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WORK TITLE: Wanted and Wired
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.vivienjackson.com/
CITY: Austin
STATE: TX
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Has children.
EDUCATION:University of Texas at Austin, bachelor’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Football.
MEMBER:Romance Writers of America, Austin RWA, and the online Fantasy, Futuristic, & Paranormal chapter.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to the collections Like a Trip through the Mirror: Lesbian Love in Alternate Realities and What Happens at the Tavern Stays at the Tavern.
SIDELIGHTS
Vivien Jackson writes futuristic fantasy fiction from her home in Austin, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Her short stories have appeared in the collections Like a Trip through the Mirror: Lesbian Love in Alternate Realities and What Happens at the Tavern Stays at the Tavern.
Wanted and Wired
Jackson’s debut novel, Wanted and Wired, is the first in the series “Tethered.” As described on her LinkedIn page, “Put Firefly, The Fifth Element, and Bladerunner in a stew, and this book might crawl out.” In the novel, Texas has seceded from the union, and the world is in chaos. Mari Vallejo, an assassin for hire, and her partner, cybernetics professor Heron Farad, make their escape after Mari is set up to kill the wrong person. The story follows their feats and adventures, as well as their complicated romance, as they try to elude the mysterious people who set her up.
In an interview with Joyce Lamb at the Happily Ever After website, Jackson described the book: “Wanted and Wired is a hair-raising, gun-slinging kissing story set in a bleak and broken near future world. It’s about a Texas girl who screws up, gets herself and her cybernetically enhanced partner into a heap of trouble, and then ends up having to save them both.” In a conversation with Matt Staggs at the Unbound Worlds website, she spoke about her sources and references, which range from a Neil Gaiman episode of Dr. Who to William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Jackson derived the name of the cybernetic hero, Heron, from Heron of Alexandria, who produced wondrous mechanical inventions in the first century and wrote a book about them called Pneumatica.
Diane Tixier Herald, writing in Booklist, thought that plot was “thin” but that Jackson “succeed[s] in building a terrifying futuristic dystopia where technology and biology are mated” and leaving the reader wanting more. A critic in Publishers Weekly found that the characters, “ruled by their indefatigable and inexhaustible hormones,” were “sympathetically drawn and generally convincing.” Jill M. Smith, contributor to the RT Book Reviews website, found this a sterling debut to “an impressive new futuristic romance series.”
A Fiction Vixen website correspondent found the “world building” enjoyable but was less impressed with the relationship between Mari and Heron and would have preferred that they “build their relationship at a believable pace.” At All About Romance, the reviewer Shannon Dyer noted that Jackson inundates the reader with details about this world in chaos but admitted that “once you get past that, the story picks up nicely and the info-dumps pay off.” Dyer went on to focus on the character of Heron: “Heron has some great technologically enhanced abilities that made him a fantastic ally, . . . [and] part of the thrill of the ride was finding out just what he was capable of, and how he would manage to save the day.” Dyer, too, gave Jackson “props for her well-developed world.” A Red Hot Books website reviewer was impressed with Mari, calling her “just the right mix of (no offense) stereotypical Texan, with the slang, the drawl, and the nonchalant southern attitude.” The critic concluded: “If you like your dystopia spiced with a well-constructed romance and a hero who balances his heroine, then give this a try.”
Perfect Gravity
Jackson’s next offering in the “Tethered” series is Perfect Gravity. In the mid-twenty-first century Angela Neko and Kellen Hockley meet briefly at a school for young prodigies and then again many years later. In the interim, Kellen has become a treasure hunter and Angela has become a senator in a postapocalyptic world. In fact, Kellen appeared in Wanted and Wired as Heron’s chief medical officer. His story is brought forward into Perfect Gravity when he must tell Angela, whom he once loved, that the treasure hunters have accidentally killed her husband. This is the same man whom Mari accidentally killed in Wanted and Wired. When Angela’s life is threatened, Kellen steps in to try to save her.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed the “joint adventures . . . imaginative and lusty.” A critic at Kirkus Reviews noted that both protagonists are “fascinating characters” and “romance balances plenty of action.” Even so, the critic thought that “momentum frequently stutters due to many unexplained and confusing details” about the technological marvels of this future world.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2017, Diane Tixier Herald, review of Wanted and Wired, p. 30.
Publishers Weekly, February 13, 2017, review of Wanted and Wired, p. 56.
ONLINE
All About Romance, https://allaboutromance.com (October 8, 2017), review of Wanted and Wired.
Fang-tastic Fiction, http://fangfiction.blogspot.com/ (June 21, 2017), Patricia Mathews, review of Wanted and Wired.
Fiction Vixen, http://fictionvixen.com (April 13, 2017), review of Wanted and Wired.
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com (September 19, 2017), review of Perfect Gravity.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com (November, 2017), review of Perfect Gravity.
Red Hot Books, http://redhotbooks.com (April 2, 2017), review of Wanted and Wired.
RT Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com (October 8, 2017), review of Wanted and Wired.
About
Vivien Jackson writes fantastical, futuristic, down-home salacious kissery. After being told at the age of seven that she could not marry Han Solo because he wasn't a real person, she devoted her life to creating worlds where, goldarnit, she could marry anybody she wanted. And she could wield a blaster doing it. A devoted Whovian Browncoat Sindarin Jedi gamer, she has a degree in English, which just means she's read gobs of stuff in that language. When she's super comfortable with you, she might confess those late-night limericks about old Gondor (and where to find them). With her similarly geeky partner, children, and hairy little pets, she lives in Austin, Texas, and watches a lot of football.
