A fantastic action packed sci-fi romance

Reviewed by SFF Dragon*

The Book

Wow, this fantastic action packed sci-fi romance wasn't what I was expecting at all... and I absolutely loved it..

So, what was I expecting from 'Guardian', the ninth book in the Galactic Gladiators series? An exceptionally good story? well it's certainly that and I expect nothing less from Anna Hackett, one of my all-time favourite authors. Gladiatorial fighting arenas? yep, got two of those. Hot Gladiators? absolutely, and it has those by the bucket-load or maybe I should say the arena full. Ancient Rome moved to a far flung future on a distant planet? now that's what I didn't get, although it is a far flung future on another planet, ancient Rome it's not. What I got instead was a gritty, steamy, humorous, action packed sci-fi romance vaguely reminiscent of ages past in a setting that's a cross between Ancient Rome and modern day Las Vegas, a woman trying hard to overcome the horrors of her captivity and get back into shape so she can rescue other victims, a search for a hidden arena using a map where X would mark the spot, if only that part of the map wasn't missing, and an increasing body count as the enemy tries to gain control of her allies. And that's probably their biggest mistake, because with more than ten years as a New York homicide Detective, catching killers is what our feisty heroine did for a living on Earth. She was good at it and they are going down....

Kidnapped, along with many others, from a space station orbiting Jupiter and taken to the wild and apparently lawless desert planet of Carthago on the outer reaches of the galaxy, Dayna Caplan was forced to live as a slave and fight for her life in the Zaabha Arena by Thraxian slavers. She's managed to escape them twice, been tortured by an evil desert witch who forced a symbiont on her, and then rescued, she is now a resident of the Dark Nebula Casino. She's been there two weeks under the guardianship of it's wealthy owner, Rillian, and that's where this story begins, with Dayna contemplating all she's lost and looking out over the view of the city as it stretches to the desert in the distance, it could be Las Vegas, sadly for her it's Kor Magna... and she can't even pretend... the two suns hanging in the sky are a dead giveaway she's not on Earth and there's no way home...

I was completely hooked and practically living in the story from the very first page and loved every single line of this terrific book. I really couldn't put it down and my emotions ran the gamut, from frustration and grief to joy and satisfaction as I gripped the edge of my seat desperate to find out what happened next. There is enough background in the story to know something, but by no means all, of what went before and it can easily be read as a stand alone, but as new or rather old characters came along, I did find myself wishing I'd read the previous books in this series so I'll be going back to the beginning soon and reading them in order. Then I'll read this one again and I'm certain it's one I'll be reading over and over again. I absolutely loved it, gave it 5 well earned stars wishing I could give it more and added it to my list of books I'd rescue if the house was burning down. This is definitely one of those 'not to be missed' stories that will undoubtedly have a permanent place on my 'read again' list. Since first reading this book in early 2018, I've read the entire series at least four times from beginning to end. I absolutely love it.....


The Audio

I got this terrific story as an ebook when it was first published early in 2018, and was totally hooked. I've read it, and all the other books in the series a few times since, but I now have intermittent problems with my eyes, so, despite being a bit dubious about it, I've turned to audio books to fill my need to re-read my favourites. I tried out audio books a few years ago, but was pretty quickly put off by the seriously bad, even dreadful, narration which turned my wonderful, gritty, action packed adventures with romance into wishy washy, girly girl romances with few, or more frequently none, of the thriller overtones that the majority of my books have. It was so awful that I gave up on them for years. Then, last year, when I was desperate, I listened to the audio for a book by Anna Hackett, one of my all-time favourite authors, discovered a whole new and tremendously good set of narrators and decided to give them a try. Brilliant! It seems that Ms Hackett gets significantly better narrators than some I've listened to and whilst not the absolute best, Vivienne Leheny is pretty near the top of the list of the best I've ever listened to. She seems to understand the all action, gritty nature of both the characters and the story, maintaining the edginess to the very end and I wasn't disappointed in any way, so I got all the other books in the series that are available as audio versions to back up my kindle versions, just so I don't get withdrawal symptoms when I can't read them, and I freely admit I've listened to this one, and all the others, more than once since I got it. I've actually binge listened to the entire Galactic Gladiators series and the follow-on House of Rone books at least twice.... this year! That should give you some idea of how good I think they are. I find I listen a lot more than I read these days and the audio versions also have the added bonus of allowing me to do other things whilst listening. That being said, I get so hooked by the stories that I don't actually do anything else, I just listen and enjoy. And once I start, I can't stop until I've listened to all of them. I can't wait for the next series to start. I was lucky enough to get a free code for this audio book, and as I had already posted an honest review of the ebook several years ago, I decided to update that review with my personal opinion of the audible narration, especially as I've been so disenchanted by audio books in the past.

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