A Swift and Sudden Exit is a self-published sci-fi F/F romance novel that features a time traveler from a post-apocalyptic future (Zera) looking for keys to fix her time and an immortal woman (Katherine) she keeps finding along the way who might possess the answers she seeks...if she doesn't fall in love with her first. It's not a unique setup, but it's one seemingly tailor-made to intrigue me, so it wasn't a surprise when it wound up in my review allotment for the Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) that I am judging again this year.
And the result is uneven, although it has moments of real promise. The romance between Zera and Katherine works really well from the midpoint on, with both characters being delights to read and strong in their development and character, which means romance fans will definitely enjoy this book. But there are a few moments here and there that are clear whiffs (one will cause any lawyer reader pain), a late act plot twist is insanely predictable, and the book's ending is an utter mess. The result is an enjoyable romance but one with enough flaws to prevent it from being a strong recommend...and one that non-romance readers should definitely skip.*
Normally I wouldn't include this caveat in a review, but as this is a SPSFC review and some readers will thus be looking for Sci-Fi without romance, I feel obligated to give it, even though it's not quite the fault of the book.
Plot Summary:
In the year 2040, a sudden electromagnetic phenomenon occurs and devastates the Earth well beyond what was expected, destroying life as people knew it. Now, in the year 2058, humanity survives in bunkers underneath a world whose survive is uninhabitable. Zera is one of those survivors and she works for her living as someone who goes out into that dangerous terrain to try to find valuable materials. But when she discovers an oddity, it results in her being given a new mission: joining the program's secret time travel initiative where travelers go back in time to figure out what exactly happened to destroy the world in 2040...so that humanity has a chance to reverse it.
Zera expects to time travel to 2040 and to just collect samples, like she did in her own time. But what Zera finds instead in 2040 is a woman named Katherine who seems to know her and who promptly gets shot and killed. And when Zera goes back further in time again to an earlier occasion of the storm, she once again finds Katherine...nearly 100 years earlier in time, looking nearly exactly the same. It soon becomes apparent that something strange is going on with Katherine...and Zera believes that strangeness might possess the key to saving the future...There's just one problem of course: Zera can't seem to keep a sane head around this strange, wonderful, seemingly immortal girl.....
A Swift and Sudden Exit is a time travel romance story, which many romance readers will have read before. Usually that type of story features at least one character traveling through time, turning up at different points in the other romantic partner's life, and having the romance progress, with some conflicts based upon what's happened in the interim between the duo's meetings (and of course, sometimes the romantic meet-ups will happen out of order). For this book however, there's one kind of change to the formula: Katherine is somehow immortal and is not aging, so Zera's appearances in her lifetime do not feature an ever aging Katherine, but a Katherine whose body is frozen in time....even if her mind is not.
As I think about it, this change to the formula kind of works really well, as it eliminates the awkwardness of one character aging and also works really well with how it affects Katherine's view of the romance. Katherine's immortality means she can never stay in one place at one time for fear of drawing attention (plus there's a murderer possibly after her), and it prevents her from forming long lasting bonds...which makes Zera's own appearances in her life, as a person who does know what she is, more appealing. This is both tragic and romantic in a way, as Katherine has no ability to move on from a repeatedly disappearing Zera, and this book does make it feel both. The book also makes Katherine work as a person going through various different time periods and their rules: Katherine might be attracted to Zera at the start but society and the world certainly doesn't allow that in the 1940s and Katherine's upbringing in that world doesn't allow her to consider that possibility until later. But when they meet in later time periods, Katherine both knows better and is willing to try....and sparks really fly.
Which is not to say sparks don't fly earlier in dialogue between the two, even if it takes a few meetings for that to happen (I admit to being worried after the first two meetings that there would never be any chemistry between the two protags, but it definitely develops). And I shouldn't forget to mention Zera's own personality as part of that in this review, as Zera is a delightful character in her sardonic-ness at times, her earnestness, and her general well meaning. Her dialogue works really well, as does Katherine's (as it changes throughout time) and while not part of the romance, Zera's friend and handler Kizzy from the future has a great rapport with Zera as well so as to make this book delightful at times. And the physical romance works very well here as well, so if you're looking for some physical intimacy, it's here too.
Unfortunately, the non-romantic parts of the book work much much less. The Sci-Fi conceit of the dystopian future is just sketched out and the way that sci-fi mystery of how can they save the world is resolved in the end just feels abrupt and unsatisfying. The book isn't too interested in examining all of this, and while that's not necessarily disqualifying - the books' resolution of its romance also feels abrupt and unsatisfying, even if readers will be happy for a happy ending. The book also at times tries introducing a mystery of who is killing immortals which just disappears at times and when it pops back up, the answer is super obvious and frustratingly tropey. And well, I can't speak for all of the historical accuracy of the time periods at issue, but one such time period features the characters making a big deal of the "Miranda Warnings" in a way that is horrendously legally inaccurate and threw me completely out of the narrative, which makes me wonder what else in this book might do that for other readers.
In short, there's enough of a solid romance here in A Swift and Sudden Exit to make those looking for F/F romance pleased, although such readers shouldn't feel the urge to drop everything and pick this book up. For those who aren't big romance fans, this book is probably not for you.
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