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It’s a well known fact that I’m a total sucker for books with tons of aliens. And when the various alien species are abundant, with clearly differing cultures and varying physiologies, plus humans don’t even appear on-page and are background antagonists?
That’s my JAM right there!

The sole survivor on a science vessel adrift in deep space, Zeus was adopted by the Emperor and Empress of the Mar’Sani, though he is both human and blind, and seen by most as unfit to join the royal family. Though they were able to repair his vision, Zeus does not trust his eyes and the nobles of his parents’ court refuse to ever trust a frail human.
Dargon Kal-Turak, along with his symbiote and lover Alpha, command one of the most dangerous ships in the stars. Narrowly escaping a trap, they dock in a space port to make repairs, but find that the Psonics hunting them are closing in fast. In desperation they kidnap the port Master Mechanic, unaware that the man they’ve brought on board is more than he seems, and will bring far more upheaval to their ship, their lives, and the stars than any of them could have imagined.

I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Content warnings include: abandonment of infant, loss of child, adoption, blinding and restoring sight of a child, violation of reproductive freedome and unconsensual surgery on intersex child, general lack of research into being intersex, off-page discrimination of intersex people, violence and graphic injury, sex on-page, a very convoluted alien way of mpreg;
Mentions of: torture, human(oid) experiments, xenophobia, discrimination, abusive past relationship.

All that said about aliens, the first protagonist is disappointingly human, at least in appearance. This is however rectified by him being raised by and considering himself Mar’Sani, a reptilian semi-aquatic alien people with distinct behaviours and customs.

The aliens and worldbuilding was definitely the book’s strong suit. There wasn’t really anything I hadn’t seen before, and it was disappointingly binary regarding sex and gender with one exception that I’ll be talking about more in depth later. However, the inspiration for some of the alien species was very clear and didn’t really follow any rhyme or reason, and partly seemed to me as bordering on racist stereotypes and simply taking elements of indigenous and POC culture, which I found questionable.

In combination with the different aliens and wolrdbuildling, I enjoyed the plot a lot. It started out slow, with a overly long prologue – which I totally adored. I looooved the slow beginning, the focus on family and sibling relationships and how that continued throughout the rest of the book even when the plot and focus shifted and began to pick up.
There’s a big overarching plot that was a bit overwhelming at times with how far it extends, both how many people, worlds and species it encompasses, but also its extensive backstory and history. For me it was never too much, and while there is a lot more to come in the sequels, I felt like Alpha Trine reads very satisfactory on its own.

I could however have done without the insta-lust and particularly how it quickly turned into insta-love. The romance in general felt almost like an afterthought, pushed in forcefully and almost roughly into the complicated plot. The connection between the protagonists worked and did help advance some of the story, though it was full with clichés that vaguely resembled the imprinting/fated mates tropes. It wasn’t bad, but I would have liked a bit more slow progression romance. The sex scenes in particular felt a bit out of place, though I didn’t mind the instant physical attraction between the protagonists as much as their instant devotion and emotional connection.
I did like the polyamorous part of the romance, as two of the men involved are of species that are in a symbiotic relationship (even if I couldn’t really find the reason for why exactly.) However I also felt like the polyam part was a bit rushed towards the end, as the third only really gets any attention or true on-page time later in the book.

What I also could have done without was the discrimination of intersex people, particularly the protagonist Zeus. While I thought it was great that there were intersex characters, one of them even a main one, the representation is direly lacking in research or any resemblence of actual intersex people. Like, that’s just not how being intersex works – I’m by no means an expert either, but I can tell at least that much. There’s an attempt to explain those differences to reality by citing some alien tech, but I still found that iffy. I particularly disliked the discrimination in the history of these intersex people, and that Zeus underwent painful unconsensual surgery where part of his reproductive freedom was taken from him (even if the details of and reasoning behind the surgery are purely fictional and not related to what intersex people face today.)

When Zeus turned out to be intersex, I admit to an instant bout of pessimism that it would be used as convenient excuse for mpreg. I was wrong – but I also wasn’t. Ultimately, there was mpreg, but things did not turn out as expected. It was all vastly complicated and convoluted in an almost ridiculous way, which I found… weirdly enjoyable.

Weirdly enjoyable is a apt description of what I thought of Alpha Trine in general. I am deeply invested into the story despite its numerous flaws. It’s overly complicated while also repeatedly making use of clichéd tropes, and the writing style reminds me of older fanfiction sometimes – and yet I found myself absolutely unable to put the book down from the very first page.
On-paper and in retrospect I am surprised by how much of a good time I had while reading this book, and I cannot quite explain it in face of its flaws. I definitely want to know how this story continues, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

Read my review for the sequels here.

You can buy the book here.

~iam