Today has been 14 months that Baen Books has had Senta and the Steel Dragon book 1 for consideration, so I am sending them a message asking for an update. Regardless of whether they end up publishing it or not, I decided to write a book 0 to introduce the world and the characters. I plan to distribute this book as a free ebook, like I did with His Robot Girlfriend, and like that book, I will have a paperback version availabe.
This book is sexy sci-fi fun from start to finish with an ending I didn’t see coming. It has some of that same off-center flavor that made the old X Minus 1 radio show so enjoyable. I highly recommend it.
3 Star Review by C. Alan Loewen
Man buys robot. Man falls in love with robot. They live happily ever after.
There are two types of books: character-driven and plot-driven. Allison’s His Robot Girlfriend is an example of the former.
Much of nothing happens in the story. There is a hint of intrigue, an aroma of conflict, a lot of sensuality referred to but not, thank heaven, described blow-by-blow which would make this simply bad porn. Basically the first sentence of the review is the novella in its entirety.
The dialogue is written well, which is a plus for works put out into free domain. The character of Mike Smith is rather well fleshed out though Patience remains … well, a robot and doesn’t have much of a personality as she is basically a Gal Friday with sexual services attached. The settings are intriguing. It is interesting to see what of our culture the author believes will survive in the near future, and and as credit to the author’s craft, I did read the novella in its entirety.
However, reviewers are as varied as wildflowers in a meadow. Personally, I like a strong, well-crafted plot with intriguing lines of conflict, no matter how subtle or blatant they may be. If you like just character vignettes and what people may do in the privacy of their homes with a novel toy, then this might just be your five-star story.
And speaking of Barnes and Noble, they just announced their own ebook reader, the nook. It has an eink screen like the Sony and the Kinndle, but also a color touch screen like the iphone. You can read more about it here.
City of Amathar 
