Tales from the Orc Den

Mate for the Alien P*rn Star by Alexis B. Osborne and The Claimed among the Stars Anthology

• Monster Romance Reviews • Season 3 • Episode 4

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Stacy has the main mic for this episode to tell Amy and Liz about Mate for the Alien P*rn Star by Alexis B. Osborne. This is, by far, one of the most unique books we've gotten to talk about and has been referenced in many podcast episodes in the past.

Osborne is also a world weaver so Mate for the Alien P*rn Star is but a gateway to a huge, rich world for readers.

Books Mentioned:


Music is called "Undead Bride" by Pagefire https://soundcloud.com/nerdymetalhead202/undead-bride 

EJ:

We have a third book now to talk about. We're ready for Stacy's book now. Oh, this is going to be epic. Remember, I got questions.

Stacy:

We got questions. Okay. So my book is made for the alien porn star, and if you're looking for this online, porn is spelled P Asterisk R N because I'm sure Amazon's thumb is still firmly up his ass. By Alexis B. Osborne, and it was originally on the Claimed Among the Stars, a sci fi romance anthology, and this was a really fucking good anthology. This was one of those rare anthologies where, I don't know if I've read everything, but I've read close to everything, and I liked more than I disliked. It was a good anthology. This was, so I think I had read engineering fate, which is her fate trilogy is fucking chefs could kiss perfect and Oh God, the whole trilogy is so good. It's so good. And it's she has the knack for writing. I'm to the point now where if I never see a sassy heroine mentioned again, I'll be fine. But, she has a real knack for writing strong female characters without feeling like they're playing in God mode. Nice. And That is a talent in this world. That is a huge talent. She doesn't, she's not playing them like they're all Sarah Connors from Terminator 2. And... I don't like reading books where the main female hero, heroine is like this ass kicking marine or something to that effect. But I don't like reading the She was a lean, mean fighting machine, and she knows karate, because I can't relate with somebody like that I am a doughy woman in her forties who my happiest thing is when I get home from work and I lay down for four hours. It's glorious, I love it, I recommend it to everyone. And but she has a really great way of, she writes these very capable women who are capable because they have to be, not because they particularly want to be. And, I fucking love her for that. She is also really great, in this instance, she moved outside of traditional male female norms because her main character, her main non human character, Orin, is he's what's called an, they are what's called an ichthyoid. And they are a humanoid species, but they evolved from fish, basically, so they're not mammalian. Orin doesn't have nipples, Orin doesn't have a belly button. I think Orin's species may be live birth now, but I think once upon a time they were probably egg reared. And What happens in this book is, we've got our main female character, whose name is Lacey. And Lacey is a dancer who works on, essentially it's the deep space equivalent of a cruise ship, basically. And she's a dancer, it's her night off, she has just had a pretty gnarly breakup. With a guy she was living with, and he was cheating on her, he was stealing her tips. He was just, he was a pig, basically. Yeah. And so she is out with her friends, and she's just looking to get laid, basically. And Lacey's Laci is bi. Laci has no issues. She's a little intimidated by trying to hit on an alien because she's never been with an alien before. But it's really cool because Alexis B. Osborne is herself a member of the LGBTQ community. And it's really great because the way she writes it is, it's not a, we don't have a big blinking red arrow that goes, Look, my character also my female character also likes women. Am I not progressive? And there's just a case where she's standing there with her friend and they're like what about him? I don't know. He's blah, blah, blah. It's not really my type. What about her? And there's a great bit where Lacey has this thought where she's what is this about hitting on women that is so much more intimidating than hitting on men? And she decides she's a little too shy to hit on this hot chick. And she ends up seeing this alien who she recognizes as an ichthyoid. And everybody knows ichthyoids are non binary. And they're beautiful, like these they're scaled, but it's these beautiful pearlescent scales, and the ichthyoids have a fin on their head that drapes over to the side, so they look like they have an undercut their head's shaved with the fin, although the ichthyoids don't grow hair at all. Very beautifully dressed, showing off this beautiful chest, in this really beautiful transparent shirt. And... Loving all of this. Lacey ends up, right? Lacey ends up accidentally crashing into him, knocks their drink, or crashing into them, knocks their drink all over them. And the person in question, Oren, is basically if you wanted my attention, all you had to do was walk up to me. And basically starts immediately flirting with her. And they're both immediately very into each other, orrin takes Lacy up to their room, they have sex, and it's really cool because she based the anatomy of the ichthyoids off of flatworms. Ah, yeah, I remember you mentioning this. Yeah, so there's a really cool scene where when they first have sex there's a moment where Lacy opens up her tablet and she goes, Do you mind? And Orrin's face suddenly drops. And they say, Yeah, and she goes, but what she's doing is she's basically doing a scan and she's showing him that she's clean sexually. And then he, then they're like oh, okay, I thought, never mind yeah. And shows them hers, or shows her theirs, and so they're both clean, they have sex. And... Lacey spends the night, and in the midst of this, something happens on the ship, and they have to abandon ship very abruptly. But, she has a hard time convincing Oren we gotta go. Because he's it's just a drill, come back to bed. And she's no, it's three times, if it's three times, it means there's a disaster. We have to go. And they throw on their clothes, they get to their muster station, but somebody jumped the gun, and... A bunch of life that lifeboats left only half full. Oh. All of lifeboats are gone. So she and Orrin, she's okay, there are some pods. They're like a hundred years old, but they're maintained. I know maintenance has to test them every so often, so they won't be as good as lifeboats, but they should be functional. And so she's able to than take him, than Exactly. So she's able to take him and they climb into this pod that's like super uncomfortable. And it's actually. A really sweet scene because when she's telling Orin we have to go. Orin is saying why are you so sure that it's so serious? And Lacy just puts, pushes her fist against her sternum and she goes, Something is wrong. I can feel it here. We have to go. And that's when Orin listens to her. When they're climbing to the pods are only designed for one person. And so Lacy puts Orin in the first one and is going to follow in another one. And Orin grabs her arm and says, you have to come with me. And Lacey says, there's no room for two of us in here, and Oren says, I have that same feeling in my chest that you had earlier. We shouldn't separate. And so Lacey's okay, I'm gonna have to sit on your lap. Oren makes a dick joke. Everything, so they climb in, and it's, again, it's very creative because the actual lifeboats what you would imagine to be for, technologically, this is old tech. And so when they get into it, it's just basically like a giant circle that's filled with expanding foam, basically. So it's it's super claustrophobic and when you're in it, you can't control it. It just shoots out like a cannon ball and then just it'll start spinning if like the min, like the minute bit of debris hits it and you can't control the th the thrusters and it sends out. an alert and what they're afraid of is that because the boats will go to a habitable planet, the pods will send out an alert and you want to hope like fuck that it's not a pirate that picks you up basically. And what she's built into this backdrop is there are some alien species like the Tuadanon, I think they're called, who are very elf like and are capable of mesmerizing you with their vision. The males are anyway, apparently the females it's like spiders. The females are like these huge, terrifying things, but the Chua de Nan, who I think is supposed to be based, I think she took that word from the