She'd love to hear from you on the web, Twitter (@Vivien_Jackson), or Facebook.
Awards and Affiliations
Winner of the 2014 Emily (West Houston RWA) and 2013 Fire & Ice (Chicago North RWA) contests, FF&P categories. Finalist in Launching a Star (SpacecoasT Authors of Romance) and Hot Prospects (Valley of the Sun RWA) contests.
Member of Romance Writers of America, Austin RWA, and the online Fantasy, Futuristic, & Paranormal chapter.
Debut novel Wanted and Wired currently available. Perfect Gravity, Book 2 in the Tether Science Fiction Romance series due out November 7, 2017 from Sourcebooks Casablanca.
Short stories published by Lethe Press, Circlet Press, Ellora's Cave, and Harlequin Spice Briefs.
Represented by Holly Root, Root Literary.
Vivien Jackson
3rd degree connection3rd
Author
Sourcebooks University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas Area 83 83 connections
Connect Connect with Vivien Jackson
Writer of commercial fiction in the genres of romance, science fiction/fantasy, and erotica. Represented by
Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.
Experience
Sourcebooks
Fiction writer
Company NameSourcebooks
Dates EmployedJun 2016 – Present Employment Duration1 yr 5 mos
First book in new Tether series, WANTED AND WIRED, out April 4, 2017. Cyberpunkish romance. Put Firefly, The Fifth Element, and Bladerunner in a stew, and this book might crawl out.
Media (1)This position has 1 media
VivienJackson.com
VivienJackson.com
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Circlet Press
Short story writer
Company NameCirclet Press
Dates Employed2012 – 2014 Employment Duration2 yrs
Stories in Like a Trip Through the Mirror and What Happens at the Tavern Stays at the Tavern anthologies.
Media (2)This position has 2 media
Like a Trip Through the Mirror: Lesbian Love in Alternate Realities
Like a Trip Through the Mirror: Lesbian
Love in Alternate Realities
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What Happens at the Tavern Stays at the Tavern: Epic Fantasy Quest Erotica
What Happens at the Tavern Stays at the
Tavern: Epic Fantasy Quest Erotica
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Harlequin
Short story writer
Company NameHarlequin
Dates Employed2012 – 2012 Employment Durationless than a year
With Christa Paige, co-wrote a short story, Sophie's Rogues (MFM Regency erotica), for Harlequin Spice Briefs.
Education
University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
Degree NameBachelor's Degree Field Of StudyEnglish Language and Literature, General
By: Joyce Lamb | April 6, 2017 12:01 am
Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Vivien! Please tell us a bit about your new release, Wanted & Wired.
Vivien: Wanted & Wired is a hair-raising, gun-slinging kissing story set in a bleak and broken near future world. It’s about a Texas girl who screws up, gets herself and her cybernetically enhanced partner into a heap of trouble, and then ends up having to save them both. Basically, the plot is a noodle bowl of things I find way-cool — hot cars, space stations, personal sacrifice, friends-to-lovers, cyborgs, true love — tossed with a heap of spice and served hot.
Joyce: What do you do when you get stuck?
Vivien: In deadline-land, there is no such thing as stuck. That said, over the last year I have had to work through (lots of) cycles of self-doubt and story-doubt, and what helps most are my family and my critique partners. Family reminds me that my life is already a cupcake and books are just the icing. CPs thwap me upside the head, write comments like “eeeew” in the margins and tell me to get over myself and make stuff happen. Writing books is actual, no-kidding work, and I guess that means we all just have to, you know, work through it. Like Dory says, just keep swimming.
Joyce: Do you write by the seat of your pants, or do you carefully plot your stories?
Vivien: By nature I’m a pantser, but it turns out I can’t write fast enough that way, so I’ve had to adjust my process to include at least some plotting. Detailed outlines kill stories for me, though. You know how it can be boring to watch a popcorn thriller when you already know whodunit? It’s like that, for me, writing a book when I already know not only the ending but exactly how everybody gets there. If the outline is done, in my mind the story is done. So I’m working on a balance of knowing the characters’ motivations inside and out and kind of generally what the external conflict is, and then letting the characters themselves move us all toward their goals.
Joyce: Do you have a pet that hangs out with you while you’re working?
Lily and Tahiti, not at all sane.
Vivien: The wee menaces in the pic are my Chihuahuas, Lily and Tahiti. There ain’t a sliver of sanity in either of them, but they sure are cute. They pop up on my Instagram a lot, because they’re way funner than my food life.
Joyce: Would you like to share a favorite moment from your writing career?
Vivien: My writing career is pretty new, but it’s been a crazy roller coaster of a thing. Just when I start to pit-dive into well-this-sucks, something amazing will drop right out of the sky. Like, this week I was struggling with revisions for Perfect Gravity, the second book in the series, and boom, upon my doorstep landed a box of pre-release author copies. Actual, pettable books with my name on them, and they are soooo pretty. Reality hit me hard, and I just could not stop grinning and crying and staring at them. Thank goodness no one was around to see, ’cause I was a complete mess!
