplasmic tentacles - they must go undercover in the cult's sexual healing workshop for distressed couples!

Portions of this novel are just as excellent as it sounds. I am a total sucker for the "undercover at a leather bar/sex club/sexual healing retreat" scenario, and also love stories about bad-ass partners. And hey, not just psychic kids, but psychic conjoined twins! Steven Barnes, you just go on exploring your id - I will always be along for the ride.

Unfortunately, it's also sprawling and messy, often dissolving into overheated and hard-to-follow descriptions of sex and psychic experiences. It reads much like an early attempt at the much more successful Charisma (and has a cool link with the also more successful Blood Brothers.) I wouldn't recommend this to start with, but if you already like Barnes, it's worth a read.

Warning for violence, sexual abuse, racial slurs, and a brief but memorable instance of anal tentacle rape.

rachelmanija.livejournal.com

Note: I started reading Marjorie Liu before I started 50 Books POC; I’m doing an overview for your enjoyment, but I’m only counting the one I read since I began the project for my own totals.

The best description of Liu’s novels comes from

meganbmoore, who described them as “The X-Men as genre romance.”

Dirk and Steele is a high-priced, high-class security agency… because its agents are all secretly shapeshifters, telepaths, and other mutants! Each novel is a romantic thriller featuring psychic powers and/or magic, plus some truly cracktastic plotting.

Liu’s prose is ordinary at best, though her dialogue is good, and can veer into ultraviolet. Her plots tend (quite endearingly, in my opinion) toward “everything and the kitchen sink.” Her cast is multiracial and multicultural, and both her heroes and heroines tend to be sweet and tough, wisecracking and angsty. The romances are frequently interracial, though so far I think they’ve all been person of color/white person.

I like her because her romances ring true and don’t make me want to take out a restraining order on the heroes, I love psychic powers and angst and she has lots and lots of both, there’s plenty of action and wry comedy, and I enjoy her enthusiastic approach to plotting (“And then he runs away to the circus, and there’s an old woman who can turn into a dragon, and then they all get on a train to Russia with some immortal dude. And then a mummy attacks.”)

Here’s a quick run-down on her novels. They don’t need to be read in order (and I don’t think I’ve listed them in order.) Like Suzanne Brockmann, there’s a large cast of recurring characters and the supporting ones tend to get their own books and own romances eventually.

Eye of Heaven. Blue is an Iranian-American agent with electrical powers and tons of family angst, including a brother who ran away to join the circus. Iris is a white circus performer who can turn into a lion. Together, they fight organ-leggers! Someone loses an eye, or maybe an ear; I forget. Great fun. Click here to buy it from Amazon: Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5)

Shadow Touch. Artur is a Russian psychometrist. Elena is a healer. They’re both held captive in an evil laboratory and must bond on the psychic plane to escape. This one is super-angsty. It was the first I read, and got me hooked on the series. Click here to buy it from Amazon: Shadow Touch (Dirk & Steele, Book 2)

Tiger Eye. Dela is a psychic who opens a magic box. Hari is the ancient shapeshifter who pops out of it after being imprisoned for thousands of years as the slave of the owner of the box. The novel avoids accidentally creepy power dynamics by having the characters realize how creepy and horrible Hari’s situation is, and do their best to free him. Sexy and sweet. Click here to buy it from Amazon: Tiger Eye (Dirk & Steele, Book 1)

The Wild Road. He’s a gargoyle disguised as a human. She’s an amnesiac covered in blood who tries to steal his car. They go on the run and end up squared off against the Queen of Elfland, if I remember correctly. The combination of two stoic, quiet, brooding characters is surprisingly entertaining. Click here to buy it from Amazon: The Wild Road (Dirk & Steele)

The Red Heart of Jade. Loved the main couple, but the plot crossed the line from wacky to incomprehensible. Some funny bits, but overall skippable. Click here to buy it from Amazon: The Red Heart of Jade (Dirk & Steele, Book 3)

The Last Twilight. Rikki is a virologist investigating a hot zone. Amiri is a mild-mannered former teacher and current agent by day, and a cheetah whenever he feels like it. They fight biological weapons-makers in Africa. I loved the main couple and the supporting character (Eddie), and appreciated Liu pointing out that Africa is a very big and diverse place, and that just because Amiri is from Kenya doesn’t mean he knows anything about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Given that, it’s too bad that the actual plot centers around every African cliché from Ebola to hatchet-wielding rebels. I think I would have also bristled at the African hero having an animal form if this had been the first Liu book I read, but since it was about the sixth and the series has multiple shapeshifters of various races, I didn’t. Your mileage may vary. Overall, though, I enjoyed it a lot. Click here to buy it from Amazon: The Last Twilight (Dirk & Steele)

I haven’t yet read the last two on this list, but you can still click to buy them from Amazon!

The one with the merman: Soul Song (Dirk & Steele, Book 6)

The one that isn’t Dirk and Steele: A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City)

rachelmanija.livejournal.com

AWESOMESAUCE.

