Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway: Slaves of an Alien Game series by Nina Schluntz
Slaves of an Alien Game
by
Nina Schluntz
Genre: Science
Fiction Romance
SCROLL DOWN FOR GIVEAWAY!
SYNOPSIS:
Game Wardens rule most of the galaxy by a fierce empire built on enslavement and brokered deals. The only means to earn one’s freedom is by playing in the Alien Games. Two slaves go in the arena, the survivor, if there is one, is given their freedom and crowned a king, earning them a small country to rule and slaves of their own.
To make the battle more fun for spectators, genetically enhanced monsters, sahalias, are given to the combatants, but they must found in a scavenger hunt. Five orbs, each hatching into a lizard that will bond with their keeper, are hidden on a random planet. If the competitor finds all five, they have a great imbalance of power over the other, who will have none. The sahalias are created with one purpose, to battle to the death and destroy the other competitor.
BOOK ONE:
Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 1
Caden works at an all night diner in a small town near the interstate. When a man comes in late at night, asking for access to the roof, Caden knows the man is a bit off. But his ruffian nature and a small bribe makes Caden decide to let him go up.
“It’s a scavenger hunt,” the man says. Caden thinks he’s being helpful when he finds the item, a black orb, but when he touches it, he unknowingly becomes a competitor in an intergalactic competition that ends in a battle to the death. Manipulated and lied to, drugged by the alien Incubus, Raghib, whom he is now allied with, he must train his lizard battle creatures to fight for him on an unknown planet with rules he barely understands.
He has little chance to survive and although he wants to trust, Raghib, who will earn his freedom if Caden wins the battle, he worries he is simply being used. A bit of truth is revealed when one of the Game Wardens takes a liking to Caden, but his alien species is known to eat humans, so Caden isn’t sure if the desire is that of hunger or true romance.
Either way, Caden is nothing but a slave to their alien games.
BOOK TWO:
Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 2
Caden is free. He won his battle and got what he wanted. Sent back to Earth with his won kingdom given to the slave, Raghib. However, life on Earth, back at the diner isn’t the same after living on an alien planet. He still suffers from withdrawals from the Incubus influence and drugs Raghib forced on him, and nightmares from the horrible battle to the death.
When a woman arrives, the latest competitor in the alien games, she offers him a chance to visit Raghib. All he has to do is be her slave during the games and help her find the orbs. He agrees and finds she is a higher level competitor than Raghib was, the hunt is on a deadlier planet, one covered in darkness and monsters.
Caden is eventually reunited with Raghib and gets to see the kingdom he won. Raghib is more broken from the battle and haunted by the brutality of it than Caden. He has a new lover and is driving his country to poverty so he can buy drugs to forget the pain. Caden turns to the Game Wardens for help, offering to go back in the arena again, with the woman he helped in the scavenger hunt. He is a fan favorite and knows their ratings will improve if he goes in again.
He arranged to go in as her pretend slave, in a role that will have safety features turned on so he will be in no real danger. He thinks its his idea to go back in. Confident he’s messing with the structures in place and trying to leverage the Game Wardens to change the deadly games into a nonlethal form.
However, it was their plan for him to go back in from the start. Caden is still nothing but a slave to their alien games.
BOOK THREE:
Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 3
Caden’s long-term girlfriend on Earth is pregnant, and Caden is missing. Jenny worries he has been kidnapped and drugged again. A strange woman arrives, saying she knows Caden and where he is. She offers to take Jenny to him, if she helps her… they just need to find some orbs in a scavenger hunt. Jenny agrees, but is careful to not touch the objects. She doesn’t trust this woman.
They find four orbs and encounter the other competitor. The fifth orb is there, and Jenny is forced to pick it up. The other competitor forfeits and Jenny finds herself now in the games, the woman she’d been helping now announced as her deadly competitor.
She is taken to an alien planet and united with a distraught Caden. He confesses that he has a relationship with a man, an alien man, an Incubus named Raghib, and the woman Jenny must fight is Raghib’s daughter.
Caden is in an impossible situation, either his lover’s daughter dies or his childhood sweetheart dies, but there is a rule in the games, a protection for slaves and their offspring, who are viewed as profitable future slaves. A pregnant woman may not enter the arena, instead the sire must.
Caden is again forced to play in the games, but this time he has no sahalias to battle on his behalf, and safety features are not allowed. If Caden is to survive, he must find a way to not be a slave in their alien games.
He stood there in the headlights of my car, not answering
me. I wondered if he was going to shift into a more alien body and go, “You got
me!”
“Are you an alien from another planet?” I repeated the
question slowly as if that might help prompt an answer from him.
“Yes.” He offered nothing more. We both waited, for what I
wasn’t sure. Maybe he was considering if he needed to dose me again.
The standoff ended with him turning to enter the junkyard.
He angled his flashlight around, looking for his next orb, while I stood there
unable to move or speak.
What the hell was a person supposed to do in this situation?