EJ:

Oh, that's totally Irish. Yeah, Chua de Nana.

Stacy:

Yeah. It's pronounced Chua de Donna. Yeah. And the Tudinon is never accused me

EJ:

of being a Celtic language speaker. Not at all.

Stacy:

My ancestors would be ashamed. And but the thing is they're fascinated with humans and they're fascinated with the ichthyoid. And what they will do is, even though it's technically illegal now, is they will quietly. Purchase abducted species like this and add them to their harems and you'll never see the light of day again, basically. And 200 years passed when they first, when humans first made contact with them, an entire generation of women was lost to the two Dena'an, and there was talk that there was, like, genetic manipulation and shit being done to them. Oh, okay. And So there are like a legitimately scary species out there. And so the fear they're both just Fuckin hell, please don't let us get picked up by that. So they're drifting, and it's a really creepy scene, because the pod is spinning in a circle, and they can see the cruise ship on fire, and then it spins around, and then they can see half of the ship has broken off, because there's Like an artificial atmosphere around the cruise ship so the fire can burn, basically. And then at one point they drift back around and a hand, a human hand, bounces off of the tiny little porthole and like you can see it's frozen, it's also broken off. And all... Lacey can think is, was that someone I knew? And it's just this really creepy, upsetting scene. They end up getting picked up by, not quite pirates, but towing the line. And so you can tell that the original plan is they were going to sell them to piracy, or sell them into slavery. But Orin comes forward, and weirdly, everybody seems to recognize them. And so they start calling them, oh, yes, you're sovereign. And so Orin says, you know who I am, right? And they're like, yeah, we know who you are, and Oren says, I will pay you to take us immediately to, I don't remember the name of Oren's home planet, but I want you to take us to the capital city. And they're like we want 20, 000 credits, and Oren says, fine, you get us there and I'll pay you 20, 000 credits. How about, 10, 000 up front, and then another 10, 000 when we get you there? No, I'm not stupid. You will take me there, and then you'll get everything. And then they're like how about we all get a night with the woman, and then you only have to pay 10, 000, and he and Oren says, I don't share what's mine, and you know that about me if you know who I am. And so the whole time Lacey's what the fuck? Because Lacey's in a lace, she's in a silk rope. You know what I mean? Orin was able to throw their clothes back on, but Lace isn't in the fuck, because she was sleeping naked with Orin. So finally, they make it back to Orin's planet, and it's a huge ocean planet with these artificial cities that are built. And you have to have a boat, or you have to take, there are these underwater tunnels that you can take. And while there's no particularly... aggressive species in that area that will chase after them. There are these huge eels that will get confused and occasionally crash into the walkways. And Lacey's hyperventilating no, we're not. No, because Lacey was born and raised on a space station. She's never been planet side before. So she's low key terrified. And so it's just this whole thing where they're there, they're in the capital city and suddenly everybody starts recognizing Orin. And finally somebody asks to get a picture taken and so Orin pulls Laci really close, cuddles her against their chest, and then they do this peculiar hand motion like this. Can you guys see that? Although it's more hang on, let me do it with my left hand because I can't really do it with my right. It's like that. And so basically Laci is what? What the hell is going on? So it's the middle finger and the thumb are pressed together, and then the index finger is pressed to the ring finger, and the pinky is nestled up against the ring finger. Oh, okay. Interesting. And so Lacey, yeah, Lacey is like a weird duck. Yeah. And Lacey's what the fuck is going on? And so Orin goes, oh, you mean the hand motion? Oh, it means that I'm a top. And she's as opposed to? And Orin says, oh if you're a switch, you do, I think it's the ring finger. And if you're A bottom you do, I think it's the index finger if I'm remembering correctly. So this or this and then this.

