Deep Into Darkness: Aliens, Alphas and Antiheroes by Elise Logan, Ella Drake, Kim Knox, Maguerite Labbe, Annie Nicholas

Science Fiction Romance

From Goodreads:

PANDORA by Marguerite Labbe

Sentenced to life on board a space salvage cruiser, Riff Korra and Zed Jakobsen find themselves drawn together out of mutual need. But when an epidemic of violence and insanity consumes their ship, will their bond give them the strength they need to escape?

BOARDED by Annie Nicholas

Liaison Sadie Beckit must accompany the mysterious Ambassador Nual to Central Station. Sounds easy enough, but the lawless void of space holds many dangers. To make things worse, Nual seems determined to make Sadie lose her professional control.

FORSAKEN PLANET by Elise Logan

Luci has gone, literally, to the ends of colonized space in order find some peace. Marooned on a desolate planet with limited supplies, Luci needs to learn to trust her team leader, Sakir Khyne. Together they must take out hostile forces and try to survive.

DARK IMMORTALITY by Kim Knox

Captain Andros: pirate, vampire, all-round bastard. When he takes Madelen Ariel as his own, his crew sees an opportunity to mutiny. They’re about to find out just how much of a bastard he really is.

FREEKER by Ella Drake

On the run, convicted murderer Chara stows away on a ship piloted by a big, sexy alien. Warrant puts the safety of his brothers above all else but the violent and sensual Chara makes him question the price of risk. 

Three of the stories in this collection fit the anti-hero description.  The other two fit the Alphas and Aliens description.

Pandora is a M/M story full of violence.  It was the longest in the collection.  It was well written but longer than I though it needed to be.  As M/M is not my cup of tea it was not one I enjoyed that much.

Boarded by Annie Nicholas was my favorite.  There were no anti-heroes in this one; just very good Space Opera and Science Fiction Romance.  I liked both Sadie Beckit and Ambassador Nual.  I would not mind visiting their world again.

Forsaken Planet by Elise Logan was another story that did not have an anti-hero.  Her two main characters, Luci and Sakir, are both on the side of justice and order.  It was my second favorite in the collection.  I though the world building in this story was the best of the lot.

Dark Immortality by Kim Knox did not appeal to me at all.  It did fit the anti-hero theme.  Captain Andros is just what the blurb says – an all-round bastard.

Freeker by Ella Drake is part of the Space Grit series.  Again we have the anti-hero theme.  This time both Chara, the female and Warrant, the male, are both bloodthirsty and love killing.  Of course it has to be for a good reason.  Drake turns out well written stories.  In this case it is a well written story where I did not like either main character.

I am not much for anti-hero stories and reading Deep Into Darkness did not change my mind.  I liked Boarded and Forsaken Planet but neither had an anti-hero.  Pandora, Dark Immortality, and Freeker just were not my type of SFR even though they were written buy authors whose books I have enjoyed in the past.  Those books did not have anti-heroes.

Deep Into Darkness was published in 2015.

I received an ARC of Deep Into Darkness from Netgalley in return for an honest review.