THE OUTBACK STARS (Amazon USA, UK, Canada - links to paperback edition)
by Sandra McDonald
Website, Blog, Comic Strips (not kidding!)
Tor
Hardcover and Paperback (Paperback release Feb. 5, 2008)
Tagline:
love. duty. really big spaceships (I love this!)
Blurb:
Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a hero. She has the medals and the scars to prove it.
She's cooling her heels on Kookaburra, recovering from injuries sustained during the fiery loss of her last ship, the Yangtze, and she's bored -- so bored, in fact, that she takes a berth on the next ship out. That's a mistake. The Aral Sea isn't anyone's idea of a get-well tour.
Jodenny 's handed a division full of misfits, incompetents, and criminals. She's a squared-away officer. She thinks she can handle it all. She's wrong. Aral Sea isn't a happy ship. And it's about to get a lot unhappier.
As Aral Sea enters the Alcheringa -- the alien-constructed space warp that allows giant settler-ships to travel between worlds, away from all help or hope -- Jodenny comes face to face with something powerful enough to dwarf even the unknown force that destroyed her last ship and left her with missing memories and bloody nightmares. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is about to be introduced to love.
Author Sandra McDonald brings her personal knowledge of the military, and of the subtle interplay between men and women on deployment, to a stirring tale that mixes ancient Australian folklore with the colonization of the stars.
Ok, so this debuted last year. Sue me. The paperback release comes out in a week, so there's my excuse. Oh, and it's on the Nebula Preliminary Ballet, so there's another excuse. I met Sandra for coffee (actually tea and hot cocoa) a few weeks ago and she handed me a copy of her novel, so there's a third. (By the way, she's delightful.) I'm currently reading it and will be featuring it next.
You have GOT to get over to Sandra's blog and read her wonderfully audacious open letters to SFWA voters. They are hilarious. She's done four so far.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald
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4 comments:
It sounded very promising until the powerful force turned out to be love...
:p
Sorry to make you gag. You have to admit that it's hard to find any novel that doesn't address love on some level or another.
That's true, and I'm fine with romantic love when it's secondary. But when it's the main story I rarely find it interesting enough.
It is actually turning out to be a political suspense novel in an SF setting. Extrememly enjoyable, too!
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