EJ:

Okay, why not?

Stacy:

Why not? And she's what the hell? And see, that's where you find out that their society is split up because they don't have binary. Genders, so it's basically, are you a top, are you a bottom, or are you a switch, which if you write it all into BDSM, that means you're a DOM, a sub, or a switch, or somebody who can go between. And part of that, what's really clever is this ties into Orin's biology, because Like I said, the writer based their genetics on flatworms, and if you know anything about flatworms also don't have binary sexes. They all have penises that are like knives, basically. I think bedbugs do the same thing. And basically what it is they wrestle and they fight, and whoever penetrates the other one essentially deposits their seminal fluid, and the one who was conquered becomes the one that's pregnant. And so it, way back when, that was, basically the stronger ones ran down the weaker ones and you were impregnated against your will, but now it's like what you identify as, and so like Orin, for example, has technically a vagina, Orin is technically capable of being pregnant, Orin is not penetrated, Orin is a top. And so they get there, and again, Lace is asking like, what the hell's going on? And that's where she finds out that Orin is this galaxy renowned porn star, basically, called the Sovereign of Sin. And so that's why The hell of a title. I love it. You pirate, your title is wonderful. We're calling him, we're calling him your, so you know your sovereign ship basically then. And so what ends up happening is, so do you want me to stop there and you guys can just ask me questions?

EJ:

At least. Damn. It was really interesting. I'm over here okay. I feel like I'm asking an obvious question, but I wanted to dig a little deeper into you, Stacey. Why this story? Why this book in that scene, from that anthology?

Stacy:

Part of it was... I follow Alexis B. Osborne on Facebook, and she was talking about the story that she was writing. And I thought that was really fascinating, because what happens with the plot, that I didn't get to because I got so bogged down in minutiae, is that if a, an ichthyoid, they're technically called ruini, I think is how they're called, is the name of their species. We're humanoids, but we call ourselves humans kind of thing. The ruini, They form mate bonds. And once they have a mate bond, they can't stray from their mate bond. And if Auryn is porn star, for very obvious reasons, Auryn cannot have a mate bond, because Auryn cannot perform. Auryn accidentally forms a mate bond with Lacey. Ooh. And it gets even weirder. Because there's a, basically, so it's so he just paid, or they just paid 20, 000 fucking credits, so Lacey's got this huge guilt because she can't pay that back, she's a fucking dancer on a cruise ship she ain't bringing in the big bucks and Orin is great, because the entire time Orin is make yourself at home, I don't care how long you're here for, I like having you around, you will be fine, you don't have to go anywhere until you're capable of going somewhere, so it's very sweet, I'm In that perspective, and. And I loved the idea of, what would you do if you were, I just loved the premise of what would you do if you were a porn star and you accidentally formed a mate bond with somebody and so you couldn't do your job, basically. And I also loved, I just thought the non binary thing was cool, so I was really curious to see how she was going to do this. And I really didn't, I was I don't know, this is outside of my comfort zone. Do I want to, sally forth boldly? Or do I want to, maybe I need to poke it for a little while before I'm brave enough. And I ended up, I was reading that anthology and the book, I finished one story and it was the next one. So I was just like, fuck it, I'm here. If I don't like it, I can always switch to another story. And was, I was just like immediately fucking sucked in. And it was super hot because of the... Androgyny doesn't usually turn me on, but the way that it's expressed in the Ruin Eye is really, it's really hot. Because Auryn is big, and Auryn has broad shoulders and a broad chest and things like that, but Auryn is also beautiful and Auryn wears makeup, and there's a scene where like I said, when they get to Auryn's house, All Laci has is a robe, and so Orin is trying to find stuff in their own closet for Laci to wear. And so they end up giving her this beautiful gown made up of all of these straps that Orin has worn. That was made by a like, world renowned, or in this world it's planetary renowned designer. And so at one point, Laci is poured into this dress. And she goes this is an amazing dress, and Orin goes, keep it, it looks better on you than it ever did on me. So it's the idea that Orin wears dresses, Orin wears skirts, Orin wears makeup. There's a great scene where, after they've cemented their mate bond, they're going out, because they're trying to figure out what they're gonna do for income. Because Orin's manager... Is your finances aren't great right now, like you're gonna have to sell some stuff, or, that's when the manager starts trying to talk Oren into bottoming, and Oren is just fuck you, I'm not gonna bottom. And, so they go to, out to a nightclub, and to meet with this director who might have a, at an acting role for Orin something that's not in porn. But there's a great bit where they make a dress for Lacey to wear and Orin goes, I want to do your makeup. And so it's just that, there's just this really cool because Orin is very dominant, because Orin is a top, but at the same time, there's also this really cool, feminine expression. Or at least what we perceive as feminine expression. And I don't know, it was just like, like there's a great scene at the very beginning when they first sleep together and Lacey goes to take a shower and she's laughing to herself because Orin's skincare regimen is like 10 steps longer than her own, basically. It's like lotions and unguents and moisturizers. And so there's just, I don't know, there was, there's something very appealing about the fact that she created a dominant partner, but it doesn't have to be. And I drive a pickup truck, and, and, which don't get me wrong, I have many fond memories of spending time in the back of a pickup truck, but... It doesn't all have to be machismo, because Orin never, Orin expresses aggression, but Orin never expresses machismo, and so it was a very interesting take on a dominant partner without buying hard into either masculinity or femininity, and, but it wasn't off putting with what she came up with, basically. It's very cool, honestly. It's so good. It's legit one of my favorite books. I'm glad that

