Review - The Taste of New York by H Birchwood, Key Dyson & Raymond Roach

Rich Merrill is in New York to speak at a conference. The city is still one of the major world financial centers despite all the changes wrought by the changing climate. Rich is definitely out of his element. Fortunately, he meets Solace King in a coffee shop. Like Rich, Sol is descended from genetically modified parents. Only, his genes give Sol a more elfin appearance, with pointy ears and a diminutive stature. Although Sol is part of the city’s elite, he’s intrigued by the super-sized Rich and ends up spending the day with him touring some of the city’s attractions.

“The Taste of New York” is a stand-alone story in the Michigan Fleet series. However, you should have read the first book, After the Storm, to understand Rich’s origins and character. This is the first of the stories set on dry land and focuses entirely on Rich and his new friend Sol.

Rich has featured in almost all the stories so far, and if you’ve read most of them, you will see that he has matured as a character. He’s more confident, at least in most respects, but he’s also still a very gentle giant. New York is not a good place for someone as easy-going as Rich to be on his own, even if he looks like a super-soldier.

It’s a good thing Sol takes Rich in hand, although it’s not exactly clear why he does, except that the “country boy” intrigues him at first, then seduces him. Even though these stories are set a hundred years or so in the future, Sol is painted as a typical cynical New Yorker. Some things will probably never change. We get a lot of background on Sol over the course of the story, although a few of the details about his supposed class are left a little fuzzy. There’s a suggestion that Sol may appear in future stories of the series, so maybe some of the mystery is to keep us reading more.

“The Taste of New York” is available from Smashwords.