This was ... different. Not something I’d normally pick up, but it was a quick read and entertaining. It did come across as a spiced-up version of an old-school campy sci-fi show.

I was not disappointed by the hype surrounding this book. Boy was it spicy! Who knew blue skinned, horned and tailed aliens could be a huge turn on!

I did not expect how fascinated I would be with this world and craving more details for it. I tripped across the book originally thanks to TikTok and was curious to see if it was as good as people claimed. IT IS! It and its sequels follow a wonderful, easy-to-follow pattern that allows you to quickly connect with the main character, learn about their love interest, and then learn about the world they are surviving in. Plus a little bit of adult content on top. It's an absolute delight!

Absolutely love the new cover!!! If you like insta spice, this is your book. It is surprisingly cute, sexy, and adventurous all in one. Plus, it is a super fast read! I am going to fly through this series! Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review!

When Georgie wakes up on a spaceship run by aliens, she has no idea what to do. A crash landing on a new planet leaves her and the other girls onboard alone and injured, with no one around and nothing with which to protect themselves. Georgie brings it upon herself to become the group's unofficial leader, and she sets out to try and get help or find any other signs of life. She quickly realizes that the planet is inhabited by large, strong aliens, and she finds herself falling for one of them.

I have been hearing about Ice Planet Barbarians for almost a year now, but I kept pushing off actually reading it. When I saw this special edition ARC, I KNEW I needed to request it. I got so excited when I got approved and am so glad I picked it up. This is my first alien romance, and although I was hesitant at first, I quickly got obsessed with the characters and plot. I'm not going to lie, Georgie lowkey annoyed me for a while, but she grew on me. Vektal's complete and total sweetness with her quickly had me falling in love with him, and I loved their relationship. I cannot wait to pick up the next book in this series.

The author's note at the end made me tear up; it was so wholesome and encouraging!

Content warning for kidnapping, death.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC of Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon!

4.5 ⭐ A fantastically ridiculous alien romance that stole my heart

Trigger Warning: Rape and violence.

I don't know if I should be appalled or impressed, but Ruby Dixon has somehow managed to make me (and thousands of others) a fan of blue aliens with horns, tails, massive schlongs, and ribbed tongues. 👽


Summary:

Georgie, along with other human women, is abducted by aliens and kept prisoner as they are transported somewhere unknown. When the aliens have trouble with their ship, they leave behind some of the women on an inhospitable ice planet.

Forced to fend for themselves, the women must find supplies before they freeze or starve to death. With the least amount of injuries, Georgie volunteers to leave the group and search for help. But after falling into a trap and losing consciousness, Georgie is woken up by a big, horned, blue alien that's doing generous things with his ribbed tongue. At first, Georgie is surprised by the alien and his intimate greeting but she quickly realizes he is her best shot at survival.


My Thoughts:

The storyline is actually interesting! I am a huge fan of sci-fi and while the story is smut/romance focused, there's actually a plot. The main character is abducted by aliens, witnesses terrible things while on the ship, experiences shared trauma with the other women, braves an alien planet alone to find food or help, develops a relationship with a native inhabitant, and learns how to survive. There's way more than just smut!

Great world-building. Ruby Dixon completely nailed this! The writing is so descriptive that I feel as if I have a perfect visual representation of landscape, topography, and life-forms on 'Not-Hoth'.

I love our alien barbarian, Vektal. He is the perfect partner: tall, strong, gorgeous, and kind. All he wants to do is please and protect Georgie. Why is it that this ribbed, blue alien is nicer than half the men on Earth??? 😂

The relationship progression between Vektal and Georgie was entertaining! I love soulmate/mate romances and that's exactly what you get here! Their first interactions were entirely physical, but over time they form a deeper connection that grows into love. Since they couldn't communicate with one another for the first two-thirds of the book, it was hilarious reading Vektal and Georgie's POVs for their perspectives on their bizarre situation. There's a lot of miscommunication and confusion but it's light-hearted and sweet.