Amy:

I purchased Claimed by the Star, Claimed from whatever. I purchased the anthology,

Stacy:

so I need to read this.

EJ:

I feel like I need to get this

Stacy:

book. Yeah, Made for the Alien porn star was expanded and so it's significantly longer than it is in the anthology because what ends up happening is, so first, Orin's okay, I'm gonna go to work, I'll be back later and, there's a whole thing where Lacey's being like, I cannot catch feels for this person this is, this was a one time thing and then this shit blew up, that's the only reason we're still together, but at the same time, she's catching feels and there's a really hot scene too where she goes and she watches one of Orin's Yeah. Porns, basically. And it's super hot because it's, back in the day, there, so there's a derogatory term called a nest invader. And that's basically anybody who goes into the family unit to try and take the family from the top, essentially. And they did this like historical, and it's porn, but where Orin is basically playing this conquering warlord. And the other Runeye is like a courtesan and the basically Orin's character like takes them by force against the wall kind of thing. And it's wearing like long glorious robes. It's a very like sort of Japanese kimono kind of vibe. And there's a great scene where like Lace is watching it, but she's like imagining herself as the courtesan basically. And The way that the sex is described is also really hot, too, because one of the things Oren tells Laci when they first get together is do not struggle. If you struggle, you are going to trigger my, like my, essentially my instinct to, to, or basically to pin you. So if something is wrong, you need to let me know, but do not struggle. And so it's this whole thing where every time they have sex, too, like he basically, or they basically fold her up into a ball, usually on her belly. And very aggressively pin her, and then their penises are prehensile, which would be necessary if, you have to battle for dominance, historically, with your species. And, but there's also the sex is really hot, because Orin doesn't have to thrust the way that the penis is made his cock can, or their cock can thrust for them. But there's also a really great scene where, because Orin is ichthyoid, So they live in this super luxe private island kind of setup. And, but there's seawater that runs through in pools inside of the the house. And when Auryn is in the water, you can't see them. Their scales are too reflective. Interesting. And but there's a really great scene where they're both in the pool, and Auryn says do you want... Do you want to touch it? Meaning Orin's vagina, essentially. And Lacy's I I don't, are you comfortable with that? And so there's a really sweet scene where Orin basically says, I trust you, and takes her finger and guides it up inside, And it's this whole it's the, she's the only person that's ever touched Oren there. And the, their biology is also tied up into the ma the penetrator cannot climax until the one being penetrated has orgasmed. And so there's, so that's part of the reason, too Oren is very aggressive when they have sex with Lacey because they need Lacey to get off so they can get off. Basically, but there's this whole thing where the climax of the story is that someone tries to abduct Lacey and sell her to pirates. And actually, hang on, let me take a step back. So when they the mate bond shouldn't be possible between Lacey and Orin because Lacey is a human and Orin is not. They find out when they go to the doctor. to have her looked at because they're trying to see if there's a way to sever the mate bond, which kind of breaks Lacey's heart, understandably, but at the same time, Orrin can't work if Orrin has a mate bond. So they go to the doctor and the doctor is looking at Lacey and basically says, my suspicion is that you have Tudina ancestry. And she's what are you talking about? I'm a human. And the doctor is basically yeah, a lot of the Tudina experiments escaped and made it home. So basically, They look at her teeth. She's got teeth that she shouldn't have that is in indicative of the two to niner. And so they're like, yeah, I would say probably a great grandparent or something like that was half. And and the Teutonot and the the Runeye are genetically compatible. Okay. And so she has just enough alien DNA that it's able to trigger the mate bonds, basically. And it's actually really funny because she's Can we do anything to break it? And the doctor's Nope! May as well enjoy yourself! And then there's a really sweet scene after that where Auryn Is cuddling her in public, because she feels terrible she feels like this burden who basically exploded in his life and ruined everything. And Oren is cuddling her on this bench outside of the doctor's office. And basically says, I'm glad that we can't reverse it. I didn't want us to reverse it. But there's also a really funny scene where he starts to get, or they start to get, sexually aggressive in public. Because sex in public is not a big deal with this species. And Lacey's Oren, stop. And Oren's oh, are you shy? That's so cute. And then they put their head up and they go, yo! And they yell at this other rune eye. And they're like, pointing at themselves me, and Horny goes, Yeah, you! This is my mate! Isn't she beautiful? I like to fuck her! And the other one of them goes, The other one of them goes, Oh yeah, I remember my mating days, too. Enjoy it!