Joyce: I don’t suppose you’d want to share a picture of you with your ’80s or ’90s hair or perhaps a prom picture?
Vivien’s modern-day big hair.
Vivien: Oh, why leave big hair in the ’80s when you can keep it with you always? This is me a couple months ago. As River Tam (Firefly) might say, my brains are in terrible danger. Kind of perpetually.
Joyce: LOL. I’m on board with that! What are you working on now?
Vivien: I just finished the edits for the second book in this series, Perfect Gravity, which will be out in November. This book is still so new and played out under my typing fingers so fast that I haven’t read and re-read it eleventy billion times yet, which means I’m still crazy in love with it.
Joyce: Thanks, Vivien!
About Wanted & Wired:
A rip-roarin’ snarky, sexy sci-fi paranormal romance with the perfect balance of humor, heat, and heart. Now that Texas has seceded and the world is spiraling into chaos, good guys come in unlikely packages and love ignites in the most inconvenient places…
Rogue scientist, technologically enhanced, deliciously attractive
Heron Farad should be dead. But technology has made him the man he is today. Now he heads a crew of uniquely skilled outsiders who fight to salvage what’s left of humanity: art, artifacts, books, ideas-sometimes even people. People like Mari Vallejo.
Gun for hire, Texan rebel, always hits her mark
Mari has been lusting after her mysterious handler for months. But when a by-the-book hit goes horribly sideways, she and Heron land on the universal most wanted list. Someone set them up. Desperate and on the run, they must trust each other to survive, while hiding devastating secrets. As their explosive chemistry heats up, it’s the perfect storm.
About Vivien
Vivien Jackson writes stories with robots, grenades, pixies and always, always down-home salacious kissery. She’s an unrepentant fangirl of many fandoms and would love to discuss your favorite ships on Twitter and Facebook.
Find out more at www.vivienjackson.com.
Take Five with Vivien Jackson, Author, Wanted and Wired
By MATT STAGGS
April 6, 2017
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
IBOOKS
SHARE
Vivien Jackson is the contributor for this week’s Take Five, a regular series in which authors and editors share five facts about their latest books. Jackson’s newest book is Wanted and Wired, available now from your favorite book retailer.
About Wanted and Wired:
Rogue scientist • technologically enhanced • deliciously attractive
Heron Farad should be dead. But technology has made him the man he is today. Now he heads a crew of uniquely skilled outsiders who fight to salvage what’s left of humanity: art, artifacts, books, ideas—sometimes even people. People like Mari Vallejo.
Gun for hire • Texan rebel • always hits her mark
Mari has been lusting after her mysterious handler for months. But when a by-the-book hit goes horribly sideways, she and Heron land on the universal most wanted list. Someone set them up. Desperate and on the run, they must trust each other to survive, while hiding devastating secrets. As their explosive chemistry heats up, it’s the perfect storm…
Vivien Jackson:
1. The use of the word “petrichor” on page 2 is a fannish homage to the Doctor Who episode Neil Gaiman wrote, “The Doctor’s Wife.” (Which is in my top five episodes. Maybe top three. We could discuss.)
2. Similarly, my Chiba Space Station is named for Chiba City in Neuromancer, even though I thought Count Zero was a better book. (Again, am open to debate.)
3. Wanted and Wired was originally a straight-up SF/cyberpunk story about racism. But then I realized how squicky it feels to write a protagonist who’s also a bigot, even if she grows and changes. I sort of hated her. Okay, a lot hated her. Readers would have hated her, too. At about the same time, I wrote some erotica short stories and had so much fun with the intimate scenes. They’re like fight scenes, just nakeder! So I completely overhauled Mari’s journey and goals and made Wanted and Wired into a romance. Now it’s less a tale of issues and ideas, and more about characters and sexytimes and happily ever after, even when the world is broken. Which, when you think about it, is also kind of an idea. I’m not sure how much of the original story remains at this point. Maybe traces?
4. When writing the car scenes, I had a picture of a Lamborghini Aventador on my desktop. Such a hot car.
5. Heron was originally named Xerxes, but a) my early-reader CP thought the name was dorky, and b) I got a chance to see a working version of Heron of Alexandria’s magic non-decapitated horse automaton and thought, whoa. Technology that others might interpret as magic, designed by a nerdy inventor who was also completely badass? I had my hero.
Wanted & Wired
Diane Tixier Herald
Booklist.
113.14 (Mar. 15, 2017): p30.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Wanted & Wired.
By Vivien Jackson.
Apr. 2017. 384p. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paper, $7.99 (9781492648161).
Raunchy Mari is an expert assassin, simply unparalleled as a sniper. But things go wrong when the clone she thinks she
is taking out turns out to be the human husband of a senator. She manages to escape with Heron, her technologically
enhanced partner, taking shelter in his armored home, but an attack and hack of his enhancements force them to seek
help from the Queen of Chiba on her space station. Though the story runs a little thin in the first novel in Jackson's
Tether series, she does succeed in building a terrifying futuristic dystopia where technology and biology are mated. Full
of contradictions, Mari, the daughter of a genius professor, uses abominable grammar, and though she claims to abhor
cyber-enhanced post-humans, she does adore Heron. Jackson's sf romance becomes more interesting as a backstory
develops about Maris father, Heron's history, and the secession and independence of Texas. Ultimately, Jackson leaves
the reader anticipating the next installment and wanting to learn more about her nano-fae.--Diana Tixier Herald
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Herald, Diane Tixier. "Wanted & Wired." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2017, p. 30. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490998472&it=r&asid=e806dd68bbd0e573160fa3bcd2be2847.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490998472
10/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507499372667 2/2
Wanted and Wired
Publishers Weekly.
