Why do we pick up books of fantasy? Because we want to climb into another skin, into another world, another life. This book gives you a hero to live in. Charismatic, handsome, powerful, and the ladies man with a wife who trusts him to keep her heart as his, even if his body pleases others. A Warrior from Earth; a former writer, now a ruler. In this fantasy, the good and evil are clear-cut. The women are like the women of golden age Science Fiction (of which this has a slight taste). But rather than tantalized, they give what adolescents always wanted. I picked up this book expecting to read about a Warrior from Earth living on another world. I was expecting exciting battles, romps and witty dialog. I got that. I also got other things that deviate from my enjoyment as well.

I picked up this book not realized at first that it was in the middle of a series. The Battle of the Space Moon is number three in a series of six books written by Alan M. Brooker. Mr. Brooker is not a novice writer by any means. He has written over twelve books with Amber Quill Press.

The story takes place on Praesepean with Jason of Thurgan, formerly of Earth. Praesepean had achieved a kind of peace that was helped by Jason, who from what I can tell from this book (I have not read the first one), came as a kind of mortal savior with amazing powers granted by an amulet. How he came to gain this amulet is not explained in this particular book. The book opens with Jason and his wife Charni just having given birth to their first child. But evil lurks just around the corner. Charni’s brother has decided to spread his evil and gain world dominion.

Leaving his wife, and three day old son, Jason goes off to find and vanquish his brother-in-law, the evil Prince Khuramani and his Black Horseman, helped by his Sword of Thoran, which is legendary in the world of Praesepean.

Along the way there are many other adventures, most primarily involving the saving of young nubile woman who need comforting after being raped or some other brutalizing and are instantly sexually aroused around Jason. I must admit that as a woman, all of these scenes caused me to roll my eyes. Even in fantasy, I find this stretching the willingness to suspend disbelief, and the woman characters to be little more than firm breasts and sexual bodies with little personality, to be a bit much. Perhaps it is because when a woman is brutalized, fear is the predominant emotion. Not to mentioned being rather torn and sore in the areas where they have been brutalized. It also gets my dander up because it trivializes what these women have been through. Yes, it is a fantasy, but it is a world that needs some rules. Unless these women have miraculous healing powers in the space of a few moments, I simply cannot see how they would suddenly find him so sexually alluring after rescue. But then, perhaps I have been in the real world too long and my demands as a reader are too picky. Perhaps this is what men prefer in their fantasies.

This story, I am sure, would delight any heterosexual young at heart man looking for a fantasy about "Virile He Man Warriors" and willing women. The problem is many of the sex scenes were so disjointed and out of place, I wonder if the author was told he needed a certain number of sex scenes in order to be published. Some of them were a natural extension of the story and did not seem out of place and were just the consumption of a relationship. But far too many were placed in the story seemingly out of nowhere, perhaps even borrowed from another book, and stuck in there to add to the number of words. There were a number of small stories within the novel that branched off and kept our hero one or two steps behind the capture of the evil Prince Khuramani. The story had no climax but only a TBC (to be continued) type of ending.

This is not to say the book was a total loss. Alan M. Brooker has a wonderful way of bringing about the environment, and a master at clearly describing the battle scenes, which are so difficult to do. But the working of plot to be less of a "wandering the planet while in a vague search of this enemy" would do wonders. Then again, perhaps I am doing a disservice having picked this book out of a middle of the series. I only can say this: if you are looking for a light entertaining read and are not too picky about plot, this book is for you. Especially if you enjoy detailed descriptions of women's breasts. With some tightening of plot lines, and more grounding of characters, I would have given this book a good 8. But as it is, I feel a 6 is all I can manage which is a shame, because Mr. Brooker does have a talent for weaving a tale that can’t be denied. I just wish he'd have found a way to do it with a bit more substance.

Reviewed By: Nancy Louise
© June 2006