The Outback Stars
category: military science fiction, author:Sandra McDonald
book 1 of threeoriginal copyright 2007,
read in May 2011
Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10
There's a lot going on in this book... A lot to like, too.
First, there's the space ship. It is huge! Giant blocks of self-contained cities (or cargo holds), attached to a base, to form one enormous ship. If you have the power to push (not that there is any explanation of the power source) then why not push a lot. There's no friction in space, so no need to be neat, no need for aerodynamics.
The spaceships travel along mysterious rivers in space. Shortcuts between the stars. Created by a long-vanished alien race... Again, no explanations. The shortcuts simply exist.
One of the sub-plots is the search for better control of an alternative -- also alien, unexplained -- transportation system. A bit of mysticism here, with dream messages from Dreamtime spirits... Though that could as well be telepathic communications from the aliens, since this book is "science fiction".
Amongst all of this technology -- the real story is of the crew who work in Supply on the spaceship.
