Pseudonyms are out of control in the book world. At one point I think there was a legitimate reason for using a pseudonym. For example, women authors use to fear their works wouldn’t be taken seriously if it was known the author was a women so they would use male names (or publish anonymously). Sometimes authors, in order to make a living, would write racy or otherwise objectionable books they didn’t want attached to their real name. I’m fine with this. I can even handle authors who use pseudonym for genre seperation (i.e. S.L. Viehl writes Science Fiction but Rebecca Kelly writes Christian Fiction). What horribly confuses me are authors that originally write a book or series under one particular name and then later the book is published under the author’s real name. Okay, I guess there are reasons for this too. But it still briefly confused me.

Last night I finished reading An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair. In order to provide a handy link for you to search your local library, I searched for it on WorldCat (Lincolnites, I am distressed to inform you that the closest copy of this book appears to be in Kansas). Imagine my surprise when three entries show up. One entry for Linnea Sinclair (the copy of the book I checked out) and two entries by Megan Sybil Baker. Normally I would have just assumed that the Ms. Baker’s books just had a similar title. However, I noticed that one of them said, “a far-future sequel to Wintertide”. Wintertide is another book I recognized as written by Sinclair. Initially I was incensed by how confusing this is and thus started my rant above. However,after researching a bit I found Linnea Sinclair’s website where she explains that she use to write under the name Megan Sybil Baker because she was a private investigator and thought her clients might be a little nervous if they knew she wrote fiction. I’ll acknowledge that as an acceptable reason. However, I still think pseudonyms are out of control. Intoducing books as “Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb” is just silly.

Back to talking about An Accidental Goddess. This is the first Linnea Sinclair book that I’ve read. At one point I checked out Wintertide from the library but never got around to reading it. In An Accidental Goddess Captain Gillaine Davré, a Raheiran, has been given the task of advising and protecting the Khalarans. She ends up sacrificing herself to destroy a group of nefarious Fav’lhir mages. The book begins with Gillaine waking up 300+ years in the future. Gillaine discovers, much to her distress, that in the intervening years the Khalaran’s started a religion with her as a goddess. Fortunately no one seems to recognize that Captain Davre bears a startling resemblance to their goddess. She strikes up a relationship with Admiral Makarian and deludes herself into thinking that she might be able to settle down and blend into the crowd. Her plan works great until Fav’lhir mages start reappearing. Gillaine fears that once Admiral Makarian discovers she’s a “goddess” he’ll abandon their relationship to worship her from a distance.

While An Accidental Goddess is primarily a romance, Sinclair doesn’t insult the space opera genre with a poorly imagined future (unlike some romance authors who try to write science fiction). This is a good book if you’re looking for a fun read. However, I’m not sure I liked it enough to recommend people buy it without first checking it out from the library. Remember, ILL is your friend.