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Pages: 39
Goes Well With: Astronaut Ice Cream and Orange Tang
When I saw a listing for His Ship, Her Fantasy by Emma Lai, an eBook about a woman who falls in love with a space ship, I just had to check it out. At first I thought the book was about a woman with “objectum sexuality” (where a human has sexual feelings for inanimate objects, such as the woman from Pennsylvania who plans to marry a carnival ride), but I was very glad to find out it wasn’t that weird—almost, but not quite.
Ellie Wilds works as a junior engineer aboard the space ship Paladin, and as she’s the only female engineer onboard, she finds herself lonely and in need of companionship. Over the course of two years, she gets in the habit of talking to the vessel as she goes about her duties, all alone in the bowels of the ship. You can imagine her surprise when the ship seems to talk back; she begins to question her sanity as she realizes she has fallen in love with the space ship.
One day Ellie becomes injured, and a tall mysterious stranger rescues her and brings her to the infirmary. The stranger’s name is Alastair, and he claims the Paladin is “his ship.” Over the course of a few encounters, Alastair reveals to Ellie that he is a Guardian, part of a magical race of beings tasked with protecting mankind and, of course, finding love. Alastair helps Ellie escape when the Paladin explodes, transporting them to a paradise where the two declare their love for each other and (presumably) live happily ever after.
His Ship, Her Fantasy is a cute little story, perfect for reading on your lunch break, although it does have its flaws. First of all, Ellie’s last name is listed as “Woods” in the very first line of the story—only to have it switch to “Wilds” on the next reference. Obviously a better editor would have helped with the continuity. I also found the dialogue to be stuffy and unrealistic, almost too formal—surely they use contractions in the future!
There really wasn’t enough tension in the story. Ellie has absolutely no problem with the fact that a strange man shows up who appears to be the physical manifestation of her beloved ship. She quickly says “okie dokie” when Alastair asks her to be his mate, transporting her to a strange land where she’ll live forever. I understand that an author can’t really get too intricate with the plot when writing such a short story, but I think a little more length was needed in order to add depth to the characters and the storyline. However, despite these problems, I found the book very romantic and whimsical, even a little nostalgic since it reminds me of stories I wrote when I was a teenager.
All in all I enjoyed His Ship, Her Fantasy, and would read it again—especially when I’m craving a futuristic romance, sort of a Highlander meets Star Trek type of story. This eBook was pretty good, even if it wasn’t out of this world.
