Sandra McDonald, The Outback Stars

The Outback Stars

Sandra McDonald

Tor, Apr 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 0765316439

The Colonial Freedom project blew up the Yangtze leading to Lieutenant Jodenny Scott risking her life to save the people trapped in the broken ship. After spending three boring months healing on Kookaburra she finagles a berth on the Aral Sea and is assigned to head of Underway Stores; a job that was supposed to go to outraged Lieutenant David Quenger. She leads a colorful crew of malingerers, criminals, and oddballs with one member Terry Myell being accused of rape but the witnesses dropped all charges.

Although Terry Myell was let out of prison, many of his shipmates assume he is guilty and only freed by a technicality that he caused. Jodenny decides Terry is an honorable person but cannot help him when his many enemies constantly beat him up, as he refuses to whistleblow on any of his brutalizing mates. While traveling using the Alcheringa, the artificially constructed space warp made by an extinct alien species, Jodenny manages to shape up the Underway Stores. When they land on the next planet on their route, Jodenny and Myell stumble onto a top secret operation the Wordinna Transportation System developed by the aliens who created the Alcheringa. This system can transport people to various planets without ships. Back on the ship problems arise with the dingoes (robots) as units mysteriously break down and portins of their memories stolen. These two different problems can get Myell and Jodenny killed.

THE OUTBACK STARS is a fantastic military science fiction thriller similar to the Honor Harrington sagas. Like David Weber's heroine, the characters are three dimensional as their concerns and hurts, and their socializing seem plausible making them in turn real. The relationship between Jodenny and Myell enhances a deep plot with a fascinating mystery as the senior officer risks her career and eventually her life for her mate.

Harriet Klausner