Amy:

Aw,

EJ:

Go ahead. I'm sorry, I feel almost silly asking, How do you think this? How does this contribute to the diversity of the monster romance genre? I'm over here yeah, just make your

Stacy:

pick. And yeah, basically, but the other thing that I like about this too, that I think she did a really good job with is that Orin is non binary, but Orin does not have a problem with the fact that Lacy is binary. Lacy is female and Orin has zero problems with the fact that Lacy is female. There is, however, a really cute scene at the beginning where I think right after they have sex, Orin goes, you're a female? And Lacey goes, yes, I'm a woman. And Orin goes, okay, good. I don't usually like the males of your species. But Orin can't quite differentiate, doesn't recognize, yeah, this is the sexual dimorphism in humans. I'm pretty sure you're what they call a girl. But it's really good And you get into Lacey's got their own abandonment issue or her own abandonment issues because, she was raised on a shitty, overcrowded space station and she and her best friend, like they made best, they made friends because they lived in the same shitty, overcrowded apartment and shitty, overcrowded space station. And the reason why... Lacey was working on the cruise ship in the first place is because Meg got a job and made sure that Lacey had a job, too. And so anywhere they've gone, they've only ever gone if the other one can get a job there, too. And so part of the story, too, is her freaking out. Did Meg get it off, get off the ship or not? Fortunately, she did. And there's a great little epilogue. that you can get. You read the book and then you go download it where Meg comes to visit and Meg has this huge terrifying cyborg boyfriend with her that we're just all and where did that come from? But it's really funny because Oren's not home when they arrive, and Lacy is nursing their baby. And I want to say the cyborg name is like Mad Dog or something like that. But he comes in and is immediately Ah, fuck my eyes! Put the tits away! Put the tits away! And I'm like... And then in the middle of it, Orin comes home and goes into hardcore aggressive protect the nest mode, like drop the groceries in the kitchen, comes like barreling down the hallway into the room where Lacy's nursing their child, and is very aggressive until Mad Dog agrees to go wait on the boat, or wait on their ship. It was really funny. And that's the other, because again, that's the other thing that I like is that Orin is aggressive Orrin because the whole species you protect your nest. And a nest invader is to be dealt with immediately, and usually fatally. Because there's a scene where they're talking about that and Orrin says on the books, we don't kill each other anymore. And Lacey goes, what do you mean on the books? And Orrin goes there's a lot of ocean out there. And that's all they say. Fair enough. Fair enough. So I just, it's just a fucking, I just love this fucking book.

EJ:

I do have a good question of my list of questions. If you had the opportunity to talk to Alexis B. Osborne what would be a question you'd ask them about this book or anything?

Stacy:

I would love to know if the ichthyoid were something that she was just like she had this idea and then it wasn't until she came across the flatworm reproduction that she was like. That's it. That's it. Like coming together. I would also like to know if we're gonna get a two de no story, because I'm very cur. There is something very compelling about an elegant

EJ:

villain. Indeed. You know what I mean? I absolutely concur.

Stacy:

Agreed. And and so I would love to see a a two to not senator, maybe brought around to the light side. Basically. There is also'cause, because all of this, the really cool thing about this. Is all of this is a shared universe, but the way that it's set up is really cool because humans, if I'm remembering correctly, so she also has a series that I've only read one book out of. That's actually the first book of hers that I ever read. And it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it was a, with a Thundercat alien. Cool. With a... Two DONGs. Thank you, Amiga. But it's interesting because it's also Alpha, Beta, it's also Omegaverse. Oh, fun. And, yeah, it was really interesting. Why the hell not? Let's have some fun with it. And so what it is it's the usual this is, human society is split up into Alpha, Betas, and Omegas. And she, the main character, is the daughter of a very prominent political family. And the fact that she was born in Omega is a disgrace. Yeah. Because like her brother's an alpha, her father's an alpha, I think her mom's a beta. And, but it's this kind of thing where societally omegas are seen as weak and useless. Okay. And she ends up getting captured by this species that our main male character belongs to, and by and large, the species is very aggressive towards humans. They want to steal humans for breeding purposes. And so she had been on a colony ship that was hijacked, and they were experimented on. without being taken out of cryosleep. And so she's been made genetically compatible with them because they're having like, I think like their females are dying out or something to that effect, I can't remember anymore. And so I'm not a hundred percent if this series is tied into the other series, but what I think has happened is a bunch of humans left the earth like a thousand years before, because this is very obviously in the future, like there's like hover cars and shit like that. And A bunch of colony ships left the planet, like four huge colony ships left Earth like a thousand years before. So I think the people with the Alpha, Beta, Omega thing are the ones who stayed behind on Earth. And Earth has since lost contact, like millennia ago, with the colony ships. And none of the colony ships, I think, talk to each other. I think they're all separated from one another. And they're all in different positions, the four quadrants is what it's called. And... In the Milky Way. And the Engineering series is one quadrant, the Maiden for the Alien Porn Star is another quadrant, and then I think some of her other books touch in on the other quadrants too. So it's really interesting how it's a, so if you're dealing with a story that's like in quadrant two, there are specific aliens that are only going to be in quadrant two stories, if you're dealing with aliens that are in quadrant four, which I think is what Made for the alien porn star is, you're only going to be dealing with those, the aliens that are in that quadrant. So the like the two to none, that are like the menace of quadrant four, nobody knows who the hell they are in quadrant two, basically. And none of the colony ships have contact with one another either. So it's you have A bunch of four or five seeded areas where humanity is now evolving at its own pace, basically. Separate from each other.

EJ:

Absolutely. Fascinating, layered world building. Holy shit. It's really cool. Honestly.

Stacy:

In one of them, in the, I think it's the Colony 2, which I think is the Engineering Fate, or the Engineering Series, so everybody in that, You have to essentially join Star Fleet if you want anything to happen. So basically it's a, if you wanna get married, if you wanna be able to have kids,'cause you have to apply for a license for everything. So you have to have served X amount of years in Star Fleet before you get the approval to do any of that. Then you've got quadrant four where none of that is happening basically. Lacey was never in the military, Lacey's a dancer in a fucking cruise ship basically. So like society has, like I said, has developed on different. Weird layers and like on Earth, if Earth is tied into this, like Earth is doing its own thing because none of the humans on the colony ships are part of the Alpha, Beta, Omega dynamic. They're all just typical humans. So it's cool the way she's taken like a bunch of different genres and she's tied them all together.

EJ:

I appreciate that. With the original anthology. Were there any others that you liked besides? Yes, there

Stacy:

was a bunch. Let me this it's part of the reason why I got this anthology was because I recognized a whole bunch of names that were in it. Unfortunately, their their chapter like their table of contents is not terribly, like it goes, it's like name and then lists all the chapters, like you can't pick the name and jump to the, you know what I mean? So like Zoe Draven has, yeah, it is, it's definitely a more crude setup than what they're doing now. So Zoe Draven has a story in there and it's interesting because she didn't pick Horde Kings. She picked Luxarian Warriors, but this is three generations later, which is cool. So that was a really good one.

EJ:

I honestly if you're a writer with an established world series what a great opportunity in an anthology to just shake it up a little bit,

Stacy:

have some fun. And the other thing that I think is to the benefit of this is that it's also a great way to say, hey, did you like that? I've got a whole fucking universe that I've already built around this. Absolutely. So if this is to your taste, because her Luxurian Warriors just recently ended and I think it was on what book? eight book nine when it ended yeah rescued by the luxurian is that book and then and it was really good and then and it's cool because they make reference to the luxurian warrior series because like the luxurian male and this is oh you know he didn't have any humans were great his great grandmother had been a human woman you know like that kind of

EJ:

thing

Stacy:

and so that one was really good god damn i keep doing that I'm trying to go to the table of contents instead of closing the damn book. Come on. Zoe Dravens was really good. Let's see. I don't remember that one. V. K. Ludwig has a Vandalar Concubines that's really, it's a really that whole series is really funny anyway. If you haven't read any of the Vandalar Concubines and you want something that's sexy but also really funny, I really recommend that. Because they're, essentially it's one of the, it's the usual dynamic where they have way too many males and not enough females. And so most of the males go to a school to basically learn how to be like, the ultimate, I think they're called SAC, if I'm remembering correctly. And they basically become the perfect dude love machines, can cook, great with kids, and the hope is that essentially, females take multiple concubines, essentially. So we got, yeah, a legitimate reverse harem, but it's built into the society, but the problem is, if you're only like, okay at part of it, odds are high you won't get taken on by a female, and if you... You have so many chances to try, and if you strike out your own society will sell you into slavery, which is how the first book starts, yeah. Lovely. Yeah, and so there, what ends up happening over the course of the book series is the human women are made aware of these males and are just like, a dude who gives a shit and wants to pamper me and take care of me and help with the kids Sign me up. Yeah, I'd like one of those, please. I'd like one of those. And so the series follows that, but it's there's a really funny fucking bit in, because they can do this thing that's, it's this sex growl, basically, where they, and it's to mildly turn on their females, and it sends human females into will hump anything mode, and there's a really great bit in the third book, where the human female in question, who has been a secondary character in the first two books, She's got her book, and she's actually at the school, and so she's witnessing it. And so whenever they do the growl, she has to