264.7 (Feb. 13, 2017): p56.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Wanted and Wired
Vivien Jackson. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-492-64816-1
In this steamy near-future escapade, set in a debilitated world in which Texas has seceded and the U.S. is on the verge
of civil war, tough Texas hit woman Mari Vallejo and her passionate posthuman partner, cybernetics professor Heron
Farad, go on the run after Mari is set up to kill the wrong target. Both are simmering in complicated, conflicting
emotions. Mari took the job to try to save the scientist father she hates; Heron is besieged by "a toxic mix of love and
lust and anger" directed at Mari. She often takes the lead in saving and seducing him, giving this fast-paced adventure a
feminist twist. With a vicious war on the horizon, Heron and Mari prove they have plenty of sizzle left for future feats
of sexual and intellectual derring-do. As their torrid courtship proceeds through superhero adventures and near-death
encounters with the villains, Heron tries to keep Mari safe with his technological skills, such as piloting his orbitcapable
airplane, while Mari, who's always been mystified by machines, uses her tough fighting moves and her brassy
Texas idiom to undo their enemies. This unusual combination of romance and science fiction tends to predictability in
plot, but its lead characters are sympathetically drawn and generally convincing, giving readers an easy trip into a notso-distant
world of technologically enhanced humans ruled by their indefatigable and inexhaustible hormones. Agent:
Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Wanted and Wired." Publishers Weekly, 13 Feb. 2017, p. 56. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482198176&it=r&asid=e687b4634b9ea9c1ab0c92e98cb21ff4.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482198176
WANTED AND WIRED
Image of Wanted and Wired
Author(s): Vivien Jackson
Jackson launches an impressive new futuristic romance series set in a dystopian world where Texas has seceded, the climate is shot and the world has gone to hell. Jackson’s heroine has survived by becoming an assassin-for-hire who works through a mysterious handler. Jackson’s protagonists are a bit more anti-heroes than typical heroes, but they have their own codes to live by. The worldbuilding is well-crafted and memorable, and the characters are very compelling. Jackson has a real winner on her hands!
It was supposed to be a sanctioned hit on a mech-human, but the minute Mari Vallejo makes the shot, she realizes her target was not the mech copy, but the actual human. Suddenly, Mari and her handler, Heron Farad, are on the universal most-wanted list. Who set them up and why? Former rogue scientist Heron should be dead, but technology saved him by turning him into an enhanced, augmented human. Although it has been strictly business between Mari and Heron, the attraction has always been there. Now that they are on the run and need each other to survive, the passion flares. Can they find a way out of this deadly mess? (SOURCEBOOKS, Apr., 384 pp., $7.99)
Reviewed by:
Jill M. Smith
Review: Wanted and Wired by Vivien Jackson
April 13, 2017
Blurb from GR:
A rip-roarin’ new snarky, sexy sci-fi paranormal romance series with the perfect balance of humor, heat, and heart. Now that Texas has seceded and the world is spiraling into chaos, good guys come in unlikely packages and love sprouts in the most inconvenient places…
Rogue scientist • technologically enhanced • deliciously attractive
Heron Farad should be dead. But technology has made him the man he is today. Now he heads a crew of uniquely skilled outsiders who fight to salvage what’s left of humanity: art, artifacts, books, ideas-sometimes even people. People like Mari Vallejo.
Gun for hire • Texan rebel • always hits her mark
Mari has been lusting after her mysterious handler for months. But when a by-the-book hit goes horribly sideways, she and Heron land on the universal most wanted list. Someone set them up. Desperate and on the run, they must trust each other to survive, while hiding devastating secrets. As their explosive chemistry heats up, it’s the perfect storm…
Rogue scientist and gun for hire in some kind of technologically enhanced dystopian world? Yes, please! For real, that’s my jam, I’m ALL ABOUT that. Also, this is a new to me author and I’m always on the look-out for new authors to glom. So I was a bit excited when I settled down with a glass of wine and my Kindle and began to read.
The beginning is a bit of a rush. Mari has been hired to take out the robotic replica of the husband of a senator. Which she does, only to find out that she actually killed the human, not the robot. Her handler, Heron, realizes almost immediately what has happened and absolutely knows the consequences. Mari will be on everyone’s most wanted lists and since it’s his job to protect her, he will do anything to do just that. But, Heron isn’t just any handler, he’s just as much machine as human and has the ability to connect with pretty much ANY tech he needs to in order to get the job done.
The world building is cool, although admittedly kind of confusing because there is A LOT of info dumping. This is post Texas secession, where technology rules and humans are able to enhance themselves in all kinds of awesome ways. Despite the advances in tech the world is a dangerous place and it seems like there might have been some kind of war between the US and Texas that has left destruction in its wake. I think there might be food shortages and maybe there is something about .. Okay, it’s all still confusing. Lol. It is cool though, and I see a whole lot of potential.