Text their mom and say, “Hey. So, I got pulled into this alien scavenger hunt,
and I’m gonna be gone for a while. Let’s hope I don’t get probed.” Include a
few laughing-face emojis, maybe an alien-face emoji too.
“Caden!” His deep voice, which now sounded extremely alien
to me—as if I could hear extra tones in it that I hadn’t noticed before—pulled
me out of my reverie. Well, the third time he shouted my name, it did. The
first two, I was too busy thinking about how weird his voice was.
I walked over to where he stood, his flashlight aimed at the
orb on the ground.
“You must now decide,” he said. “Will you collect the orbs
and be my ally?”
“You promise I’ll be safe?” I asked. “I’m not going to die
doing this? I will be completely intact, my arm and everything. And this—these
things will all be removed from my body?”
“If we are the victors of the game, you can have whatever
you wish. I promise you that.”
“And if we lose?” The fact he’d worded his response the way
he did made me wonder if the losers were killed or something.
He kept the flashlight aimed at the orb, and with his other
hand, he cupped my chin.
“If you are my ally and do as I say, we will win. I assure
you of this,” he said.
I waited, expecting that surge of magical opioids from his
hand, but none came. Maybe he was decent enough to want me to make the decision
sober. “And you’ll return me back here, to Earth?”
“Yes, with a settlement of the prize. Cash if you like,” he
said.
Well... I mean, I needed his help getting this thing off
anyway. And he wasn’t being a jerk. He seemed nice enough for an alien. He
could clobber me with brute force and make me help him, except maybe the rules
kept him from doing that or something. Would the rules keep me safe after we
left Earth? Good gravy, what was I saying? I was acting as if this was a normal
problem people faced.
“Fine, we’ll be an alliance,” I said.
“Wonderful. Pick up the orb.” His face truly looked pleased,
and this time the tingle that went through my body was a burst of chemicals of
my body’s own making.
VIDEO CLIP FOR
SLAVES OF THE ALIEN GAME: BOOK ONE
REVIEW OF BOOK ONE:
5 stars!
Surprising M/M sci-fi romance building up to an arena-style battle
royale!
Slaves of an Alien Game: Book One is the debut novel
in author Nina R. Schluntz’s new science fiction romance series of the same
title. The story hits the ground running and never lets up, even as the two
main protagonists navigate unfamiliar feelings for each other.
Caden is fun, engaging, and unsure of himself, especially in
the romance department, as he’s always thought of himself as strictly
heterosexual. However, he’s kept the one girl he’s had any kind of meaningful
relationship with at arm’s length for years. It seems everyone had assumed
Caden was gay all his life, including the aforementioned girlfriend! Early on
in the book, when he and Raghib are discovered to have spent the night
together, Caden’s mother is hilariously giddy that her son has brought home
such a desirable catch. I loved that she invited the whole family over to wish
them well on their upcoming trip together.
Raghib is the alien partner, born into slavery on his home
planet, and a more serious character. He has trouble pinning down his feelings
for Caden and vacillates between overt desire and adopted indifference; he doesn’t
want to get hurt when Caden returns to Earth after they are victorious in
battle.
The author builds a fascinating and vivid world as the
setting leading up to the Battle of a Thousand Deaths. My favorite aspect,
though, has to be the lizard-like creatures called sahalias which are bonded to
Caden as the finder of the black orbs. I couldn’t help but picture Great Dane-sized,
velociraptor-type animals.
The plot maintains a fast pace with preparations for the
battle, Caden and Raghib getting to know each other, dealing with their
differences, and inevitably falling in love. There are explicit sex scenes, most
of which are intimate and tender, but a few are performed to repay a debt or
requirement of another. Early encounters are enhanced by the exotic nature of
the alien connection between the two men: they are bonded in a consensual
owner-slave alliance, and there are some rules which structure and guide that
particular relationship that end up having some surprising ramifications for
both. Finally, with all the preparations and events Caden and Raghib must
attend before the actual arena match, I was glad that the battle was presented
the way it was: non-stop action, and it was over. I had become quite attached
to Caden, Raghib, and the sahalias and was dreading the fight and the awful possibilities
it posed.
With its engaging boy-next-door main character and
imaginative plot, I recommend SLAVES OF AN ALIEN GAME to readers who would
enjoy a M/M SciFi romance with non-stop action and adventure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nina Schluntz is a native to rural Nebraska. In her youth, she often wrote short stories to entertain her friends. Those ideas evolved into the novels she creates today.
Her husband continues to ensure her stories maintain a touch of realism as she delves into the science fiction and fantasy realm. Their three cats are always willing to stay up late to provide inspiration, whether it is a howl from the stray born in the backyard or an encouraging bite from the so called “calming kitten.”
Thank you for sharing your awesome review of the first book in the Slaves of an Alien Game series, I love everything sci-fi and this is a must read series for me
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your awesome review of the first book in the Slaves of an Alien Game series, I love everything sci-fi and this is a must read series for me
ReplyDeleteI love the cover and think the book looks very interesting.
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