The spice is top-notch. Points to Ruby Dixon for creativity because she sure did create the perfect alien specimen for pleasing women. Well-endowed? Check. Ribbed tongue? Check. What else do you need? To top it off, Vektal is an extremely giving partner so lots of four-play and oral sex scenes.


Overall, this is a must-read for any romance reader, regardless if you're into sci-fi. It's #1 of Kindle Unlimited for a reason, so just say 'to hell with it' and give it a shot!

This year, Ruby Dixon has made herself a household name with the Ice Planet Barbarians series. Beginning with a book under the same title, Dixon weaves a unique and endlessly fun adventure romance that's easy to fall in love with. This special edition is better than ever with sexy bonus material and gorgeous cover art. Ice Planet Barbarians just keeps getting better and better.

How did I not discover this book earlier?!

Thank you Berkley Publishing via NetGalley for the eARC of the new special edition!!

CW: kidnapping, implied rape of secondary character (on page), dubious consent, death, violence, starvation/lack of food

I was looking for a book that was different from my usual reads and this one definitely hit the spot. It was outside my comfort zone, but I'm glad I tried it out. There wasn't anything ground breaking in the plot, but the world and characters Ruby Dixon created were entertaining and interesting. Vektal and Georgie's story intrigued me enough to be curious about the other books in the series. Go in with an open mind and just enjoy the ride ;)

Special Edition of IPB:
It was fun to revisit Not-Hoth via the new special edition of Ice Planet Barbarians. There are a few additions to the book like the novella Ice Planet Honeymoon, a bonus epilogue, and a very helpful character list. All the different characters in the story are tough to keep track of and I wasn't sure how to pronounce all their names, so this was a great addition to the book.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you!)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

HE IS RIBBED FOR HER PLEASURE. LIKE THE ENTIRE ALIEN IS RIBBED FOR HER PLEASURE.

CW for discussion of sexual assault and queerphobia.

Ahem. I will now attempt to say something sensible about this book—which I confess I read primarily out of curiosity. And, honestly, it’s a lot of fun. There are elements in it that don’t work for me specifically but the more I read of, err, Ice Planet Barbarians the more I enjoyed it and the more I admired its artistry.

Yes. Its artistry.

Because there IS an art, a very real and significant art, to writing a book that is fun, that is exuberant, that is pulpy, and that is explicitly constructed around the interests of a devalued audience. Or at least there’s an art to doing that WELL. And, for my money (well, not technically my money, I suppose, because I got an ARC) IPB does, indeed, do it well.

To me, there’s a lot about the book that feels both carefully considered and carefully judged—from the concise but effective world-building, to the way it engages simultaneously with the tropes of pulp SF and romance, to how it navigates consent. Essentially this is a take on the ol’ “woman captured by alien” thing you can find in any late night B-movie or 1970s boy’s space adventure but re-oriented towards female fantasy instead of male. Which, y’know, is a cool premise.

The general setup here is that the heroine Georgie—whose earth life we learn nothing about—is kidnapped by aliens who turn out to be violent slavers. Before she, and the other women she’s been kidnapped with, can reach their destination the ship drops them (one assumes) temporarily on an icy world. Being the ostensible leader of the group, Georgie goes in search of food, water and shelter and instead finds a blue but basically humanoid alien who wants to go down on her. The blue but basically humanoid alien experiences what’s known as “a resonance” on witnessing Georgie: this means she’s his mate by design, regardless of whether she feels it back, and it immediately becomes his duty to care for her, protect her and give her sexytimes. The plot mainly concerns Georgie and Vektal learning to communicate with each other, alongside their rescue of the other women (it turns out Vektal’s tribe is mainly desperate horny dudes who haven’t yet found their resonance mates—convenient) and the revelation of some further details about the world, including the fact that the force that allows Vektal and his people to experience “resonance” is actually a non-harmful parasite that you have to bond with on the planet or, like, die of cold and toxicity. Also convenient. The main conflict is whether Georgie and her fellow womenz will stay with the blue sex aliens or attempt to get back to earth.

