Surrender

Timara is an ancient city of Gods, ruled by Jarek, their King. On the day he ascends the throne, Timara has a visitor – Kira, Egyptian Goddess of Darkness – who insists on seeing Jarek. Convinced that her parents ruled Timara until they were defeated and expelled by Jarek’s father, Kira has come back to regain the city that she believes is her heritage. She’s willing to do just about anything to accomplish this goal, including killing Jarek, if necessary. Jarek, however, has another plan. He knows his destiny is to take Kira for his Queen, and he will fulfill that destiny no matter the consequences.

Surrender presents an interesting plot, but this short story (55 pages) suffers from the abbreviated format. The author has to squeeze it down into a length that I think is inadequate for this complex story. It doesn’t seem to work as a short story because the author seems to only have room to hit the scenic highlights, leaving the reader to guess at a lot of the details, and making the scene changes very abrupt and sometimes confusing. I thought the character development of Jarek was quite good, and he came across as a believable person ... er, god. Kira, on the other hand, seems to be quite single-minded, which gives the reader a slightly stilted impression of her character. There are several sex scenes between the hero and heroine which are quite explicit. Although I enjoyed the premise of the story and was intrigued by the juxtaposition of Egyptian- and Greek-style gods, I was not fond of this story as written, and I would have liked to explore this work in a longer format.

Reviewed by: Jean