COLLISION WITH PARADISE

Nina Munteanu

Liquid Silver Books 2005

POD 146 pgs

ISBN# 1-59578-114-5

If you’re looking for a taste of a mixed genre, one that consists of thrilling science fiction mixed with erotica, this is defiantly one to consider.  Don’t pass it up.

This tale is about a female pilot, Genevieve (Gen.), who misses her deceased husband, and is taking a crew to the planet EOS to complete their mission.  Because the trip takes about eighteen months, the crew goes into a sleep state much of the way.  They get into specialized and tethered jack suits, while the ship’s self-replicating authopoietic systems provides their favorite dreams.  Genevieve’s dream changes into the best ever.  The fantastic sex with someone other than she expects begins a series of events changing her life forever.

She wasn’t meant to be where she was.  It’s the crew members who should be here.

Will the aliens with purple-lavender skin help people from Earth?  Azaes sent a message claiming they would. Will Earth’s people witness colors from the planet EOS or learn about the alien’s special secrets?

The theme of the story is the distasteful habit humans have of taking over and conquering, be it here on earth or on another planet.  Thankfully not everyone harbors this need, certainly not the main character in this story. 

This tale is heady, sensual, and engaging.  I’m not one to read novels from a computer, even sensual SF romantic thrillers.  Maybe some day I’ll get an electric hand-held gizmo to carry around and read from, but as of now I don’t.  So, when I was asked to read “Collision with Paradise,” I almost said “No thanks,” but then I read the blurb.  Thank goodness Munteanu provided a great description.  I still didn’t relish reading a 90,000 word tale from a screen though, so I asked Munteanu if she’d send a printed copy.  She answered quickly saying she’d be happy to.  Considering she lives in Canada, and I in the States, postage is steep, but right away, Munteanu sent it.  Little did I know this was only the beginning of my being impressed.  Half-way down the first page she’d hooked my attention.  After reading an average of two to three novels a month for years, not counting novellas and short-stories, I’ve come to understand what editors mean when they claim to know whether a story is good or not, by the second or third page.  Anyway, I could tell “Collision with Paradise” was going to be a fun and extraordinarily fast read.  I finished in two days, between working full time, caring for my daughter, my horse, cleaning house, and fixing dinner.  I couldn’t get enough.  When does part two come out Nina Munteanu and what else have you written?

Collision with Paradise is what a reader hopes for when cruising book isles in a book store (brick and mortar or online), or from a library.  She wrote exactly the way I like, creating a story first about the characters, and secondly about the plot and events.  She delved into their psyche, profiled how they thought and felt, and showed their inner turmoil.  If this wasn’t enough, she creatively plotted a stream of events.

What also makes the story a thrill is Munteanu’s richly imagined alien world.  People are purple, walk around naked, live in peace, have exotic sexual type plants, and are expert lovers.  Throw in people from earth speeding through space, living out their deepest sexual fantasies while in a dream-state, a beautiful woman with morals and values, and you’ve got yourself a kicking read.  Oh, and since the time period is somewhere in the year 2100 where people from earth live to be one-hundred-and fifty years old, and the people from EOS forever, the story becomes even more remarkable and fascinating

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian writer and a scientist working with an environmental consulting firm in Vancouver, BC.  Her writing has appeared at places like Sky Song Press, Ecstasy Books, The Internet of Science Fiction, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Aoife’s Kiss, among others. 

Splendid fun! Vivid...Munteanu asserts her mastery of the sensual SF romantic thriller.  An unforgettable read that’s immensely alluring, surprising, and heart-throbbing.  The vivid intimate details, colorful descriptions, and wonderfully drawn characters leave one breathless and asking, when and where is the next book coming out?

Christina Francine Whitcher