So there’s actually a lot about this that I thought worked pretty well. For example, the initial non-mutuality of the “resonance” struck me as an interesting application of the fated mate trope—which has never been a trope I’ve gone for because, for me, it denies agency to the characters. But essentially what we have here is a situation where Georgie is Vektal’s fated mate, but she herself gets to CHOOSE him (although the symbiote confirms the choice when she’s made by allowing her to experience resonance back). Also the resonance essentially just makes Vektal act like a super great guy to Georgie: yes, in a very alpha “I will feed, fuck and protect you with my life” kind of way, but if I was stranded on an ice planet that’s kind of how I’d want to be treated too. Also, for all his alphaness he never really attempts to control Georgie’s behaviour. Mostly he’s just hella supportive, even when he doesn’t fully understand what’s going on—for example, helping her rescue the other women when all she’s managed to communicate is that she wants to go to a certain place, and not having sex with her until she explicitly consents to it.

At least, and here it gets a bit more complicated, MOSTLY waiting until she consents. Not understanding that Georgie isn’t also experiencing instant resonance, Vektal does kind of go enthusiastically down on her while she’s asleep on a cave (leading to one of the book’s funniest lines IMHO: “It wasn’t a monster come to eat me. It was this monster. Who’s come to eat me out”). And, obviously, having sex—any kind of sex—with someone who isn’t in a position to give consent is … um. Not okay? Very very not okay. But I feel the scene is established in such a way that it’s clearly meant to fall into a fantasy space—Vektal doesn’t understand Georgie isn’t technically consenting (it’s very clear from his future actions that he wouldn’t have done it if he’d known), and Georgie doesn’t feel threatened in any way during the, y’know, event, mostly joking to herself about how absurd it is to experience a shit tonne of personal peril and then receive the best oral sex of her life, and finally getting into said oral sex a major way.

Basically, the whole business is played for sexy laughs. You know how in the 70s/80s romance tended to have a lot “forced seduction” (notably distinct from the way such elements work in modern-day dark romances), simply because it was a way to allow a female character to get off without falling afoul of oppressive gender norms regarding women and sex? This scene felt like an attempt to both modernise and tap into a similar fantasy of guilt free orgasms—there’s a few throwaway lines about how Georgie has had boyfriends who wouldn’t go down on her, and yet here was a big blue guy doing it like his life depended on it—and seems to take it as axiomatic that oral sex is wholly about a woman’s pleasure in a way penetrative sex may not be. Which is, y’know, simultaneously well-meaning and problematic. The former because I’m always here for de-centralising the dick in sexual encounters and the latter because it sort of implies that a) pleasure can substitute for consent and b) that only penetrative sex constitutes rape.

Basically, the blue guys probably need to on some kind of training course that RESONANCE IS NOT CONSENT.

In any case, while I’m aware that the not-fully-consensual oral was problematic from a number of angles (and may well be a deal breaker for some readers) I was ultimately a lot less concerned about it than I was some other aspects of the book. Most notably, when the women are initially captured from earth, we quickly learn that if they show any resistance (including screaming) they are brutalised by the guards in punishment. We see this happen on page when a red-haired woman called Dominque is brought on board, and the others are not able to calm her. The book is, at least, non-graphic about what happens to her and euphemistically refers to her being “attacked”. Clearly, however, she’s been raped and … um. I don’t know why this scene was included, frankly. Given the women have already been kidnapped, physically threatened, tagged like cattle, kept in miserable conditions, and have only limited capacity to communicate with their captors the situation is already PLENTY threatening. Having some poor character, at this point, violently gangraped by aliens is the very definition of gratuitous.