On the other hand, I didn’t care for the romance. Mari and Heron have worked together for some time when the book opens, and from Heron’s POV you get the idea that although he is in love with Mari, he doesn’t think she will welcome his affection because she has some sort of prejudice against ‘post humans’. Only that isn’t true, because even though Mari is supposed to be some kind of assassin badass all she can think about is sex. Sex in the shower, sex even though the bad guys are in the room and hijacking Heron’s brain, sex on the run in some unknown person’s apartment, sex in the getaway car, sex on the ship, sex in the really cool space station. Sex, sex, sex. All the time sex. I think everyone knows by now that I adore a heroine who owns her sexuality, but I also like for when a main couple build their relationship at a believable pace. I want to see them connect on an emotional and physical level. Through all the sex thoughts I tried to figure out the hows and whys Heron wanted Mari so much. What drew him to her and why he was so in love. I mean I get why Mari had the hots for Heron, he’s this super powerful scientist who can reach out with his mind and take control of almost any machine and he saves Mari’s ass over and over. I kind of fell for him myself. But what drew Heron to Mari? I’m still not sure.
So while I did enjoy this dystopian, I didn’t love it. I’m wiling to chalk it up to being the first book in a series. I’m going to give book two a try when it releases, hopefully the world will be better explained and the romance more developed. Final grade- C-
Favorite Quote:
“I love you,” he told her, no longer certain whether his voice was aural or digital or tactile or photon. “Mech, organic, nano, monkey: I don’t give a shit what your body is made of. I love you, querida. So much. And you. Can’t. Make. Me. Stop.”
Wanted and Wired
Vivien Jackson
Buy This Book
Sci-fi romances are kind of hit or miss for me. Still, the synopsis of Wanted and Wired, the first book in Vivien Jackson’s Tether series, really grabbed my attention. Who doesn’t love action-packed, futuristic romances featuring competent leads falling in love while on the run? I know I certainly do.
It’s important to point out at the start that this story is set in a future in which Texas is no longer a part of the United States. The reasons for this are quite complex, and the author does tend to flood the reader with huge amounts of information during the first quarter of the book. However, once you get past that, the story picks up nicely and the info-dumps pay off.
Mari is a female assassin who works for the government of Texas. She has a number of memory issues, which make her a bit of a loose cannon, but she’s quite successful at her job and thinks of herself as well-liked and respected by her colleagues.
Heron is Mari’s handler. At first, I thought this meant he was her boss, but Ms. Jackson actually means that he’s kind of Mari’s back up. He accompanies her to jobs and does as much as he can to insure things go smoothly. He’s also been in love with her for several years, but she sees him only as a trusted friend and colleague.
The story opens with Mari and Heron out on a hit. He has some bad feelings about the job as a whole, but, for reasons I never fully understood, Mari fails to take his concerns seriously and proceeds to go after her target. Things go horribly wrong, and the government is soon trying to apprehend them. Mari flees, and Heron somewhat reluctantly goes with her, doing his best to keep her alive.
I loved watching Mari and Heron working together to outrun their enemies. Heron has some great technologically enhanced abilities that made him a fantastic ally, but I’m not going to say more about that, as part of the thrill of the ride was finding out just what he was capable of, and how he would manage to save the day.
The story hinges quite a bit on Mari’s past, but, as I said earlier, she doesn’t remember things very clearly, or, at least, claims not to. She plays things pretty close to the vest, and, at times, I found myself growing annoyed by her secretive nature. There were things she should have told Heron, but rather blithely decided to keep to herself, regardless that being fully informed would help Heron do his job more effectively. There are some pretty amazing twists at the end of the story that make Mari’s actions a bit more understandable, something for which I was very grateful.
Both Heron and Mari have a strange habit of having very long inner monologues at rather inappropriate times, and this detracted from the action in a couple of places. I wanted the focus to stay more on what was going on externally without so much emphasis being placed on their thoughts. It’s one thing to be aware of what people are thinking, but it was overdone here.
I must, however, give Ms. Jackson props for her well-developed world. Wanted and Wired is the first book in a series, and I can’t wait to see what happens in future installments. This one has some flaws, but nothing that will keep me from revisiting the author’s work.
Book Details
Reviewer : Shannon Dyer
Grade : B-
Sensuality : Warm
Book Type : Science Fiction Romance
Review Tags : Tether series
APRIL 2, 2017
Review: Wanted and Wired by Vivien Jackson
Reviewed by Ronelle
Heron Farad should be dead but biotechnology both saved and changed him. Now he heads a crew of uniquely skilled outsiders who fight to salvage what’s left of humanity: art, artifacts, books, ideas-sometimes even people. People like Mari Vallejo.
Mari is a badass gun for hire and this contract promises to provide her with much-needed information about her father’s whereabouts. There’s just one thing; working with Heron has stirred up all kinds of wants she doesn’t dare indulge. He doesn’t think of her that way, anyway… right?
Well, she’s about to get her answer when their contract goes horribly wrong. Leaving the two of them on the run together. Someone set them up and now they’re on everyone’s Most Wanted list. Both should be dead, but they’ve never felt more alive than in each other’s company…and alive in all the steamiest ways.
***
I really, really enjoyed this one! I’ve kinda developed a thing for dystopian sci-fi lately (maybe I’ve been watching my husband play Fallout too long?) and Wanted and Wired definitely satisfied all of my requirements. There’s plenty of action, danger, crazy technology, and sizzling chemistry between the two main characters. This is a series I look forward to continuing.
