The Sumage Solution

The Sumage Solution (2017) G. L. Carriger (San Andreas Shifters)

Max is a sumage and, as far as his father was concerned, a complete failure. Instead of being a Surge, he’s a Placer, and instead of continuing the family line, he’s gay. So now he works for DURPS and lives in a small cottage.

Biff moved with his brother and their pack from the east coast to San Francisco, in the hopes their new pack can find acceptance in a city known for its gay community. But most people don’t want a werewolf pack in their area, and so the pack is currently staying at the home of a drag queen while they attempt to establish their pack and find work.

Betas weren’t made for battle, everyone knew that. Didn’t matter what kind of shifter, it wasn’t their role to fight or enforce but to fix and repair.

Biff ends up in Max’s office as part of the registration process, and soon a date is lined up.

The werewolf gave him a pained expression. “Do I come off as a bottom?”

Max sputtered. “Uh, do you even know what that means?”

“I’ll have you know that I too have access to the internet.”

As much as I enjoyed this story, I also had problems with it.

First, my personal issue was that the first part of the book was mostly sex / getting to sex / talking about sex. Which is fine, but it’s not my thing. So that reduced my enjoyment.

Second-and more importantly–I had major issues with the world building, in that almost nothing was explained, and that got annoying quickly. Quintessence, Plugs, Pinchers, Siphons, Sluices, sumages, Super Saturation. The meaning of some of those terms can be inferred, but much of it can’t, and it got old quickly. It’s one thing if one of the characters doesn’t know how things works and has to work it out. It’s something else if all the characters are aware of the terminology and we’re left wondering what the hell they’re talking about.

The mages didn’t help. The place reeked of coolant and ozone and melted rubber. Worse, sumages, all of them. There was the Plug at the door and the other Plug guarding the entrance to the inner sanctum, and more than a few Pinchers behind the counter. He’d never seen so many sumages in one place.

Biff didn’t like any kind of civic mage, the working ones or the sumage failures.

If she didn’t want to explain things (which I understand) then why on earth not put a glossary of terms in the book?

The story got much better in the second half of the book–it wasn’t 100% about boinking for one thing–and we get more into what is really happening in the world and in their lives and the issues the two have. But there was still a lot of world building that was never explained or was confusing, which was just aggravating.

I’ll read the next book, but I do wish this story had been more than it was.

Publisher : GAIL CARRIGER LLC
Rating: 7/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• The Omega Objection » »
• « « Waiting for the Flood