What makes it even worse is that, from this point on, Dominque is clearly deeply traumatised and, while the women do their best to take care of her, there’s a strong implication that she’s been traumatised beyond help. On top of which, I think she has literally no lines of dialogue, so she’s sort of been abused and then textually silenced … and for what? To prove to the reader that being captured by alien slavers is bad, m’kay? Anyway, it’s all okay in the end (this my sarcastic voice, btw) because Dominque’s trauma sends her running wildly into the snow where she is found some days later, frozen to death. And everyone is like, well that’s sad, but it’s probably for the best, she probably didn’t want to live anyway.

Which. Um. What? Survivors of sexual abuse are literally better off dead? I don’t think I need to go into details about why that’s an incredibly fucked up message for a book—even a book about blue alien boning—to carry. Plus when the slavers do come back to the pick up their womenz cargo they kind of just hover over the planet for a moment, then do a kind of interstellar shrug and leave again, rendering them exactly zero threat (and somewhat of a nonsensical one, considering all the women were tagged on arrival, so surely it's relatively straight forward to grab them again, even if they've wandered from the original crash site). So essentially Dominque was traumatised and killed for NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. And maybe that was meant to be part of her tragedy but, nope, it felt tonally inconsistent with the rest of the book and unnecessarily cruel to sexual abuse survivors.

The other element of IPB that left me shaking my head slightly (and I don’t compare this in scale to the ‘once you’ve been assaulted, you might as well go die in the snow’ messaging) was its stultifying heteronormativity. I mean, obviously I wasn’t expecting joyous queerness in a book so explicitly designed for and targeted at cishet women. But, honestly, it’s always a bit bewildering me when books that take place in alternative words are so wildly committed to the most oppressive paradigms of our own. I mean, you can imagine a ribbed blue alien dick that comes with its own clitoral simulator but love between two people of the same gender identity is BEYOND COMPREHENSION? Oh come on.

I think what makes IPB more problematic in this regard than your average cishet centring fantasy space is because the book provides … essentially a biological imperative for heteronormativity. We later learn that resonance occurs to facilitate pregnancy between compatible couples, which is why homosexuality literally does not exist on their planet. Ostensibly this is because the symbiote wants to survive and multiply but … I mean. That’s some conservative Christian values for a glowing worm to have, isn’t it? Basically I think what I’m driving at here is that I read plenty of m/f romances that are set in worlds (even our literal present day world) where it clearly hasn’t occurred to the author that queer people exist and, y’know, that’s … that’s what it is. I mean, it makes me feel a bit Marvin the Paranoid Android—how can you possibly live in something that small—but nobody has an obligation to represent human diversity. And I’d rather people didn’t try than do it badly or do it to tick a box or try and cynically sell themselves to a marginalised audience. But there’s a difference between … what I’m going to term … neutral erasure … and something like IPB which not only casually wipes queer people from existence but provides a bullshit evolutionary argument for doing so.

Okay, apparently I’m more peeved about this than I realised. But equally I do want to be fair to the book because I think it does successfully achieve what it sets out to achieve (even if what it wants to achieve is implicitly hostile to someone like me) and I did genuinely enjoy reading it. As I said at the beginning of the review, I think we’re too inclined to look at books like this and be like “lol blue alien dick”—which is deeply unfair because it takes as much skill, thought and care to write a cracktastic romp about sexytimes with a protective blue alien than it does to write an addictive mystery or a gripping space opera or a fantasy epic. Or, for that matter, a prize-winning hardback about how, like, it’s really hard to be a straight white man right now.

The “lol blue alien dick” perspective essentially mandates us to diminish both what is good about the book AND the ways in which is it is problematic. For me personally, the ways IPB is ultimately harmful—to sexual abuse survivors and by replicating right via alien symbiote right wing talking points about queer identity—eclipses the ways it is good.

But I also am aware of the ways it is good and I celebrate those (hence the 4-star review). For people who enjoy IPB vibes but would prefer a more inclusive, less conservative fantasy space I strongly recommend Ann Aguirre's Strange Love.

