The Outback Stars
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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 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.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former naval officer McDonald makes an auspicious debut with a military SF novel that through her heroine proves the maxim "amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics." Lt. Jodenny Scott, who's suffering from survivor's guilt after the destruction of her spaceship in an unexplained accident, pulls some strings to get a berth on a new ship, the Aral Sea, which turns out to have a dysfunctional chain of command. Inventory discrepancies, missing robots and officers who either disappear or experience unusual accidents suggest that all is not well. Meanwhile, a troubled petty officer begins to experience visions of the aliens who created the system humans are using for interstellar exploration and commerce. The author captures the flavor of day-to-day life in a military organization and neatly ties the alien mystery with other plot threads at the end, though some of the romantic elements are a bit out of place and the mystery angle may remind cartoon fans of a Scooby-Doo episode.
