Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance, New Adult
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
There are an infinite number of universes and each has its own story. Not all of them have happy endings.
Two years after he nearly died, Nathan Duffy is living his dream. He and Camilo are finally the ‘them’ Nathan always wanted. But Nathan quickly learns everything comes with a price. The military gave him experimental implants that help him walk again, but he’s drafted and assigned to a dangerous, special ops, off-world unit. He and Camilo are together, but the military assigns Cam to the same dangerous mission. Nathan knows he’d do everything he can to keep Cam safe, even sacrifice himself to save the man he loves.
Two years after he nearly lost the only man he’s ever loved, Camilo Almenara refuses to let anything come between him and Nathan. Not his father, the military, nor Nathan’s irrational belief that only Cam’s life mattered. To ensure the man he loves comes home, Cam makes sure he is assigned to the same off world mission as Nathan. He knows the assignment is dangerous, but he believes they are stronger together than apart.
Misfortune strikes the operation, and two team members are captured. Nathan is forced assumes command and must work with a resistance movement he doesn’t fully trust. The plan to rescue their friends hit unexpected resistance and Nathan cuts off communications with everyone in an attempt to save them all. Faced with his worst nightmare come true, Cam races to reach Nathan and convince him not to give up on ‘them.’
The Review
In the follow-up to the story of Nathan Duffy and Camilo Almenara, the authors take us to yet another parallel universe. This time Puff and Cam are boyfriends for real, and the dynamic of the story has shifted accordingly. The family and friends dynamic has shifted too, as both Nathan and Camilo have become army officers and are officially part of the revived Lateral Parallax project.
Cummings and Gallo bring us up to date efficiently, but with more than enough detail for us to get the feel for the time that has passed, establishing both young men as somehow more mature, trained, and ready for the adventure that awaits them. Nothing, however, of the old Puff and Cam (or Bebe or Andi, or the Colonel, for that matter) is left behind. These folks are just as complex and layered as they were in book 1, only this time they are not quite so helpless in the face of—well, you can imagine what they might be facing as they drop into yet another parallel universe with a frankly terrifying mission ahead of them.
Imagine an America very different from what Cam and Puff know: a world in which those with magical talent are considered cursed and are hunted down and exterminated. The idea of parallel universes (linked to quantum physics, which I understand not at all) is scary enough; but the authors invest this narrative with an emotional edge that carries us right up to an epic confrontation. Cam and Puff have moved from being terrified college students to military leaders—without losing the generosity of spirit and love for each other that defines them.
It is a story with a lot of talk, and that talk takes some careful reading in order to fully appreciate what the writers are giving us. A World Apart is a great balance of the cerebral and the emotional, of science and romance.
Five stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
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