If you like smut with a mix of fantasy and of course romance, then this book is for you! Honestly, why is no one talking about how funny this book is, the way Blue Alien Man is so confused by her makes me laugh. I wish there was a bit more plot, but I understand that this book is a more of a steamy book. Also, let's take a moment to appreciate this new lovely book cover, its so so so stunning.

First of all, I am not one for the 'mate' trope. I know this is pretty common in a lot of SFF romances because of a lot of circumstances (vampires, paranormal creatures, large blue aliens it seems). So while that particular aspect - which is very present at the beginning - isn't my cup of tea, the way Ice Planet Barbarians morphs towards the middle and end I enjoyed.

While I'm not sure that Dixon meant for me to stay awake at night and think about alien-human intercultural communication, the effects of language and reality, and the female gaze, that's what I did. The science fiction setting ended up being one of my favorite - if not, favorite - element of Ice Planet Barbarians. I loved that Dixon leans into their lack of ability to communicate, to not understand what we think of as 'essential'. How we feel about nudity or even cooking our food is part of the learning process.

This series began as a self-published experiment by a NYT Best-Selling author under the pseudonym Ruby Dixon. She wanted a change of pace and decided a Sci-Fi Alien Romance was just what she was in the mood to write. The first two books were serialized and gathered some online fans. When the stories started trending on Tik Tok, the author was both surprised and pleased. twenty-two books later, they are still fun to write and now have quite a large audience. Berkley is coming out with a print, paperback edition this November of this, the first book in the series.

The author decided to write about so many of her favorite tropes. Twenty-two year old Georgie Carruthers is a bank teller in Tallahassee, Florida, when she is abducted by aliens. She joins a number of other young women of around the same age who were also abducted. They are kept in the hold of a spaceship and guarded by brutal aliens. When the ship encounters some sort of mechanical failure, the hold in abandoned on an ice planet.

Since the most of the women were hurt in the crash and left with insufficient clothes and scant food and water, Georgie who has become the de facto leader decides to venture out to see if she can find help. The only clothing she has is that of one of the guards that the women managed to overwhelm and kill during the crash. She immediately knows that she's on another planet; the two suns and extra-large moon are the giveaways.

Georgie finds herself on a mountain in a cold and alien environment. She also finds herself caught in a snare which at least lets her know that there are thinking beings on the planet.

Now, Vektal enters the story. He is big and blue, has horns and a tail, and is the chief of his tribe. He also has a khui - a symbiont that lets him survive the harsh conditions. His khui immediately begins to resonate when he finds Georgie. That resonance is a sign that he has found his mate. Despite not speaking the same language, their romance gets hot and heavy right away. Note: If you don't like frequent sex in all sorts of positions and variations, this is NOT the book for you.

Georgie needs to find a way to convince Vektal to help her rescue the other girls. It helps that one of the hunting shelters that they use along the way is actually the ship that brought Vektal's ancestors to the planet the girls have named Not-Hoth. After chipping away some ice, she wakes up the ship's artificial intelligence which gives her the history of her rescuer and a linguistic upload that gives her Vektal's language.

Now able to communicate, they head to Vektal's home, gather more hunters, and go off to rescue the other girls who are in bad shape when they arrive. They also need to hunt down an animal to get symbionts for all of the humans. They can only survive on the planet for a week without them. But having the symbiont also means that they can't leave the planet again.

The story is told alternately from Georgie's and Vektal's points of view. It was interesting to know how both Georgie and Vektal are reacting to things that happen. While I thought their romance happened awfully fast and Georgie dealt perhaps a little too well with all the changes in her life, it was an engaging story. A devoted science fiction fan might have quite a few quibbles about many things, i.e. how a small group of aliens managed to survive on a planet that was so harsh or how two such different sorts of beings were sexually compatible and interfertile, but readers who are in it for the romance will enjoy the story and be looking to read more in the series.

