Reader's Discretion Advised

Ehh...it's not bad, but it's not exactly stellar either. It doesn't quite flow very well all the time, and there are parts where it seems rather like poorly disguised info-dump. More bluntly put, the prose is stiff and sometimes the characterization doesn't seem quite right.I also don't quite like the circumstances with which Auri ended up with the Felinians. I'd think that the General or the Captain or whoever would have at least indicated some sort of regret. Unless they truly believed that it was all right and good. But then, I find it hard to believe that if the General really did care for Auri as much as the narrator indicated, he would have at least hinted at something.I also feel like I didn't quite get a read on Auri at all. Other than being stiff and overly disciplined to the point of being obsessive, I didn't really get any sense of personality. Because of that, it didn't really make sense when he fled after being told he was part of the trade agreement.And throughout it all, I never really got a sense of urgency. I got that the author was trying to create one, but I was too busy trying to figure out why Auri would have reacted the way he had to really notice (I would have actually thought that he would have had a more passive resistance. I'd have thought he'd be more logical about it. After all, he's on a strange planet with a strange people and literally no assets. So what does he do? Flee blindly into a strange forest and hope that the forest on this planet functions like the forests he knows. Or maybe he doesn't and just flees in a blind panic. Either way, it seemed decidedly out of character for whatever little had been established by the author already. Some other things that were weird - Kanar as a beast when he goes into rut grabs Auri's nape. With his teeth. I'm pretty sure humans don't have enough loose skin for that to be physiologically feasible. "The purr deepened and the tongue began to thoroughly clean him, lovingly laving every inch, invading some very private bits indeed."Why is that indeed there? It just makes the entire thing sound ridiculous and pretentious."He closed his eyes, a flush rising on his cheekbones. Okay, it had been a long time since he had had sex, but this was a cat, for gods’ sakes. He should not feel…"Ah, but he's also more than a cat. This is quickly devolving into the territory of farce...I actually kind of liked Auri more when he inexplicably became...I dunno... (I'm inclined to say "broken") regressive after the Empire people drugged him to ship him back. (He acknowledges that the Felin are intelligent, beautiful, wonderous, amazing, miraculous, blah, blah, blah, then can't seem to bring himself to care after Kanar tells him he'd die without him and only thinks "oh, boo-hoo-me. I'm stuck, trapped, I have no freedom, le sadness." I was a little (rolls eyes) put off that he didn't have a bit more compassion. Not even a twinge of conscience (he surely has one; he had a twinge earlier, although it was a more self-absorbed one, something like "why am I such a loner? Why am I so bad at getting along with people? Am i Forever Alone?" [I wish *rolls eyes])Actually, I can't even say the world fascinates me because it seems almost exactly like the one in Draconian Measures. But, again, more farcical.The entire thing just for some reason screams farce to me and seems more like Excuse Plot than actual plot. Maybe it's the diction...There's another thing I kind of want to say, but it comes off rather harshly, so I'm not altogether certain whether or not I want to say it... Eh, I'll be blunt. It actually kind of made me think that this was made of a composite of sexual fantasies woven together in an excuse of a plot that would somehow make all of them "work" in the same universe. Especially after the rather oddly placed menage.And then, oh god, the brother. The brother. The damn brother. Oh. My. freaking. goodness. All that melodrama. I wonder that no one exploded from the cheesiness of it.And it always amazes me how thick Auri is. I was probably (I was definitely) wrong in assuming that he'd be more logical and reasonable. Sheesh. I hate it when that happens. It's again the same problems I always have with Owens' works. The worlds are pretty fascinating usually, but the characters are lacking or seemed contrived, although I think this one is probably one of my least favorites by far.It's not a bad read, but not quite on par with what I was looking for. It was too much of a means to an end type of story, too plot based, and lacked the exploration of character depth that would have made it a truly compelling read.