Mari was just the right mix of (no offense) stereotypical Texan, with the slang, the drawl, and the nonchalant southern attitude. She was there to kick ass and chew bubblegum and lord, did she make me laugh! Some of the things she thought and said were downright hilarious. I loved her from the beginning and was impressed with her… I suppose ‘humanity’ is the best word. She thought of herself as a monster and she’s got flaws, hang-ups, issues and all this repressed sexual tension where Heron is concerned, but she’s also strong in her own right. Heron was complex in his own way and just as uncertain about how human he was, though for different reasons than Mari. He showed more control and foresight, was steadier and a bit more serious but not in a stuffy or boring way. His personality was a nice balance to Mari’s outward bluster. The mutual respect these two had for each other was obvious and Ms. Jackson ramped up the sexual tension at just the right pace. And when that tension finally reached a breaking point, look out! Fair warning: the sex in Wanted and Wired was very, very well written.
My only complaint about Wanted and Wired was the world building, and no, not that there was a lot of it. There was, and it was needed, but what I didn’t like was the too-frequent feeling of being out-of-the-loop. Past events were referenced and technological terms (like Heron’s mirror and the arcology) introduced in a way that left me feeling like there was a previous book that contained all the explanations and somehow I missed it. (There isn’t.) It wasn’t a constant issue, but it was a frustrating one at times.
Oh, and while I did spy the occasional typo (“sure could sure”), they were infrequent enough not to interrupt my love of the story. Actually, the most common—and weird—one was inconsistent spelling for free fae. I spied it written as free fae, Free fae, and freefae. Weird, like I said, but nothing to get your knickers in a twist over as it seemed Ms. Jackson used a thorough (and mostly successful) editing process. If she’s reading this, she has my sincere thanks!
Bottom line: I loved this and am really looking forward to the next book in the series. If you like your dystopia spiced with a well-constructed romance and a hero who balances his heroine, then give this a try.
Rating: A-
PERFECT GRAVITY
by Vivien Jackson
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KIRKUS REVIEW
Two childhood crushes reunite in a dystopian-esque Texas after one kills the other’s husband.
In 2042, Angela Neko and Kellen Hockley meet at a prestigious institute for young prodigies. Seventeen years later they meet again as Kellen confesses that he’s the one responsible for the death of Angela’s husband. In the years they’ve spent apart, Angela has become a jaded and conniving senator, hoping to push her mentor’s agenda in order to get him “reelected to the continental presidency.” Meanwhile, Kellen has taken up the life of an outlaw treasure hunter, a profession that leads to the accidental death of Angela’s secretly estranged husband. She’s not particularly upset about the loss, but her time in the political spotlight requires her to play the part of a grieving wife. Kellen’s reappearance in her life is a temptation that could jeopardize her social standing as well as her career. Both Kellen and Angela are fascinating characters. Angela shirks the romance stereotype of an innocent, virginal heroine, and sometimes it’s genuinely hard to like her. She’s a bit of a shark, out for blood and power. Though Kellen adopts a roguish lifestyle, he does his best to hide his superior intelligence and the time he spent at the Mustaqbal Institute of Science and Technology. But while the characters are well-crafted and the romance balances plenty of action, the book’s momentum frequently stutters due to many unexplained and confusing details. Despite the near-future setting, how the world operates and what certain pieces of technology do is never spelled out. What is a “psych-emitter”? How can an AI “jailbreak” into Kellen’s mind? The questions vastly outnumber the answers.
The unfamiliar terms and lack of established worldbuilding rules turn an otherwise exciting sci-fi romance into a slog.
Pub Date: Nov. 7th, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4819-2
Page count: 384pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19th, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1st, 2017
Perfect Gravity
Vivien Jackson. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926-4819-2
MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
In Jackson’s breathless second near-future Tether romance (after Wanted and Wired), supergifted and technologically enhanced politician Angela Neko lusts after supersexy veterinarian Kellen Hockley, who’s on the opposite political side. Kellen is bent on saving all the humans and animals he can from the toxic fallout of the conflict between the rebellious Texas Provisional Authority and the United North American Nations. Potty-mouthed Angela, now 30, has been rising to potential UNAN veep-ship by surreptitiously nudging the TPA toward all-out war. The two had a scorching encounter eight years before, and Jackson choreographs a colorful mating dance for them: Angela uses all her tech enhancements to lure Kellen close enough to ravish, and “scrumptious” Kellen manfully tries to fight off her advances with the help of his illegal nanorobotic intelligence, Chloe; his tech-modified communi-cat, Yoink; and excessive Texas expletives. Their joint adventures are imaginative and lusty to start, but Jackson lingers a little too long on unmaskings of villains, governmental takeovers, disintegrating ecosystems, and refugee problems. She leaves room for more episodes of her strange new world while bringing Kellen and Angela to a rapturous but unlikely solution to the eternal quandary: how to balance career and cuddling. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Nov.)
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
NEW SERIES! Vivien Jackson: TETHER SERIES
Author: Vivien Jackson
Series: TETHER
Plot Type: Post-Apocalyptic Soul Mate Romance (SMR)
Ratings: Violence—4; Sensuality—4+; Humor—2
Publisher and Titles: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Wanted & Wired (4/2017)
Perfect Gravity (11/7/2017)
WORLD-BUILDING
The series is set in the U.S. in a post-war world in which Texas has seceded and established its own republic run by the Texas Provisional Authority (TPA). The rest of the country now calls itself the United North American Nations (UNAN). Currently, a hot/cold war is going on between Texas and UNAN. Both Texas and UNAN are staggering under catastrophic climactic conditions (like extreme drought). Additionally, at one point, when a character mentions the scarcity of fresh fruit, Jackson tells us that this is a post-insecticide world—but never explains the cause of that situation.
