The Ninth Orb

The author introduces the reader to a totally new and imho great society where women are like the queen bees with the men being the worker bees. Its a great menage story with interesting characters. The sex is menage but the relationship is mainly one on one where you only really get to know one of the men so it does not get too confusing. The society is totally alien but the author somehow makes it work and believable. Highly recommended, can't go wrong for this price and length of book. Absolutely loved it.

Eden Chisholm is the project leader for the planned colonization of New Savannah. She and her all female crew have spent fifteen years in space reaching their destination. They plan on using "frozen pops" to build the population. But when the crew arrives, they find that the planet they plan to inhabit is already inhabited, by a group of men from the planet Xtania. These men are part of a "brood" that has been banished because their queen failed to produce a female heir. Baen is the leader of the Xtanians. The men see the female colonists as queens to be worshipped and adored. Each queen is expected to have a harem and produce their own brood. The females have been without male company for fifteen years, and the Xtanians are very much like human males. But not every female agrees that the men are harmless, which makes for some tense situations. The Ninth Orb is an entertaining and well-written tale that held me captive. I loved watching the colonists and the Xtanians try to overcome language and cultural differences and come to terms with how to live together. Lovers of science fiction will enjoy The Ninth Orb. I know that I did. Amelia reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Wouldn't it be great to have all your needs met by a harem of men. Feeding, cleaning, sex, protection and did I mention lots of sex. This kept me up half the night reading. I love all of Kaitlyn O'Conner books

I have to tell you - I love every thing Kaitlyn O'Connor has written. She writes excellent science fiction romance that is well-balanced between the two genres. This was no exception! A group of women from Earth are sent to colonize the ninth planet of a star system. When they get there, they find it already inhabited by a group that consists only of males, some of which have wings and horns. The story is about the conflicts between the two colonies and how they solve the situation. Great characters, great SF, great love scenes.

Having already read Abiogenesis and Cyborg by this author-both of which sit comfortably ensconced on my keeper shelf-I was pretty sure what to expect from Kaitlyn O'Connor. I was a fan at the ending of Abiogenesis-funny name, great book-and after reading Cyborg and The Ninth Orb, I'm a confirmed fan. The cultural worlds O'Connor builds are fascinating; sex is just the double-fudge icing on the cake in an O'Connor tale, and she could write futuristic fantasy without a hint of sex, and I'd buy and eagerly devour the book. The Ninth Orb is no exception; the story of a colony of earth women who have prepared for five years, and traveled through space for fifteen years to reach the world they are settling, it's full of the kind of twists and exotic cultural shocks that keep a reader glued to the page. The women are taking drugs which will keep them looking and feeling about 25 for at least a few centuries, so the extended travel and prep time doesn't interfere with the story. They've brought along semen-cicles (frozen semen *G*) to enable them to populate the colony with children, once they're settled, and none of them has seen a man since leaving earth, 15 years before. When the women finally reach the planet they've already named Georgia, it is to find a colony, comprised solely of men, already settled and thriving. This admittedly improbable beginning is easily overlooked as we're taken into the interesting culture of the men, all of whom have horns (yes, some horny men jokes are inevitable *G*), and some of whom (the warriors) have wings as well. The story swiftly takes you in as we see the women struggling to deal with the unique problems arising as they cautiously investigate merging their group with the men's. The culture of the males-called Xtanians-is a lot like that of ants; the men are the fighters and providers (workers), with each brood having one queen (a brood being one litter, or multiple birthing a queen has had). Broods seem to run from two to eight in number, and the males have been sent to the planet by their mothers because there are simply too many of them on their own world. Since the women come from earth, the process of adjustment is an interesting one-and doesn't immediately develop in the way we'd imagine. There are problems of the kind that you might not expect from this type of plot and genre, and they make the story much more interesting than the norm. Still, there are plenty of very sexy scenes (one featuring a ménage-a-quad), and the plot never grows stale. The romantic aspect is also dealt with very satisfactorily, as the colony's project leader, Eden Chisholm, falls headfirst for Baen, a warrior who, according to his people's custom, is not supposed to mate at all, existing only to protect his queen (there's gratitude for ya! *G*). Time and propinquity eventually manage to conquer this Xtanian taboo, but the colony still faces a dilemma as it struggles with each culture adapting to the other. So much so that a