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The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald
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contentI'm ashamed that it took me so long to read this book. Sandra's second novel in this series is already out and the third is due later this year. But the truth is I'm not a huge fan of Space Opera.
Still, I'd read portions of I don't know, either the second and third novel, and was intrigued. So I really wanted to read the first installment.
This novel really caught me like most Space Opera doesn't. Why? The characters:
Lt. Jodenny Scott is fresh from the eplosive lost of her last ship, Yangtze. Friends died right in front of her eyes. And now she's on The Aral Sea heading for the same place where her first ship was destroyed.
Sgt. Terry Myell was falsely accused of raping a fellow crew member. Though charges were never brought against, the shadow of this terrible crime has ostricized him from his crew aboard the Aral Sea.
Both of these characters are wounded. Both are trying to cope with their fears and insecurities while being thrust into a world of conspiracy and intrigue.
I'm not a tech person and for the most part don't understand much of what I read in high tech science fiction novels. The Outback Stars, however, doesn't lose the story in the tech. The tech is second to the characters, and that is what made this novel such a good read.
And when the tech did take the forefront, it was in such a way that it scared the bee geezes out of me. Sgt. Myell has to make some forays into an area of the ship where no one else has the guts to go. I held my breath the whole time. It was as terrifying as any horror novel I've read.
Sandra's personal knowledge of the military, along with the mysterious emergence of Austrialian mysticism, and her wonderful use of male/female relationships carried me through to the very end. I really loved this book and am looking forward to reading the second one.
As my husband said when he read The Outback Stars, "It's space opera with character development. Go figure!"
For those of you who missed this when it came out in 2007, put it on your list of must reads.
Yet, the book lost me a bit towards the end. As Australian, I didn't buy the Australian mythology (a lot of it is sacred to tribes in real life). OK, I could have lived with it had the book maintained the military tone all the way through, but I felt it slid from fairly hard-SF (with really cool ideas) into anything-goes fantasy. I also read book 2, which did it even more. There are kelpies and mermaids and magic and I just went - blergh - I thought I was reading a character-based military SF. In effect, the book betrayed my trust. I won't be reading book 3.
To each one's own, right?