Central to the series is futuristic cyber-technology, including both robotics and nanoscience. Four very different types of "people" populate this world:
Whole-organics are regular human beings with no technological modifications.
Post-humans are people who were born wholly human but have been "technified" by various modifications to their brains and internal organs and by the insertion of various implants. The modifications can be simple or extremely complex and can be programmed by their creators.
Mechs are human-shaped robots created in laboratories. They can be programmed to do a variety of tasks, but they can never truly experience human emotions (although they can be programmed to mimic those emotions). A mech-clone is a special type of mech that has been shaped as an exact replica of a specific human. These mech-clones are indistinguishable from the human they are imitating. You can imagine how this would come in handy during a time of war when each side wants to infiltrate the other.
Free-fae collectives are holographic beings that work like walking, talking databases for the person who created them. They are highly illegal and are sought after by both law enforcement agencies and the underworld. Free-fae collectives can take any shape, including that of the human body. Although they appear to be solid, they are not. If you try to touch them, your hand goes right through them. They are made up of a large swarm of nanos that can change form as needed. Although free-fae collectives can look just like humans, they cannot experience most human senses. Unfortunately, this is one of the areas in which Jackson's mythology goes awry. Jackson never explains why her free-fae collectives can hear and understand human voices but cannot hear a number of other sounds. She doesn't explain why these entities without solid form can pick up something but cannot sense it—cannot feel its texture, smell it, hear it, or taste it. For example, one free-fae collective picks up a dress but cannot hear the rustle of its fabric or feel its softness. It is difficult to understand why Jackson never bothers to explain any of these inconsistencies.
The series title—TETHER—has several meanings. On a literal level, it refers to a tether that connects an outer-space station with the Earth. "The station connects to the ground using a space elevator. Planes...can dock with it up near the top, and then we can ride up to the station. We call it the tether." On a metaphorical level, "tether" refers to human connections—the emotions and needs that bind us to our loved ones. The thematic questions asked by the series are these: What is it that makes us human? Is it our bodies? Our connections with one another? Can a mech or a robot be considered part of humanity? And what about evil humans—are they as "human" as a good-hearted mech or robot or free-fae collective?
On her web site, Jackson calls TETHER a cyber-punk series. Certainly, she has crammed it full of futuristic technology and cyber-speak—sometimes to the detriment of the forward motion of the action. In the first book, Jackson inserts many world-building details into the first few chapters, but she holds back some crucial information so that she can scatter it in bits and pieces all the way to the end of the book. This is particularly true of her lead characters' backstories. We learn much about their physical appearances and personalities in the first chapters, but we don't get any information about their pasts until the final chapters. Although this approach can work if the author judiciously doles out the details as a means of building suspense and drama or, even better, if the information emerges organically in the course of the story, but Jackson doesn't really handle it that way—at least not in the first book. In Wanted & Wired, she brings the story to a halt about half-way through and sets up an information dump scene by giving the hero and heroine some downtime away from the action so that they can peer into each other's eyes, confess a few of their darkest secrets, and finally let loose their lust.
NOVEL 1: Wanted & Wired
PUBLISHER'S BLURB:
A rip-roarin' snarky, sexy sci-fi paranormal romance series with the perfect balance of humor, heat, and heart. Now that Texas has seceded and the world is spiraling into chaos, good guys come in unlikely packages and love ignites in the most inconvenient places...
Rogue scientist • technologically enhanced • deliciously attractive
Heron Farad should be dead. But technology has made him the man he is today. Now he heads a crew of uniquely skilled outsiders who fight to salvage what's left of humanity: art, artifacts, books, ideas—sometimes even people. People like Mari Vallejo.
Gun for hire • Texan rebel • always hits her mark
Mari has been lusting after her mysterious handler for months. But when a by-the-book hit goes horribly sideways, she and Heron land on the universal most-wanted list. Someone has set them up. Desperate and on the run, they must trust each other to survive, while hiding devastating secrets. As their explosive chemistry heats up, it's the perfect storm. xxx—xxx (em dash) xxx–xxx (en dash) über-alpha själsfrände Ragnarök clichés
MY REVIEW:
In the opening scene, Mari, a for-hire mercenary and skilled sniper, is on a mission to destroy a mech-clone. Her partner Heron, a heavily implanted post-human, is in the get-away car providing on-scene data and watching her back. "They were working partners, sharing a contract but not much else. On this particular job, she functioned as shooter to his operations planner, but he had lots of other assets in play: drones, cameras, software bots, you name it."
When Mari makes the kill shot, she is shocked to discover that she has actually murdered the whole-organic (human) that the mech-clone was imitating. Obviously, someone has set her up, and now she's in big trouble. The next chapters follow Mari and Heron as they attempt to escape from an army of UNAN law enforcement organics, mechs, and drones. And just to spice up the action, some mysterious post-human hit-men are also trying to capture them. During these chapters, we learn that Mari and Heron have been working as partners for about six years, that each has romantic feelings for the other, but that both keep the attraction a secret because they fear rejection.
