Megan Hart
Passion Model
Samhain (US: 1st March 2011)
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Gemma is a Recreational Intercourse Operative, tracking down faulty sexbots and taking them to HQ for repairs. She’s supposedly really good at her work, but incorrectly identifies someone as a sexbot. R.I.O agents must shag only suspected faulty models (that’s testing) on company time, so Gemma fears losing her job.
Passion Model is rather fun with intriguing world-building, but I just didn’t like any of the characters, except maybe Eddie. Kaelyn is more a plot device than a character, whose life in endangered to up the stakes for Gemma. Declan fails to inform on-duty Gemma before they shag that he’s not a bot. And Declan’s dad is a clear antag to whom we can’t relate. Villains are much more interesting when we can kind of sympathise with them, but this one’s very one-dimensional.
Tip for writers: If your story is set 1000 years into the future, don’t make contemporary pop culture references. Futurama breaks that rule all the time, but that doesn’t mean you should. Passion Model is set in 3005, yet references The Matrix and Britney. I’ve never referenced anything from 1012 (1000 years ago). So if your characters reference stuff from 1000 years ago (if they weren’t alive then)…well, that’s just lazy writing. I’ll forgive Megan Hart for that, though, because this was first published in 2003. But I read the 2010 revised edition, which still had the references. Not cool, y’all.
And though technology is well-advanced, mechos (part-human, part-machine) are shunned by society. In real life there are many people with plates, pins, and machines inside them holding their body together and keeping it functioning. We don’t treat them as if they’re not rightful citizens. So why would that happen in the future, when there would be a higher percentage of mechos?
There are logic fails aplenty, but switch off your brain and you’ll enjoy the ride.
