McDonald, Sandra. The Outback Stars. Tor, 2007. Outback Stars 1.
Sandra McDonald’s The Outback Stars begins as a standard space opera that takes a hard turn into indigenous Australian mythology, with indifferent results. The initial setup is familiar. Ensign Jodenny Scott won a medal for saving lives when her starship exploded. Her next billet is on an unhappy ship of the same design as the one that blew up, a recipe for traumatic flashbacks. She is put in charge of the Underway Stores office, whose crewmembers are unhappy and corrupt. She meets Terry Myell, an enlisted man who has been falsely accused of rape. He is in trouble because someone has stolen one of the repair robots he was working on. So far, there is nothing to break the expected pattern of a C. S. Forester-style space opera. But then, the plot takes a mystical turn involving out-of-body travel. The mysticism doesn’t work for me. Think Dune without its careful world-building. 3 stars. ( )

This space opera mixes colonization of the stars with Australian folklore. Lietenant Jodenny Scott has survived what looks like sabotage from a rebel group and finds herself taking any opportunity to get off planet and away from desk duty. However, she finds herself on a very troubled ship and in charge of a department filled with misfits and incompetents.

Sergeant Terry Myell is one of the people in her department. He was falsely accused of rape and carries that reputation. He is also being bullied by Chief Chiba who is the leader of a gang and one od the ringleaders of most of the trouble-making on the ship.

As Jodenny tries to conquer the fears that are a remainder of the loss of so many of her friends and crewmates, she is also trying to get things back in shape in her department which is the centerpiece of shipboard smuggling. She is also falling in love with Myell who returns her feelings. But falling in love across ranks in their service is very much discouraged.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this one once I had read enough to understand what was going on. The story tells about a new way of space travel stumbled onto by an Australian ship on their way to Mars which allows most to escape Earth which has suffered some sort of environmental catastrophe. The mysterious creators of this faster-than-light network also terraformed a number of planets and left various monuments on all of them.

After Jodenny and Myell accidentally discover that the monuments provide another way of interstellar travel - one definitely not designed for humans, they find they have involved themselves in even more mystery and intrigue. Myell's visions of an ancient Aboriginal spirit guide gives him needed information to use this new network and has him doubting his sanity.

The story was very engaging and fast-paced. I liked both Jodenny and Myell and loved their relationship. This is the first book in a trilogy but, thankfully, doesn't have a cliffhanger ending. But there are questions still to be answered. ( )

I've never been a big fan of fantasy, so I almost released this one without reading it. When I cracked open the front cover, the first paragraph caught my eye and I decided to read a bit and got hooked. While set in the future - and mostly in space - there were enough references to earth for some things to be recognizable. The world created here is so interesting. It is reminiscent of space travel and naval rank, of ancient aliens, civil unrest, and aboriginal custom and history. There is bravery, resilience in the face of petty and bullying behavior, there is pain from grief and loss, and there's romance. I liked it enough to read it in two days and want to read the sequel as well. ( )

Not sure why, but this just didn't grab me. Maybe it's all the military jargon, and too many characters too fast - I was so confused. I *think* it's probably a fun adventure for the right reader.

What I find interesting about Ms. McDonald's story is that so much of it is centered around the structure of the lower ranks of a very large crewed ship with a pseudo military organization. I have read and enjoyed such books before and with a reliance perhaps too much on acronyms and a sleuthing tale that might be a bit predictable, it is a tale that works.

I give Ms. McDonald high marks and take off some points for the deep Aboriginal subplot that emerges when tied to how this universes travel works seems too pat on one hand, for whatever Aliens to have developed and then too thin on another. (If you have something for starship travel, would a second means be needed for interplanetary travel another way?)

Further, presuming that in a far future the Australian Aboriginal tie is the great means by which all of mankind also emigrates to the stars seems very convenient as well. (Just so happens that that nifty star travel is something that Aboriginals can take advantage of and since Earth suffered a lot, Aboriginals are more abundant in a space program that Australia has a dominant hand in since the US, Russia, China, Brazil, India, didn't emerge as top dog...

But aside from that, the story weaves about and provides some interesting fun. An interstellar map, as well as a ships map could very well have made the story work a great deal better. Translating what the author has written without is a little difficult, but as Ms McDonald can write so swiftly about where everything is, it is easy for the characters to remain knowledgeable of where they are even as I was getting lost.

I look forward to more in this as I like the universe, the fleet concept, that has been presented. Though there are some issues I think that one may have issue with. The romance that comes out as necessary to the plot could have used more development than the mystery. Crossing barriers of rank, which eventually is discussed by a great many minor characters seems to be written about much more than the issue of why the heroine would wish to cross that divide. The reasons for the love story to exist seem small in comparison to all the discussion of why it shouldn't, or how the mystery is handled.

Where such may hold a stronger allure for others, the genre I think places a greater emphasis on the scene and setting in this case, rather than the veneer of a love story that Ms McDonald has given us. In this first book, if that gets the matter out of the way, hopefully in the rest of the trilogy we can see more of the Universe and how our heroes deal with the adventure that they started on in this first book. ( )