I liked this steamy, sci fi romance. There was some darker content that readers should be aware of going in as there is sex trafficking, assault/rape, and other violent content. Overall, it was a fun adventure that I would find myself reading again when I'm in the mood for a science fiction romance. It was enjoyable, which I find difficult in the science fiction department as tropes in the genre can sometimes be off putting despite my love of science fiction. I'm interested to read more!

Having been armed and prepared with content warnings about the establishment of the story, I found myself opening this in the Netgalley app as I bounced around reading material on Saturday. I settled on this one and shifted to Kindle, which is perhaps why I blew so quickly through it. (Also, it’s just easy as hell to read.) Nice slump breaker, honestly, and it was nice to have the extra bits added for this special edition. I’m looking forward to reading more, but maybe not right away.

Story: Georgie wakes up in the cargo hold of a space ship, having been kidnapped by Bad Aliens, who are trafficking human women (and the guards occasionally rape them?). When there are ship problems, Bad Aliens jettison the cargo hold onto the titular ice planet and Georgie goes in search of help, where she is caught in Good Alien Vektal’s hunting snare. He has a symbiote that determines G is his mate and he takes care of her, in many many ways 😉

CN: sex trafficking; off-page rape; dub-con that could be considered non-con; abduction; crash landing; abandonment; injuries; fated mates; hunting; alien-human sex; communication issues due to language; culture shock; death; bludgeoning; animal attack; lots of sex on the page

(I think I got them all but there are plenty in the world)

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the eARC

I mean what else can be said about this book? It took over BookTok and Bookstagram. It isn't the best book you'll ever read but I have to say it's a highly unique concept and pretty entertaining. I can see why people would like this book and why people would find this story romantic. It wasn't totally "wow" or "it" for me but again it's always a unique experience to read about a new world and new magic and creatures. I do like Georgie a lot. She is tough and not afraid to stand up for herself but also shows a vulnerable and soft side. I'll probably read the other books because like I said...they're entertaining.

I got approved for the special edition of this book on NetGalley. Thanks Berkley! It’s been about 5 months since I originally read this book. I liked revisiting it, now I’m thinking I should pick up where I left off in the series again. The special edition includes her novella of Georgie and Vektal’s honeymoon which I hadn’t previously read. The part of the plot in it was nice to see and I think was important to Georgie’s story. I appreciated getting to read Ruby Dixon’s authors note and to learn how the series came about for her and how long it’s been running. I think that it was really good of her that she revised the original book to leave out the rape scene in the beginning of the book. It wasn’t necessary to the story other than showing how terrible things were. It almost made me stop reading when I first read this so I think it being removed will make this fit with more readers.
Looking for a spicy, sci-fi romance? This is it. If you live under a rock (or well, don’t use TikTok lol) and haven’t heard of this, it’s honestly worth a read for the experience. It’s wild.

This was a fun fast read that hooked me from the very beginning. It made me laugh and I was ready to read the next one in the series.

Look, I came here from Booktok, we all came here from booktook. This... wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but it's absolutely ridiculous. High level find it hilarious that booktok has spoken, and this now has a publisher - but oooof. Content warnings galore, but this is sincerely better than expected - world building and all.

Worth a read, who knew?

Check your trigger warnings!!!

Went into this completely blind with the exception of the hype on Booktok. Started reading for the laughter (i think it wound up being more laughing because I felt awkward as I had never explored this genre)...kept reading because .... it was better than I had expected. This was my first "sci-fi" book if you will. My only familiarity with SciFi was watching some Star Wars and even those I have only visually seen once.

However, because of this book, I have continued reading on into the series (the actual stories get better to my own surprise) and has become more entertaining. It's a perfect palette cleanser, but don't be fooled, the title and the covers are exactly what you think of.

As the series progresses, it's nice that each of the female MC's explores different backgrounds regarding various traumas and can be relatable to many readers finding who they may identify with more. Lots of credit to Ruby Dixon there.