Carly's Book Reviews: The Homecoming by J. Scott Coatsworth: #Review #Excerpt #Giveaway @jscoatsworth

Friday, August 21, 2015

The Homecoming by J. Scott Coatsworth: #Review #Excerpt #Giveaway @jscoatsworth

Cover Artist: London Burden

The Homecoming

by J. Scott Coatsworth

Length: 20,000 words

Genres: Gay (M/M), Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance

When his own world is destroyed, Aldiss and his crew barely manage to escape, leaving friends and lovers behind. What was meant to be an exploratory trip back to the home world turns into a mad dash for survival.

When they awaken from stasis on Earth, which was abandoned by humanity five centuries before, they must quickly learn about their new home. While exploring the region around the ship, Aldiss meets Hari, a shape-changer, whose people harbor secrets that might cost the crew their lives.

Hari reached the edge of the woods just in time to see Neru crouching to leap at the two-legs. Young fool.

He gathered himself and jumped after Neru, knocking him aside as his teeth reached for the two-legs' throat.

Neru turned and snarled at him, backing away toward the woods.

Hari stood firm, ears back, hackles raised, and drew the corners of his mouth back to reveal his teeth. Back off, Neru.

The whelp shook his head and grinned with the brashness of youth, until Hari leaped at him and nipped his ear. With a surprised yelp, Neru turned his head, deferring to Hari's strength. As you say, brother. There was a cockiness to Neru's look that unsettled him.

The other wolf backed up slowly then turned to disappear into the woods.

Hari caught a glimpse of Mavi watching from the shadows. The old wolf snarled, and slunk off after her son.

What do you seek, old mother? Hari wondered, watching Mavi's silver-tipped tail flicker into the darkness. It was clear where Neru's courage and cunning had come from.

Hari turned back toward the two-legs. He was holding a strange stick, not unlike the one that Hari's grandmother had shown him in the wolf dream.

But it was his face that caught Hari's eye. He knew that face. The two-legs' eyes were white-gray, and his jet-black hair was swept to the side.

Despite the danger, he shifted in the manner only a few of the clan are able to do in the cold. He grew quickly taller and less hairy but no less muscled, and stood naked before the two-legs.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Hari felt an immense attraction washing over him. He saw in his summer form that this two-legs was beautiful. His own body responded to this… man… in an unexpected way, seeing and feeling things his winter form could not. Hari leaned forward and sniffed the stranger, drinking in his musk. It smelled enticing. Strangely familiar.

He sensed the two-legs stiffen, and to reassure, him, Hari licked the man's neck.

The two-legs was trembling now like a young whelp, so he tried something else. He took the stranger's face in his hands and kissed him.

The shaking slowed, and then the man was kissing him back. Hari was hungry for him, like a starving wolf at the end of a long, hard winter.

It is not the time for this, the keh whispered in his ear.

He broke contact and turned away, ashamed that he was betraying his Clan, and for lust. An emotion of his summer form.

"I'm sorry," he said to the two-legs, without looking back. "It won't happen again." Even he was not sure if he meant Neru's attack, or the kiss.

He shifted back into his winter form and loped off into the woods after his pack mates.

4 of 5 stars

I loved the way Coatsworth introduces readers to this story. It alternates between the main character's point of view as they are confused by what is happening around them but at the same time curious. It piqued my own curiosity and made me feel as if I was experiencing the story, rather than having it told to me.

The story takes place on earth and his development of wolf race is a nice mixture of uniqueness and magic. They have a mystical sort of spirituality that they experience on an elemental level. We are not told a lot about the planted that Aldiss, the "two-legs" originates from, only that it was settled by earth's former human inhabitants and is technologically advanced. There is just enough foundational world building for readers to understand its essence without overrunning the story.

The relationship between Hari, Aldiss, and the other characters is well developed as they interact throughout the story. I was disappointed to learn that this is not first in a series, as several threads within the overall story were left unresolved, which made the conclusion feel rather open ended. Overall, I found The Homecoming to be an enjoyable novella with interesting characters and a plot that I could easily see progressing into a full-length story.

Scott has been writing since elementary school, when he and won a University of Arizona writing contest in 4th grade for his first sci-fi story (with illustrations!). He finished his first novel in his mid-twenties, but after seeing it rejected by ten publishers, he gave up on writing for a while.

Over the ensuing years, he came back to it periodically, but it never stuck. Then one day, he was complaining to Mark, his husband, early last year about how he had been derailed yet again by the death of a family member, and Mark said to him “the only one stopping you from writing is you.

Since then, Scott has gone back to writing in a big way, finishing more than a dozen short stories – some new, some that he had started years before – and seeing his first sale. He’s embarking on a new trilogy, and also runs the Queer Sci Fi site, a support group for writers of gay sci fi, fantasy, and supernatural fiction.

Website - Facebook - Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway