If you are a Doctor Who fan then you either love River Song or you hate her. Is there an in between? I happen to love her. She is tough, smart, sassy, and can slap the doctor silly. I hear actress Alex Kingston doesn’t pull her punches. For the non-Whovians, the Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through space and time in his TARDIS and protects Earth from alien invasions. He can live for hundreds of years and cheats death by turning himself into a new actor. ;) River Song is also a time traveler. She and the Doctor don’t always meet in the right order, which makes dating and marriage difficult though they seem to manage. It’s really quite fun.
I loved the chemistry between the 11th Doctor and River. They had great banter.
From the Impossible Astronaut:
Doctor: [smugly, just after explaining how he determined where the mysterious phone calls to President Nixon were originating from] ...And Doctor Song, you've got that face on again.
River Song: [bemused] What face?
Doctor: The 'He's-hot-when-he's-clever' face.
River Song: This is my normal face!
Doctor: [even more smugly]: Yes it is.
River Song: Oh, shut up.
Doctor: [smiling] Not a chance.
Also from the Impossible Astronaut:
Doctor: Shout if you get into trouble.
River Song: Don't worry. I'm quite the screamer. Now there's a spoiler for you.
My hero in RENEGADE, book 3 in the Survival Race series, is a scientist and thinker who doesn’t like fighting or gladiators. The heroine is, of course, a gladiator. It didn’t dawn on me until I was writing it that Griffin and Katana reminded me of the Doctor and River Song…well minus the time traveling and the living for hundreds of years…and oh, a lot of other stuff.
Griffin and Katana are opposites who turn out to have a lot more in common than they would have thought upon first meeting. They learn a lot about each other and themselves while forced to team up and work together to win the Survival Race—a gladiator blood sport where the last man alive wins. The following is a scene in which Katana tries to train a reluctant Griffin. Winning the Survival Race is the only way he will earn a spaceship to escape the planet.
“Ow. What was that for?”
“There’s no time for sleeping. You have to train.”
“I can’t train while sleep deprived.”
Could Griffin be any more clueless about the survival race? “Sleep deprivation is part of the training. A survival race can last weeks. You need to learn how to function on little sleep and lots of adrenaline.”
“You realize I almost died yesterday, right? I’m still healing.”
She refrained from smacking her forehead. “Good. Then you’ll have a sense of what it’s like to hurt for the duration of the race.”
“You’re not going to give up on this, are you?”
“If you don’t want to be killed at the starting line, you need to train.”
He groaned before getting off the couch. “Okay, fine. But if we’re going to train all night, let me put on a pot of coffee.”
Was he serious? There were no luxuries like coffee in a survival race. She blocked his way. “No coffee.”
“Yes. Coffee. Excuse—”
She punched him in the gut, and he doubled over, gasping for breath.
Many gladiators had dismissed her over the years, but she’d be damned if she’d tolerate it from a man who’d never put on a thermal suit. She was the voice of experience in this partnership, and he needed a crash course in the survival race.
“What the hell?”
“You want coffee? Fight your way through me.”
“You’re crazy.” He went around the other side of the sofa.
She vaulted over the couch back and punched rock, solid abs. He’d tightened them in anticipation of the blow. Good. He learned fast. There wasn’t time to reteach these lessons. “You haven’t seen crazy. Now, hit me.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I don’t want to hit you.”
“Then kick me.”
“This is ridiculous. If you want to train, then we should start from the beginning. How about the rules?”
She grabbed his throat and an arm and swept his leg, throwing him to the ground hard. She simulated stomping on his head. “Rule number one: fight to the death. Rule number two: make sure it’s the other guy’s.”
RENEGADE is a stand-alone science fiction romance novel that is a part of a series in which each book’s couple finds their happily ever after. If you like...
- Enemies to lovers stories
- Strong female warriors
- Genetically engineered gladiators
- Couples forced to team-up
- Action adventure romance
- Fish out of water stories
- Exciting scifi romances with a fresh twist
Stay safe out there!
K.M. Fawcett
Romance with a Rebel Heart
www.kmfawcett.com
Love the interaction between these two characters and Katana's no-nonsense approach. Sadly, I've never been a Dr. Who fan (I know...*gasp!*), so other than seeing a few clips, I'm clueless. These two did remind me a bit of Jake and Neytiri in Avatar, though.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Laurie! Katana is tough but also vulnerable. She was fun to write. Ooo, I like the Avatar comparison. Yes!
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