About Stars Beyond by S.K. Dunstall
The crew of Another Road are back, closer than ever to the biggest score in the galaxy. . . if they can stay a step ahead of the Justice Department agents and Company men tracking them.
An engineer with a fondness for weapons. A captain with no memory. An obsessive genemodder who loves to tinker. Meet the crew of Another Road.
Josune, Roystan, and Nika have escaped the company thugs trying to kill them. They’ve gotten a new spaceship to replace The Road (after it was blown up underneath them). And their new ship is armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons, courtesy of Josune. All that’s left to do before they head out to find the legendary lode of transurides is to restore Roystan’s memory. To do that, they need to collect the genemod machine Nika has ordered.
But first, they have to shake off the Justice Department agent and the Companies tracking them.
It should be easy. They’ve done it before. What could possibly go wrong?
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Review of Stars Beyond
If you like your fiction to be character-driven, you have come to the right place. Stars Beyond is full of great characters that, individually have potentially great stories. Together, the intermeshed greatness is vivid and glowing. Even the chapters are named after the character who’s point of view is exposed in the chapter. So to review this book, I will review a few characters. Warning, there may be spoilers if you have not read Stars Uncharted.
Hammond Roystan – the quiet hero with the mysterious forgotten past. Despite, the fact that he never even gets his own chapter, Hammond is critical to the story, more than any other character. You have read Stars Uncharted, you get the idea. But keep paying attention to Roystan.
Alistair Laughton – is the intriguing new character. Asked to take leave from the Justice Department, he is back again – at their request. But while he was on leave, his adventures were most intersting….
Nika Rik Terri – the body modder. A really good, in demand body modder. That is until someone tried to frame her for murder and kill her. Somehow she ended up with Roystan and his ragtag crew. And for some reason, Laughton is looking for her. These characters are so interconnected it must be fate that links them. Or maybe Roystan. See there he is again.
Bertram Snowshoe – well if it weren’t for Snow, we would not get to hang out with the evil mercenary Captain Oliver Norris. And he is. Evil. Nasty. Norris, not Snow. Snow is the modder apprentice, but manages to be a pretty good gunner too. Snow, like most of the ragtag crew, has many talents.
What is it about the term ragtag that automatically gets my attention?
Jacques Saloman – chef and cargo master. Mostly chef. You gotta love a man who thinks food, good food, is the solution for everything. And on Another Road, it pretty much is.
Leonard Wickmore – bad guy. Wickmore got the first chapter in Stars Beyond, where we learn he is after Rik Terri. He is a thoroughly despicable character that did not deserve to live past book one. I prefer my villains to evolve and grow just as much as the protagonists and if not, they need to be eliminated….somehow. But Dunstall thought he was needed in this story. Okay, if you need someone to boo and hiss at, Wickmore is your man.
The Ort. First contact species with a need for a special body modder. Everybody seems to want Rik Terri.
The Vortex. While not technically a character, the spaceship-ripping Vortex is an astronomical phenomenon that happens to be very close to the center of all that is important. Beware the Vortex. Roystan does.
These motley characters are combined with a story line that gallivants enough to throw in a few surprises. (Surprises are good.) Beware the Vortex cannot be said enough.
Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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