25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Military SF... romance?? And it's good? Whoa., July 20, 2007
This review is from: The Outback Stars (Hardcover)
I have to confess that I would never have read this book if I didn't know the author. I usually give military SF a wide berth. ;) And I had a hard time getting into this one; the first few pages whacked me with all the elements that usually turn me off military SF: action and "drama" that's undramatic because you don't know or care about the characters yet, lots of bureaucratobabble about ranks and duties and day-to-day operations, etc.
But once I got past that, I discovered two things: I really liked the protagonist, Jodenny. She's that rarest of female characters in SF -- intelligent but not a genius, pretty but not a sexbomb, competent and level-headed and funny. In short, a normal human woman. And as Jodenny dealt with an increasingly tangled conspiracy web and her inappropriate feelings for one of her subordinates, I more than liked her; I *cared*.
The other thing I realized was, military SF is actually kind of interesting when it's not all about the captain or the admiral or the guy with the big gun. Jodenny's "office politics", her personnel issues (like who's sleeping on the job), her effort to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder while still trying to have a career -- I could really identify with all of this, even though it took place on an Australian spaceship that travels through an alien wormhole. It's plainly military SF, but so real-world and human that it feels like something very different. And better, IMO.
So definitely a recommend. =)
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
better than i thought, April 19, 2007
This review is from: The Outback Stars (Hardcover)
When I read the first few pages of this book, I was not impressed. It seemed hard to understand and used a background that was strange. The next day, i picked it up again and before I quit, I had read it from cover to cover, twice. It could use more explanation as to the background universe but the main beauty is the developement of the characters. They were well written, believable, and likeable. The author, having served as a U.S. Naval officer, has the military down pat. Don't give up after the first few pages, keep reading, it's worth it.
I hope this is just the first in a long series.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A different twist in a space opera awaits in this one, June 19, 2008
I'll be honest. I've pretty much given up on science fiction over the last decade; so much seems to be derived from either Star Trek or Star Wars, or truly awful excursions, that I simply stopped reading it. Oh, there would be bright moments when Lois McMaster Bujold or Julian May would come out with something, but most of the time -- zilch. Nada. Not going there.
But every now and then, something will catch my eye. That what was literally happening with Sandra McDonald's book, The Outback Stars. The cover art, I found, was pretty good, and I got taken in. And the premise looked interesting enough, looking to draw on Australia and the South Pacific for inspiration, rather than the usual American/Russian/European culture that seems to be the norm for most space opera.
Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is dying of boredom on the planet of Kookaburra, waiting for a new assignment on another starship traveling the Alcheringa. She's survived a terrorist attack on her previous ship, and it turned her into a genuine hero. It's not something she's too happy about, she'd rather be working, and when the opportunity arises to leave the planet on the Aral Sea, she leaps at it.
But her new assignment is anything but peachy. Underway Stores -- think quartermasters -- supplies everything from uniforms to supplies and maintaining the DNGO's that do the fetch-and-carry chores. And it's a department full of misfits, from a habitually sick crewman, attitude problems, slackers, and a gang of pilferers that use violence to back up their claims. It's not exactly what she was looking for. But Lt. Scott sets to with a will, and struggles not just to enforce her will on some very reluctant crewmen, but also to make her own life bearable.
One of the unlucky crewmen that she's saddled with is Terry Myell, a sargeant that is good with repairing the dingos, but has a perpetual black cloud looming over him. A fellow crewmate has brought a charge against him, one that could get him booted out of Team Space. And that's something that Myell doesn't want.
For both of these characters, they've got quite a few personal issues to work out. Both have nightmares, and for good reason, and the reader knows that at some point in the story, not only are they going to be confronted with those problems, but also with each other. Especially when they start to find out the real reason for what happened on the Yangtze...
There's some problems with this story, an interesting blend of space opera and military thriller. While I certainly applaud the author's worldbuilding in creating the W and A, and especially the Spheres. Both of the main characters are complex, which is good, but they seem to be constantly falling into manure heaps and coming up smelling like roses. It's just a whiff of the 'Mary Sue,' and while I can usually forgive it in an author's first novel, it gets tiresome very quickly. I hope that this trend will stop with this novel.
Another difficulty is with the slang, espcially with such terms as 'gib,' 'dingo,' and the like. It took me forever to catch onto what exactly they were, and every time the author tossed them into the narrative, it was as though I was hitting a speed-bump. Something to set it all into context would have been nice.
The biggest problem was with the fraternization, especially across the commissioned and noncommissioned line. As someone who grew up in the military, and was married into it, there is an ancient rule, never to be broken -- Rank Hath Its Privileges, and that really meant, no socializing and especially no sex across ranks and in the same department. Nothing will bust your fanny faster than getting caught in that one, and it's usually with a dishonourable attached to it to boot. It felt very strange to be reading about it in the book, and while the author got most of what she was writing about right, and it felt right, this certainly didn't.
Still even with the problems, it's still a bearable read. While I will be certainly looking out for her next book in the series, The Stars Down Under, I won't be buying it in hardbound. I'll wait for the mass market edition instead.
Entertaining overall, but only makes it to about a three and a half star, rounded up to four as I still can't give a half-star adjustment here.
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