REVIEW: 'Pandora' by Marguerite Labbe
Title: Pandora
Author: Marguerite Labbe
Published: April 25, 2017 2nd Edition
Publisher: DSP Publications
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance; Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 210 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; BDSM; Suspense; Angst: Medium; CW: Torture
About Pandora
Haunted by the screams of the men he murdered, ex-Marine medic Riff Khora is serving a life sentence on board a prison ship. Seeking more punishment for his crime, he strikes a deal with the corrupt Captain Vidal—an exchange of pleasure and pain—and forges a new life leading the team that surveys space wreckage for salvage.
Ship engineer Zed Jakobsen’s psychometric abilities make prison a sentence worse than death, and the barrage of emotional stimuli is an unending torment. His only regret is that he didn’t kill the monster who sent him to prison, and only a glimmer of hope to escape a judgment he doesn’t deserve keeps him clinging to a brutal existence.
When they board derelict ship Pandora and discover a lone survivor, the hell of prison life plunges into abject horror. An epidemic of violence and insanity consumes their ship, driving the crew to murder and destruction. Mutual need draws Riff and Zed together, and their bond gives them the strength to fight a reality they cannot trust. But Vidal possesses the only means of escape from the nightmare, and he’s not letting anyone leave alive.
First Edition published as Pandora in the Deep Into Darkness: Aliens, Alphas and Antiheroes Anthology by Smashwords, 2015.
Don't miss Marguerite Labbe's Guest Post at Kimmers' Erotic Book Banter. Where she talks about Riff and Zed's dynamic and gives an EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT!
4 HEART READ
REVIEW:
I must say I was pleasantly surprised to find myself totally captivated by my first sci-fi novel within only a few pages. Marguerite Labbe doesn’t make it difficult in Pandora with imagery so precise you can picture walking the decks of the prison ship yourself.
Mix in a crew who are so easily introduced you can imagine who is who while you suit up next to them to join them on their salvage mission. Plus men who are rough, tough, gruff, testosterone driven, and take charge. I’m on board. Oh, and I’m not one to really remark on covers – but this one is spot on!
Riff Khora, servant to the Captain, is a lifer on a prison salvage ship. Former Marine medic and now the ships salvage leader he’s taking a team to recon the Pandora. A ship reported missing a year ago. Needing a new team member, and looking for another stolen conversation with the man, he adds safety conscious, and knowledgeable Zed Jakobsen to the mix. Always gloved and swathed Riff is captivated by Jakobsen’s piercing green gaze at risk of punishment, from a Captain who doesn’t share.
Once they embark upon the derelict ship things are not what they anticipated and when they bring an unexpected “survivor” aboard the prison ship a sudden madness infects the population that results in unimaginable deeds.
What plays out is twofold: Riff and his crew find themselves fighting for their very survival against an unseen enemy, and some they know all too well, while the sexual tension between Riff and Jakobsen heats up right along with the story line.
Readers are treated to non-stop, thrilling suspense throughout as Riff struggles to keep his team together and alive against a madness that can’t be contained, conniving double-crossing villains and through challenging mental and physical obstacles.
When Riff and Jakobsen finally succumb to desire it’s all systems go. It is fascinating watching two men determined to satisfy one another’s desires while trying to meet in the middle of pleasure and pain.
“I have to know if you’re going to keep trying to push me away or shut me down when I want to show you more than pain.”
Jakobsen’s touch being more than just a touch adds to the allure. Something that has brought him great heartache and pain, somehow when desire and lust begin to unfold between he and Riff: "It didn’t feel intrusive, more like a quiet kinship…allowing him to focus on the physical."
Labbe‘s feeling, descriptive words and attention to detail are so incredible you don’t even notice they’re there until your mind sighs. It’s crisp, clean, precise, vivid, filling every crevice of your mind as your read.
Such as when describing a verbal barb: “There it was, the stab and twist that cut so deep the bleeding never stopped.”
Playing on a BDSM arch Pandora has the backdrop of a potentially explosive D/s dynamic about to unfold. Riff craves pain, long before coming to the ship. He just craves it in a new way now.
"Riff needed the pain in his body to mask the pain inside. Once he’d enjoyed the pain only because it brought pleasure with it, but that distinction had gotten lost."
A way to escape the screams. A pain he thought he was deriving from a mutually perverse relationship with the Captain. In reality he’s lost his appreciation for the pain, something Zed is intent on reminding him of.
"He carried emotional and mental scars as long-lasting and vivid as the whip marks on his body."
I love how the author slowly lets Jakobsen’s story of why he’s imprisoned on the ship unfold. Little nibbles here and there where you can figure it out but when you hear him utter the words it touches you. Then there is Riff’s loss and pain that dribbles across the pages that once fully known makes you bleed. Just as the reader is compelled and compassioned as their stories unfold, so are the characters.
For all the well plotted, drawn out drama within its pages and moving, suspenseful story line, Pandora left me a very happy reader, but at the same time wanting a tiny bit more. A little bit more of the where, when, how, and why of the outbreak and more fleshing out of the Dom/sub dynamic between Riff and Zed. I know there is the potential for these two men to take each other to the stars and I am hopeful Marguerite Labbe will set that ship on due course. With talented writing like this I can’t wait to read more!
A copy of Pandora was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by DSP Publications, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
Marguerite has been accused of being eccentric and a shade neurotic, both of which she freely admits to, but her muse has OCD tendencies, so who can blame her? She loves writing stories about the beauty of love with all of its fascinating quirks and the strength of family, whether it’s the family you’re born into or the one you create. Marguerite was born in New Hampshire, grew up as a military brat, moving from one end of the U.S. to the other before settling down in Southern Maryland. She married her next-door neighbor and best friend, and they have one son and two cats who rule them. To her dismay, she has failed to convince her Alabama born husband to move north, where being a passionate Red Sox fan is perfectly normal. She runs Apocrypha Comics Studio with her husband and they often trek off to comic book conventions on the weekend where they celebrate all manner of geek culture. In her spare time she loves reading novels of all genres, enjoying a table top role-playing games with her friends, many which end up on the Role With Us podcast, and finding really good restaurants where she can indulge in her love of food and wine.
For more from Marguerite visit her website.