Heron believes that Mari hates tech-enhanced humans so much that she would never consider him as a romantic partner. "He knew what she thought about people with implanted tech. Cyborgs. No better than machines." And Mari believes that Heron is so much smarter than she is that he looks down on her for being so ignorant about his technological world. They have other differences and other doubts, but these are the main ones.
Both Mari and Heron are keeping deep, dark secrets from one another—secrets that each believes could destroy their partnership and their friendship. Oddly, though, when the secrets spill out, there are no heart-breaking emotional repercussions for either of them: no big, dramatic, angst-filled, hurt-feelings moments at all—just a low-key reaction of surprise and immediate acceptance. So all of the secret-keeping drama ends with a whisper, not an explosion, and that is quite a letdown given the fact that the secrets are the basis for much of the suspense on which Jackson has built the romance plot.
Mari has two living relatives: Aunt Boo, who raised Mari in Texas and still lives there, and her father, a rogue nano-scientist captured by the TPA after the Austin riots during the beginning of the secession. The primary reason that Mari took the contract with the TPA to destroy the mech-clone was that they promised to tell her where her father was and, perhaps, to let her speak with him. The father-daughter relationship becomes more and more important as the action plot advances.
Eventually (about halfway into the book), Mari and Heron reach safety in his spaceplane and eventually seek sanctuary in Chiba Station, "a privately owned space station run by an entity who calls herself the queen of Chiba." Jackson's next books will tell the love stories of his friends—the crew members who fly his futuristic spaceplane:
Kellen Hockley is a lean, lanky, jeans-clad whole-organic who was a veterinarian in pre-war times. Now, he is Heron's chief medical officer and provides vital tech support. Mari nicknames him "cowboy" for his looks, his Stetson, and his Texas drawl.
Chloe is a gorgeous free-fae collective. Mari nicknames her "perky blond." Mari muses that, "Chloe could look like anything she wanted—her whole existence was just a loose confederation of nanites and light particles held together with digital will—but she wasn't real, couldn't know smells and tastes and touches...Chloe would never stroke that sweet kitty down the corridor, never smell flowers or sex or ghost peppers. Never taste Jamaican rum or her own tears."
Garrett is a whole-organic mechanical genius who is in charge of all of Heron's hardware, on the ground and in the air. Mari nicknames him "squirrel-nervous mechanic." Garrett is obviously in love with Chloe, but she is unaware of his feelings because she can't feel emotions.
In the final hundred pages, the pace picks up considerably as Jackson builds up the action and suspense on her way to the inevitable showdown scene that resolves much of the conflict.
I'm sure you want to know more about the 4+ sensuality rating I have awarded this novel. Let's just say that this is the first novel I've read that includes techno-sex (and lots of it). When Heron is driving his James Bond-ish car or his spaceplane, he is actually wired into them, so whatever Mari touches (or fondles), Heron feels it in various sensitive body parts. Mari is an extremely sexual being, so she takes full advantage, and when he turns the tables and begins using his personal techno-sexual abilities on her, things get really hot, hot, hot!
I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the future of this series. Although Jackson has established most of the techno-mythology, she hasn't done a top-notch job at integrating it into the plot. The reader needs to truly understand this complex technology-based world in order to make sense of the plot, and Jackson's explanations are frequently incomplete, inconsistent, or utterly lacking. Also, Jackson gives no background on the causes of the Texas secession or on the horrific climate conditions that are affecting the world. Most importantly, though, her big reveal about Mari is problematic to the extreme. There is no way that secret could have been kept from Heron or from Mari—no way at all. It is so implausible and disappointing that it spoiled the entire book for me. I'll probably read the next novel just to see if Jackson gets a better handle on her mythology and her plotting, but after that...we'll see.
The second novel will tell Kellen's story, which has a direct connection to Wanted & Wired. You see, Kellen's soul mate is the widow of the man Mari accidentally murdered back in the very first chapter when she shot the human instead of his mech-clone. In fact, the action in Perfect Gravity overlaps the action in Wanted & Wired, beginning with the scene in which Kellen has to tell Angelo Neko that her husband is dead. Parts of this scene appear in both novels.
To read an excerpt from Wanted & Wired, click HERE to go the book's Amazon.com page and click on the cover art.
NOVEL 2: Perfect Gravity (pub. date 11/7/2017)
PUBLISHER'S BLURB:
Second in a snarky, sexy sci-fi romance series with the perfect balance of humor, heart, and heat. When someone tries to kill powerful continental senator Angela Neko, Texan outlaw and old flame Kellen Hockley is the only man who can keep her safe...and help her save the world.
Kellen Hockley usually keeps quiet about his past, but once upon a time he loved a girl named Angela. He hasn't seen her in a decade, but now he has to break the news to her that his team of rogue treasure hunters accidentally killed her husband. He's had better days.
It's not the news that's delivered to Angela Neko that breaks her apart—it's the rumbly, Texas drawl delivering it. She can't believe she's hearing Kellen's voice again. But there's no time for distractions. When Angela's own life is threatened, yielding up all of her lies and secrets, she and Kellen must figure out how to reverse the geopolitical firestorm she lit to save the world, to save Kellen's cat...and just maybe to save each other.
Posted by Patricia Mathews at 7:0