I have reproduced the back cover copy below, because it's just that good, but with my own corrections and additions. Original copy in italics.

Austin Tucker was a Green Beret, a man with lightning reflexes and the training to use them. He also benefits from magically enhanced senses and speed - something his father taught him and said runs in the family. But his life was shattered one Thanksgiving night when strangers invaded his home and killed his son, his daughter, and his wife. Actually, it's his daughter who cries out a strange warning and them spontaneously combusts. The heartbroken Tucker is arrested, convicted, and sent to jail, where he becomes so depressed that he starts hanging out with white supremacists, all the time impotently longing for revenge on the killers of his family.

Derek Waites was once an outlaw computer hacker, the infamous Captain Africa. Now he designs computer games. Someone has just tried to kidnap his son, while his daughter cried a strange warning and burst into flames. This is wrong. Her hair starts smoking, but because she inherited her great-great-great grandmother's magic nightgown with hair woven into it, she was able to get under a cold shower in time.

The two men have nothing in common - Tucker is a white man from the suburbs. Waites is a black street hustler trying to go straight. Terrible description of Derek - he comes from an upper-middle-class background, his hacking is limited to pranks and one illegal act of somewhat justified revenge-via-theft, and there is no street hustling involved.

But they are brothers in the same cause. If Tucker and Waites can resolve their differences long enough to work together, they can defeat an ancient evil. Between them they have the skills and the knowledge to break an ancient cycle of supernatural predation, and save the lives of a generation of children.

That part is all true. And just as fun as it sounds! Barnes' writing style matches his pulp action plot, though luckily it either gets less clunky as he goes along or else I got used to the clunking. But the energy, fast pace, likable characters, touching family relationships, sometimes dark humor, blessedly accurate portrayal of Los Angeles, and thoroughly cracktastic plot elements make this book quite a treat, if you like this sort of thing. I know I do! Especially when it involves both martial arts and psychic kids.

There are some serious elements - slave history and the Rodney King riots are an integral part of the story - but they give the story depth rather than weighing it down. I also liked that Barnes' characters appreciate physically strong women. At one point the omniscient narration admiringly compares Derek's ex-wife's body to that of a "talented semi-pro bodybuilder." I almost never see that sort of appreciation in print, and I like it. Though the women and girls are supporting characters rather than leads, there's a lot of them, they're important, and their moral dilemmas and courage are highlighted.

I could have done without the only Indian character being a villain and frequently called "the Indian," and with another villain being referred to as "The African." But the overall tone of the book was so humane and inclusive that those seemed more like accidental relics from the writing style of older pulp novels than meant to express any opinions of the author.

Direct link to buy it from Amazon:

Blood Brothers

chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com

I'm a big sword and sorcery fan, so I was up for this book all the way.

Like most of these stories, this is about a big husky man in a loincloth who goes around having adventures. Hubba hubba!

The strength of this book (to me, a white American reader) is its immersion in an alternate central Africa. The setting is fantastic, as well as the interplay and contrasts of the different cultures and peoples, the anthropomorphism of the various creatures in Imaro's mind, and the weird and strange magics from the sorcerers.

Imaro is introduced as a boy with a unknown father, he and his mother sort of outcasts from their village. Angry, yet decent and honest, he never quite gets a fair shake in things as he grows up during the early part of the story. By the time he's grown, at least one sorcerer is actively trying to destroy him. Yet over and over his amazing strength, skills, and intelligence sees him through to rise up and lead several groups of men, as well as attract women everywhere he goes.

But Imaro is a brooding, reflective man, a person who internalizes his traumas, who doesn't ever quite feel good about himself or his natural role as leader. His portrayal immediately brought a contrast in my mind of the fierce joy that Conan radiated as he attacked life, and is what I believe to be the major flaw in this book.

This is the first segment in a series. The book ends unresolved, the second problem with this story. This sort of series traditionally goes from one resounding success to another, drawing the reader in to get the next book to see what the hero's next conquest will be. This story ends with a huge failure which requires Imaro to make another journey to rescue his current girl (I'm thinking this quest will be the impetus for the next book).

I'm not sure why the author chose to portray Imaro this way or structure the story this way, but I think these both detract from the enthusiasm this sort of book should generate in readers. I liked the book well enough but I thought this was the least fun of the sword and sorcery series I've read so far.

Profile

Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated May. 22nd, 2026 04:58 am

Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

Entries tagged with action

"A Rising Man" by Abir Mukherjee

27-32 Rawi Hage, Octavia E Butler, Qiu Xiaolong, Shaun Tan, Aravind Adiga, Karin Lowachee

Sexy/Dangerous, by Beverly Jenkins

19: Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie Liu

Iron Shadows, by Steven Barnes. 23.

9. The Dirk and Steele series, by Marjorie Liu

# 6: Blood Brothers, by Steven Barnes

#6 - Imaro, by Charles Saunders

Profile

January 2026

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags