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The Outback Stars
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Product Description
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.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #778100 in Books
- Published on: 2008-02-05
- Released on: 2008-02-05
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: .44 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
Editorial Reviews
From 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. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In a fast-paced debut, McDonald introduces Team Space and the alien-built Alcheringa, which allows huge freighters to travel between worlds. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott, freshly recovered from the destruction of her previous ship, Yangtze, ostensibly by colonial separatists, wangles a berth on Aral Sea. She is put in charge of Underway Stores, which is staffed by the rejects of an already shaky crew that she thinks she can handle; but between interpersonal conflicts and strange accidents involving equipment, it's a bit of a challenge. She must deal with shipboard politics again, but while she's on Mary River, she and Sergeant Myell accidentally stumble upon another mysterious alien creation that could change everything, on top of which, she starts falling in love. Conspiracies abound, everyone has secrets, and the web of politics involving the accident on board the Yangtze and the bizarre series of events on the Aral Sea comes together in a most satisfying manner. McDonald's characters are surprisingly interesting, and their culture, based on native Australian elements, is well-imagined, full of intrigue. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
--David Drake on The Outback Stars
“The Outback Stars takes a number of interesting ideas and weaves them into a fast-moving page-turner--rivalry aboard a large naval vessel, surviving a terrible accident, mysterious deaths, among other things. But what really sets it apart is the introduction of Australasian Aboriginal myth and cosmology as an integral part of the ways and means of interstellar travel. The author shows intimate knowledge of the nuts and bolts of what really makes big ships tick--and her careful attention to the elements of Aboriginal culture makes this even more worthy of a reader's time."
--Walter Hunt, author of The Dark Ascent
"Sandra McDonald knows the Navy, what makes a ship run well and what can make it run badly. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is the sort of tough, smart but thoroughly human officer we'd all like alongside us in an emergency. She and the other vivid characters in The Outback Stars propel forward a great story combining military fiction and criminal investigation in space."
--John G. Hemry, author of Against All Enemies and (as Jack Campbell) The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
