Alexander Delgado is a career soldier for the Stucture, the world government that has come into control after humanity seals itself off from the diseased Earth in huge habitat towers. After the Structure is controlled by a power hungry William Myson, Delgado finds himself reluctant to be pulled into the greedy ways of the new regime and finds his career stalled as a result. After years of semi-retirement, he is offered an important assignment from Myson himself.

To help stave off political unrest with the Seriatt race, Myson wants to father a child by the royal child bearer, Vourniass Lycern. She objects to the union and escapes to the Affinity Group, a mysterious religious group. Delgado is sent to retireve her, but when he is face to face, he finds her irresistible. He mates with her only to find out afterwards that she emits a powerfully addictive pheromone called muscien.

I had a hard time getting into this book. For the first half of the novel the plot seemed very random and the characters inconsistent. One minute Delgado wants to regain favor with the Structure and the next he wants to screw them over by taking off with Lycern. And Lycern goes from trying to escape Delgado to wanting to spend the rest of her life with him, all for no apparent reason. I also had a problem with the muscien. The pheromone was described as having very addictive qualities and when Delgado is separated from her he becomes aggressive and restless. After she is back with Myson and he teams up with a group of rebels to try to rescue her, these effects all but disappear. No explanation is given for why he can suddenly concentrate on the task at hand and keep his aggression in check.

My Recommendation
The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley is well written but has many problems with plot consistency and believability. This one may not be worth the read.

The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley
Published by Pyr
305 pages

The Affinity Trap is available at Amazon.com

Pyr Publishing provided me with a free review copy of The Affinity Trap