Insufficient Mating Material<\/b> review
\nby Rowena Cherry (Dorchester Publishing, 2007)<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Kent Manthie<\/i><\/p>\n
Within the wide star system known as the Communicating Worlds and in particular, in the Tigron Empire, a sexy, scary, super-human and far-reaching empire, things are not what they seem to be and the people are dualistic, duplicitous, conniving sharks \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t want to turn your back on any of them for too long.
\n So goes the latest work in this vein by Rowena Cherry, \u201cInsufficient Mating Material\u201d, picking up where her last book, \u201cForced Mate\u201d left off. FYI, the term \u201cInsufficient Mating Material\u201d refers to a chess outcome, where there is no way of checkmating, in other words, a draw.
\n \u201cInsufficient Mating Material\u201d follows the exploits of Commander Jason, aka Djethro-Jason, the protagonist of the novel, at least for a time. Anyway, he and Princess Martia-Djulia are stranded, purposely, on an abandoned island known as Freighter Island. There they are marooned by Jason\u2019s nemesis, Tarrant-Aragon who strands them to get them to \u201cmate\u201d.
\n Well, anyway, we follow the couple\u2019s exploits on the island, the pouty, useless princess and the military precision of the ex-soldier and general bon vivant with the funny tattoo. But simultaneously there are other plans afoot; for instance, a murder contract that\u2019s been put out on Princess Martia-Djulia; the machinations of Tarrant-Aragon, Django-Ra and the two old grandmothers who are subtly working out the jigsaw puzzle that underlie it all.
\n The way it is so busily written, with so damn much detail about everything, you\u2019d think the characters would\u2019ve turned out a little bit empathetic or at least sympathetic; instead I found them shallow and two-dimensional and I found myself not caring about what happened them; it\u2019s a busy book; full of lots and lots of information about the intricacies of the Tigron Empire, its customs and histories and the filler stuff that holds the rest of it together; but, I mean, first you have to care about them, then we can find out all the technical junk. But, in this hoot it\u2019s not all that necessary to put the protagonist on the couch for too long, it\u2019s more about getting to the action and the sex; which is the centerpiece since it is a \u201cfuturistic romance\u201d, not a sci-fi novel, not a parable or a space age fable, but a romance book set in the future in some faraway land, in the imagination.
\n Those cult followers of Ms. Cherry will no doubt salivate at the mere mention of a new book, but those who have never heard of her or her novels may take a little warming up to get used to the new worlds of the Tigron Empire and surrounding areas.
\n Rowena Cherry is a native of the little British island, Guernsey, where she grew up; she has always been a lover of chess, becoming the champion of her high school chess tournament and winning the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Gold Award. She matriculated at Cambridge University, where she received degrees in English and education. After that she taught for a spell at some English boarding schools; eventually she met and then married an auto designer who lived in Germany but was transferred to America; Michigan, specifically, where she lives today with her husband and six-year old daughter. She\u2019s incorporated her love of chess into all her novels, using chess terms like \u201cmating\u201d with not-so-subtle innuendo. Hahaha.
\n If you\u2019d like to get caught up on the whole Great Djinn Family Tree or find out the genesis of the Tigron Empire, or just learn more about Rowena, check out her website: http:\/\/www.rowenacherry.com \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Insufficient Mating Material review by Rowena Cherry (Dorchester Publishing, 2007) Reviewed by Kent Manthie Within the wide star system known as the Communicating Worlds and in particular, in the Tigron Empire, a sexy, scary, super-human and far-reaching empire, things are not what they seem to be and the people are dualistic, duplicitous, conniving sharks \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t want to turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[211],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-insufficient-mating-material-book-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/03\/02\/insufficient-mating-material-book-ad\/","url_meta":{"origin":254,"position":0},"title":"Insufficient Mating Material book ad","author":"admin","date":"March 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"What a fantastic read! A book full of possibilities, humor, intrigue and action. I loved it! I always knew survival had many erotic and exciting possibilities. Rowena Cherry proved it with INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL! ~ Les Stroud AKA \u201cSURVIVORMAN\u201d ----------------- Now, for something completely different: ------------------ In INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/RNnX5dyfzmQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2689,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/08\/12\/our-banks-are-evil-latest-villian-wells-fargo\/","url_meta":{"origin":254,"position":1},"title":"Our Banks Are Evil – latest dirtbag: WELLS FARGO","author":"admin","date":"August 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Wells Fargo used profiteering tactics \" Practically speaking, that meant Wells would deduct the biggest checks, debits and e-bill payments first, regardless of the order in which the customer made them. 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