Heidi Ruby Miller is the author
of the science fiction romance AMBASADORA. Recently,
she and I had some fun reading each other’s respective ebooks and decided to
blog about our experiences. Heidi tackled
my erotic clockpunk romance THE WATCHMAKER’S LADY while I dove into her
political thriller romantic SF tale, AMBASADORA.
We decided to structure our
posts in a special way. We each created a selection of talking points about our
stories with the goal of teasing out the underlying themes and layers of our
respective tales in non-spoiler ways. Then we exchanged our lists.
Heidi’s AMBASADORA talking
points below make a handy reference tool both during and after reading the
story. Following the talking points is my commentary on some of the elements in
AMBASADORA that stood out for me.
Let’s launch this baby! Here
is the story blurb for AMBASADORA:
Sara Mendoza is captured,
tortured, and falsely accused of treason by the Embassy, but she is given a
chance to win back her freedom. She only needs to charm information from one of
the fragger leaders, then kill him. But by the time she figures out the
Embassy's intel is flawed and that Sean Cryer is her true mark, she's already
in love with him.
Sean knows why Sara is on his ship from the start, but as a lonely, anti-social doser, he doesn't value his life, only his ideology within the fragger organization. Against his better judgment, he becomes her protector, each day caring more about a future he was always afraid to hope for.
Sean knows why Sara is on his ship from the start, but as a lonely, anti-social doser, he doesn't value his life, only his ideology within the fragger organization. Against his better judgment, he becomes her protector, each day caring more about a future he was always afraid to hope for.
AMBASADORA Talking Points
by Heidi Ruby Miller
Multi-Partner Amour System and the Emotional Fallacy
In Ambasadora, we get the hint that the
original worldship dwellers were a small group of refugees from Earth. As death
and disease took its toll, the only way to boost population and ensure a
diverse gene pool would be through multiple breeding partners. After a
generation or two, this practice would become established as tradition and
written as part of the History.
The fact that many citizens still tend toward
monogamy is a source of problems in a society where promiscuity is encouraged.
They use the term emotional fallacy to represent the weakness of
devoting one's life to a single other person and condemn the idea that a person
would make life decisions based on fleeting emotions and hormonal responses.
The world philosophy doesn't
allow for true love. In fact, the word love is not used throughout the
entire book. It is taboo.
Every Gesture Has Meaning
In this kind of sexually charged culture, where
there is a caste system in place, finding genetically superior mates (called
amours) would become the most important thing, even among these sophisticated
and technologically advanced humans; therefore, they are a very affectionate
society where every gesture signifies something, whether it's a kiss to the
forehead meant as an informal greeting or honing in on a potential amour's
pupil dilation to gauge attraction. Deciphering the meaning of a touch becomes
an art form and flirtation reaches the level of targeted precision.
Transparency
Sara's
bio-lights, the living intra-tattoo which marks her as an ambasadora, are a
physical cue broadcasting her emotions to everyone. She has no control over
them, and it infuriates her that she cannot hide her feelings, from sadness to
anger to arousal.
It is a mirror for a society obsessed with voyeurism and
living vicariously, either through celebrities or the virtual world of the
V-side. The Media knows all, shows all, and can be manipulated by the right
people to control all. Aiding the Media are little mechanical spies like
voyeurs with their telescoping cameras and sensitive, multi-directional
microphones and mind minstrels, which can scan a person's brain and turn their
thoughts and emotions into music for the amusement of others.
In
the V-side, virtual home of the techno-militant, anti-government fraggers, one
can become essentially anyone or anything he or she likes and sustain that
image for as long they are plugged in. By avoiding the tenets of one society,
they have offered themselves up as slaves to another.
Strength Through a Lover
Sean and Sara epitomize the
concept of strength through a lover—knowing there is one person in the entire
world you are close to in so many ways, that this person would do anything to
protect you, to make sure you're happy, to fight for you and love you, that
fulfills your physical needs as well as your emotional ones.
***
Now it’s my turn! A few
elements in AMBASADORA got my geek girl synapses firing and I would like to tag
them for you.
Once could classify AMBASADORA under the space opera,
cyberpunk, and action-adventure categories, but what particularly marks this
story is its strong sociological and political themes. There’s political
intrigue aplenty and the government has shades of Big
Brother. It’s definitely a thinking person’s story. Expect some ambiguity
here and there as the various story threads come together.
For example, in addition to
the themes above, AMBASADORA explores the issue of sterility and its role in
love and politics (but to say any more would constitute a spoiler).
As far as the romance-SF integration, it falls more on the
romantic SF side. One of the main reasons is because the story follows an
ensemble cast of characters and there are multiple viewpoint characters. Hence,
the romance subplot is of the slow-burn kind. You get a chance to know the hero
and heroine before they meet. Heat level: non-erotic; moderate sensuality.
The romance is fully developed from start to finish and has
an HEA. There’s a nice intersection at which point the romance begins to drive
the external plot. Sara and Sean begin their heroic journeys separately, but
then merge into a single hero as the story progresses.
Another element that struck me was the detailed description.
Heidi Ruby Miller clearly worked hard to create an immersive experience for
readers. Kind of a “stop and smell the roses” experience. A related aspect is
the slang and vocabulary used by the characters. The anti-government, virtual
reality inhabitants known as “fraggers” is one type of term you’ll encounter.
Another creative slang word is “docking,” which means sexual intercourse.
AMBASADORA is an ambitious story with a fully-realized
world. Some of the scenes, especially in the beginning, are very intense (remember
the word “torture” from the blurb? It’s in there.), but for me, the decidedly
mature tone of the story was a plus.
If you have Amazon Prime, you can read the Kindle
edition of AMBASADORA for free. Still, if you enjoy romantic SF and like
taking risks, then this novel-length ebook is easily worth its $2.99 price tag.
You may be also interested to know that AMBASADORA is the first in a series.
Heidi Ruby Miller recently released book two, GREENSHIFT.
The author is also a blogger and sci-fi romance advocate at Inveterate Media Junkies where
she hosts the monthly Geek Girl Underground. Go check it out!
Joyfully yours,
Heather