EJ:

put on headphones. They do the growl without

Stacy:

warning her first, and they find her out in the hallway, sexually assaulting a cleaning cart. It is so fucking funny. And there's a whole bit, too, where some wires get crossed, and they think human women have cocks. They think that's what the clit is. And so a bunch of them are just like... I didn't get into this to touch a dick. And it's very fucking funny. And they're all so desperate to find and keep their female that sometimes some underhanded deeds are done. It's pretty funny. The fourth book in particular deals with that. But so this was one of those, which, these are great. And I like too, because she's also getting into the older males who haven't been picked yet. So it's nice to see Some older characters getting some lovin oh yeah, it's always nice there. And then, let's see, so we got B. K. Ludwig. I don't remember the Tana Stone one. Didn't read that one. Which one is the Hope Hearts? I don't know if I've read. This is the great thing about anthologies, you can really skip around. Oh, yes.

Amy:

Some people will read those authors that they're familiar with. Some will start at the beginning, like me, because I'm a weirdo. And then it's if I'm

Stacy:

not feeling a story, I'll just skip on to the next one. Oh, yeah. Same. No pressure. Same. I've had more success chaos reading with anthologies than I have with trying to make myself start with the first story and read all the way through. Because if I make myself start and read all the way through, then I lose interest and I never get to the story that I'm looking forward to. Whereas, if I get to the story that I'm looking forward to first, then it might be, Oh, I'll just read the story that came after. You know what I mean? Like that kind of thing. And that's actually how I've discovered several authors that I found in anthologies that I like. The Hope Heart is really good. It's part of her archive. series, which I really like and I wish that she would give a little bit more love to. And Olivia Riley has Shades and Braces in this one, and that is an excellent book. That's another one where the short is in the anthology and then it was expanded into a full length novel and it is so good. If you like your morally ambiguous main male characters, Olivia Riley is your girl. She, Shades and Braces is... This really it's basically, it's freaky as fuck is what it is, because it's this moon. The sun is red, and it's only up for something like, eight hours, nine hours. And it's this huge... Sort of nocturnal metropolis. It's very much feels like an underworld essentially and a similar premise to alien mate for the porn star or alien porn stars mate where She is on a ship that is attacked and she escapes She's also a dancer and escapes in a pod and she ends up crashing on this moon where humans know not to go Because humans who go to this moon are never seen Some of them are eaten. This is a higher stakes thing, and she ends up crashing into this fuel distillery and causes millions and millions of credits worth of damage, and she runs away because she's afraid that if she's caught, they're gonna fucking kill her. She ends up getting caught anyway, and she's caught by Shade, who is the kingpin of this city. And basically tells her you owe me a debt, and until the debt is paid, I own you. And so she has to work it off as a dancer, and he's got this nightclub. But what's really cool is she's a silk dancer. So she does Cirque du Soleil kind of stuff. And it's this whole thing where she and Shade are sniffing around each other. And Shade is terrifying looking. I don't remember the name of his species, but he's got like silver hair, like genuinely metallic silver hair. And his skin is so thin. And that it's almost transparent, and you can see his skull and his bones through his skin. And so he's, and so he is a genuinely, and his eyes burn literally burn when he's angry. So he's a genuinely terrifying figure. And it's really good. It's super hot when they finally have sex for the first time. He literally puts her on the table, folds her up into a ball, and just starts rutting her. And he's got this super weird dick where it's got this bifurcated tip that are, and the tips are prehensile. So they can move. And it's, no, it's so good. It's so fucking good, though. And he's very much the you touch or you die like what is his and no one else may touch. Yep. And really fucking hot. She has another book that I really enjoyed that was in another recent anthology called The Hallow King. Oh, that's right, it was in the Supermelon. You were going to say that sounds familiar, didn't you mention it already? Yeah, I did, yeah, and that's another one where it's please tell me you're going to expand this because this was too good not to. Where it's like, they're like, humans live on a world with of, they're vampires, but it's very they're not they're winged for starters, and sometimes they have antlers, and sometimes they have horns, and. That sounds like a whole lot of fun. Oh yeah, maybe this, and it's one of those things where it's like humans are like hiding in their enclave kind of thing and they have to offer up A bride to the Hallow King, like every blankety blank number of years, basically, and the main characters in that one, so he's the Hallow King and he knows what he's doing, she finds a, an old walkie talkie from old tech, so basically like tech that humans would have had when they could take to the stars, which has since been lost. And she finds a walkie talkie, and she starts talking into it, and she doesn't realize it, but she's talking to the Hallow King, and they fall in love over the walkie talkies. And and it's this whole thing where she's going to be married off, whether she wants to or not, because women are, chattel. And it's just, it's really fucking good, and so I really want to see that expanded. That's in Supervallum? That one's in Supervallum, yeah. Shades and Braces in Claimed Among the Stars. And that's actually a great one too because she did write it. Both of these are written as completed little stories. And the way she expanded them is great because it doesn't feel clunky or anything like that. It's almost if I was going to describe it, have you seen those children's toys where it's a circle? Of little plastic bits in it, so it's really tight when it's together, but you can pull it out and suddenly there's like the big spaces, but it's still a circle. Oh yeah. That's how I feel like, yeah, that's how I feel like they did with these stories, where they, what you get in the anthology is the tightly closed little ball, but then they open it up and they expand it when it's its own. And it does it naturally and very beautifully. I really loved that one. That one was one of my, another one of my favorites from this this series. S. J. Sanders has a really good one in here. It is The Wandering Star Fallen, which I believe is part of the, yeah, the Darbell series. I think you're right. Yeah. And then, I don't remember that one. I don't remember that one. Nancy Cummings has a great Modfell story in here, which is really fun. It's part of the Warlord Brides. There are a couple of different authors who do the Modfell, but Nancy Cummings definitely does the best. Okay,

