Just letting you know that the first book of MCA Hogarth’s Dreamhealer’s series, which was mentioned in a comment here a day ago, is free on Amazon right now.
Here is the relevant part of the comment:
M.C.A. Hogarth has a series – Dreamhealers – which is described somewhere as a love story without the romance. It’s a really nice series, very sweet. About a very deep friendship. My one caveat with her books is that the characters, even when they are screwing up, are still so damn noble.
Sounds good to me, probably including the caveat. Thanks to Mary Anderson for the comment! I look forward to trying this book.
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I liked Spot the Space Marine, but bounced off another of her books. Spot is an excellent take on the Starship Troopers genre.
Pete, I have that one on my TBR pile somewhere, but I haven’t tried it. I have to say, wow, terrible title, but we’ll see.
I quite liked this series—they’re extremely cozy, with a focus on friendship and food and the small issues of everyday life. I would warn about the related Princes’ Game series set in the same universe, though, which contains copious amounts of sexual violence. Some characters interconnect but the series have VERY different themes and tones.
I’ve bounced off all the Hogarth I’ve tried, which is a shame, since they sound like the sort of books I would love. It’s rather annoying.
I like this series despite some quibbles, but I would warn that there is an on-page death of an ill child in the first book and the second book deals with a doctor main character and hospital being overwhelmed during an epidemic (drug use, not disease) in case those themes are too close to home for comfort reading right now.
The quartet (Mindline, Mindtouch, Dreamhearth, Dreamstorm) is a satisfying arc, but the fifth “book”, the novella Family, is really more of a prequel to the related Prince’s Game series that Mary Beth mentions which is quite a bit more violent and rape-heavy (and both Family and that series bend the characters that recur from the quartet a bit out of true from how they were established in this quartet for my taste- the series was written out of order, and it feels like the Dreamhealers quartet ended up taking the characters in a somewhat different direction that isn’t totally compatible with the later-set-but-earlier-written titles). Mostly, instead of the interesting, cosmopolitan alien civilization we get here, the series gets wrapped up in a space military conflict and court intrigue of two pseudo-feudal cultures and Christian-inflected spiritual suffering and redemption narratives. (I’ve kept reading them, and probably will, but it’s less “oh, peanut butter got into my chocolate!” than “someone swapped my chocolate out for peanut butter with chocolate chips in it, and my feelings are mixed??”, tone-shift-wise?)
Very helpful comments, Sandstone, thank you. I absolutely love your swapped-out-my-chocolate metaphor. I very much appreciate a warning that the second series takes the characters in a somewhat incompatible direction directly. I might read that anyway, though this year I’m much more in the mood for more peaceful books, but if and when I do go on to the second series, I’m glad to know I should expect a fairly major shift in character development.
Halfway through Mindtouch (thanks for letting me know it was free!) and absolutely loving it! It’s about nice people being nice, and it’s just so lovely and warm and the relationship between Vasiht’h and Jahir is fascinating and wonderful. It’s exactly the book I want to be reading right now. (Yes, one of the nice things they do is visit terminally ill children in the hospital, so I am braced.)
Just noticed that Earthrise, the first book of another series set in the same universe, is 99 cents on Amazon at the moment. In case anyone is interested.
Thanks for the pointer, Kim! Amazon tells me I have had Earthrise on my Kindle since 2015, so, well, maybe I should read some of these books sometime.