I knew that this book was being published sometime in the future, through Twitter (in case anyone cares to know if people notice ‘coming up’ type posts on Twitter), but I didn’t actually realize it had been posted until I saw a mention that someone was reading it, currently reading not planning on reading it, in a group on Goodreads. Naturally I . . . I do not actually remember now. I know I immediately bought the book, but I do not recall if I immediately started reading the book.

Not sure if this needs to be stated, considering this is the 7th book in a series, but yes, this book is part of a series and it is a lot easier to read if you read the previous 6 books.

This specific book stars a character, if I recall correctly, who first appeared in the previous book in this series. Rahel Sayana. Attempting to not reveal what happened in the previous book . . . Rahel is now the first Alsean to serve aboard the a Protectorate spaceship (I do not know enough about the Protectorate to know if this is correct, or not, but the Protectorate is a multi-planet organization that has a spaceforce crewed by Gaians (read: humans, I’m sure there are differences, but of all the species in this series, this one is closest to humans (and were humans in the fanfiction series that came before this series here, but that was years ago and I’ve no real idea if Gaians are significantly different to not call them human or not).

To put what occurs in the book into prospective: Imagine, if you would, a Federation of planets, so to speak, crewed entirely by one species, Gaians; now insert a new species that is not only ‘other’ but also has the ‘ability to read minds’ (not exactly, more has the ability to detect emotion). I’m not sure if this is more like having the Star Trek Federation have their first Batazoid or first Vulcan join a Federation crew. I suppose it depends on . . . stuff.

So that’s the thrust of the story: a new ship member joins a new-to-them ship. They are the first of their kind out and about in space. To add a twist: they are not the equivalent of a 19 year old or fresh from academy type. I do not actually recall their age, but they are closer to being something like 44 than being 22. They’ve been around, is my basic point. This isn’t some kid joining a spaceship; this is a seasoned veteran . . . of stuff that doesn’t involve space. (I’m reminded of a comment from a new show – ‘The Rookie’, wherein someone in their mid-forties joins the police force. The watch commander (or whatever his actual title might be) makes it known why he doesn’t like this specific Rookie – he’s old enough to be set in his ways, old enough to be slow to respond ‘correctly’ and ‘as trained’, and ‘stiff’ about changing their thoughts, reactions, and emotions about the things a police officer must face – that they now face as a police officer but had a lot of experience, 40 plus years of experience, learning how to react in the situation). Good grief. Let’s boil this down: it’s easier to teach an eager new recruit the correct way to do stuff than it is to break down a veteran, and completely rebuild them. There’s ‘stuff’ to remove before you can begin.

That does come up in this book – happily enough for me, this comes up near the beginning of the book. Rahel is working out in a public work-out room. Others appear giggling and the like. They start bullying Rahel. She’s . . . okay with it for the most part but then they literally start hitting her (shooting her); she reacts as she’d been long trained to react in this situation. Then she feels as if she’s now going to be kicked off the ship for reacting. There’s one specific thing I vaguely recall disliking about the aftermath of this scene – it’s brief but I’ve a vague recollection that she said something like she started it or something, threw the first punch – but she didn’t, they literally shot her before she reacted to their bullying.

Right. Got distracted by ‘The Rookie’. WTF? Eh?

This book was a heck of a lot better than I expected (which is bad of me since I’d actually forgotten how good this author’s books tend to be), and I really enjoyed this science fiction novel. It even made me teary-eyed in places. It did, it did.

The author tends to like (like not like, not sure, but does) coupling people up – more so in the fanfiction series, but still does so in this series as well. Sooo, romance?

There’s some unexpected neat little scenes based on that specific aspect. Partly unexpected because Rahel is asexual. But she does like contact – calms her down, and ends up with . . . friends. And no, this isn’t a way to include sex into the story without romance and/or coupling up. There’s no sex. And if that had been the intention, the character would have been aromantic, not asexual. I suppose I should elaborate slightly more: the touching involves running fingers through hair, and hugging, and the like.

Ah, right. So – the book focuses mainly on Rahel. A character that first appeared in the prior book in the series. So, can you read that one then this one? I wouldn’t recommend it but it is probably doable.

For those long time series readers: this book takes place on the rebuilt Caphenon crewed and captained mostly by the same people seen, when the Protectorate is seen, throughout this series. Including Janeway. I mean, what the heck is her name again . . .Captain Ekataya Serrado and her significant other Lhyn – the scholar. (as a side note, when I read the book I had actually let the whole Star Trek thing slide from my mind, and none of the people aboard reminded me of any specific other character I’d come across . . . except for Ekatya – Janeway – somewhat less because of matching personalities and like, and more because I’d read the previous fanfiction series this series here leapt out of; Lhyn also reminds me of Janeway’s significant other in that series, but Lhyn had always been an author created character).

So one last thought. There’s a part in the afterward (actually, in the ‘about the author’ section) wherein the author noted something about readers telling her - “I didn’t think I liked science fiction, but then I read yours” (and how that makes her day).

Sadly I can’t say that. How can I, eh? I grew up reading Science Fiction. I read a variety of genres growing up, but probably 75% of the ‘first stuff’ I read was science fiction, up to . . . oh, college? Something like that. So I can’t say that I didn’t think I liked science fiction, because I’ve loved it from the beginning of my reading life. I can say that this book and this series is better than a lot of the science fiction I’ve read in my life. (well, you read Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. and . . . well, no, mostly I read books and collections of ‘the greats’ from the 1920s to today, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. etc. plus Star Trek and more ‘popular fiction’ oriented stuff).

Rating: 5+

November 4 2018 ( )