Amy:

Stacey, one of the things you were mentioning about all of the

Stacy:

Alexis B Osborne's Quadrants and

Amy:

Yada. Basically, I was thinking with regards to the collided realms and the dark spirits and the fairy tales for S. J. Sanders. I'm like,

Stacy:

what sort of mind map does she have? I actually don't know. I want a map of okay, yeah, we can read this.

Amy:

And then this is in that same world, but it's offset, but then this is the sequel to this,

Stacy:

and this like how they tie together. So she does actually have she doesn't have a map like that, but she does have a physical map of the four quadrants. And so basically she'll be like, this galaxy is where examining fate, doctoring fate, and speaking or Doctoring, doctoring, and whatever the other one is. Speaking? Speaking fate? That's not right, but it was something like that. Interpreting fate, that's it. Yeah. And so there'll be like a, and these are the aliens that you can find there, and because each of in those books, each book is a different, the main male character is a different alien, because there's three aliens in that quadrant, and they've all got each other essentially in a cold war. Which, and then the humans come in, because the humans have nanos, because they all served, they're all in the military when they make this conquest, and all three of these species badly want these nanos. So that they can build their own super soldiers, basically, so they can tip this Cold War into their own favor. And which I think is really fucking genius political maneuvering. But yeah, so

EJ:

there's there's, it's so much more than just like a map. There's so much world building in details. By the way, I'm just amazed that you're, you've got this in your noggin there,

Stacy:

Stacey. I don't know what It is intimidating. Stuff like this, I can shit like this, I can hold on to forever. Math, good luck. Here we go. Human brain, man. I told a friend of mine once that math makes me feel like someone put butter on my brain. And I can feel it sliding down the outside of my brain when people talk about math, but it doesn't actually get into the brain. What a fascinating,

EJ:

it, that I can see it. That's a good description.

Stacy:

I also have, I've discovered actually late in life that I also have synesthesia, which I think describes why I like weird I have to describe everything by using a weird comparison. Why not? Hey, it works. It dorks. I discovered I had synesthesia because I have always personalized numbers and letters. Numbers and letters have personalities to me and and it also ties into the fact that as, even as an adult, I have a hard time getting rid of things because I'm afraid I'm going to hurt their feelings. Like inanimate objects. That's fantastic. It is, but then it sucks when you have 17 It also sucks. Yes. Yeah, you have 17 socks with holes in the toes that you can't wear anymore but you feel like you're throwing them away like you're discarding it just because it's not useful anymore and that's exactly what you're doing but at the same time you're just like I'm being unloyal I'm being disloyal to my socks Being disloyal to your socks. Yeah. And, in a, that's the, that's gonna be the name of my third autobiography. Being disloyal to my socks.

Amy:

Stacy, I just wanted to put out there, Vio says that she

Stacy:

loves you. Oh, tell her I love her back. I will do that. When I get back in the store. She's actually part of the reason I think the name Violet is so pretty. Agreed. And because violets are pretty. But, she has a pretty soul. She does. I'm trying

EJ:

to think of a good way to wrap all of this up, because it's just what I love about where you went, Stacey, is like, these anthologies, they are not just one offs. These are, getting into anthologies gets you into a whole dang world. Absolutely, yeah. It gives you layers into new, and also your favorite author's worlds. And I think it's just a very cool aspect that I find to be One of the biggest selling points of why you should get into indie books and indie authors because they have this adaptability, this fluidity, this these layers to the story and world building that's possible partly because of anthologies. Who would have thought? Such an old school way of doing short stories and stuff can actually really expand things. No, it's

Stacy:

great. And it's, I think of it as seeding a garden. You read the anthology, and this is the seeded plot. But then, when you get to read the expanded version, it's this was the bountiful harvest, basically.

EJ:

and on that note, we will allow this will hopefully give our listeners the ability to cultivate their own bountiful gardens.

Stacy:

Heck yeah. And if you ever need somebody to like nerd out with about these books please

EJ:

message me because

Stacy:

I don't have enough people to Sit on basically and shriek about books. So because Amy and EJ keep escaping.