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The Outback Stars Sandra McDonald 9780765316431 Books

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The Outback Stars Sandra McDonald 9780765316431 Books

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.


Tags : The Outback Stars [Sandra McDonald] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div><div>Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a hero.  She has the medals and the scars to prove it.   She's cooling her heels on Kookaburra,Sandra McDonald,The Outback Stars,Tor Books,0765316439,Science Fiction - General,Science fiction.,Science Fiction & Fantasy Fantasy,Fiction,Fiction - Science Fiction,Fiction Science Fiction General,Fiction-Science Fiction,GENERAL,General Adult,SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Science Fiction,Science Fiction - Military,United States

The Outback Stars Sandra McDonald 9780765316431 Books Reviews

I love lots of different kinds of science fiction, and this book satisfied so many of my readerly cravings. It's got space opera and romance, and it's also got really cool science fictional ideas. A perfect book in so many ways! If I could compare it to anything else on the shelves, it would be the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold--and believe me, that's a very high compliment!

A strength is the characterization. From the moment Jodenny Scott tells Terry Myell that his shoes are dirty, I fell in love with them both, and read along avidy as they fell in love with each other. Their romance is complicated--both of these people carry heavy baggage into the relationship. Jodenny's previous ship went down--supposedly in a terrorist attack--and Terry has been accused of an assault he didn't commit. Plus they're both raving individualists--what Terry's doing in the military is beyond me! But they do come together, in a most satisfying way.

Another great strength of this book is the ideas. Science fiction is all about new ideas--"what ifs". The "what if" at the center of this book is wicked cool--aliens have built the "alcheringa," which enables humans to engage in space travel, and thus colonize other planets. Humans aren't simple creatures themselves, however, and their use of the Alcheringa is complicated by their own intrigues and the interference of the aliens themselves.

Finally, something I appreciate very much about this book is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Some of the themes here are quite serious, but over all the book is a tremendous amount of fun. I give it my very highest recommendation!
I have been reading Sandra McDonald's fiction for over 11 years. I've read many of her short stories and way back when, in another life, I was the flagwaver for her fanfiction. (Don't ask.) So that I'd love her first novel is no great surprise to me. What do I like about it?

The crew of the Aral Sea seems a very realistic portrayal of sailors/ spacefarers. Unlike Star Trek, on McDonald's ship they can't replicate whatever it is they want. When you want a uniform, a machine part or food it is Underway s that must store, find and inventory it.

The Aral Sea (a nod to the Vorkosigan saga only in my mind-- these ships are named after environmental disasters) is an unhappy ship and Jodenny is assigned the unhappiest department Underway s, but that's where Terry works. She's an officer and he's enlisted, but that doesn't stop the attraction they have for each other. The mystery of why the ship is so very unhappy is part of what Jodenny & Terry must solve-- and that's terrific, and, well, Bujold-like.

What I also like is that after ~400 pages, I don't know everything about this universe. Why is nearly everybody Australian -- or their forbearers are? Why are so few characters born on Earth? Why did the aliens give this technology and leave? It means that Sandra has many more stories in this series to tell!

Like Bujold's Vorkosigan series in some ways, both are about military & quasi- military ships. Jodenny and Terry would get on very well in the Dendarii Mercenaries. Actually, though, it's more like Tanya Huff's Valor books, with Sergeant Torin Kerr. I'm sure Kerr'd like Terry, but Jodenny... (Kerr, like Terry is enlisted and spends much of her time protecting officers. Unlike Terry, Torin is a warrior.)

Unlike Star Trek and unlike the Vorkosigan series, this isn't about feats of derring do and military prowess. It's about the guys in the red shirts that make the ship go and whose names we never hear. People who are just as courageous, in their way, as Captain Kirk and Miles Vorkosigan, maybe moreso.

"I saw something," Jodenny whispered.
Neither of them moved to investigate. Being in Team Space had never demanded much bravery, Myell knew. It required endurance of petty annoyances and mammoth wastes of time, and the discipline of listening to superiors talk of nonsense and trivia, and the ability to think one way and act another, for days and months and years at a time. He had been truly scared only a few times in his military career-- once while doing firefighting training in boot camp, another when Chiba's men entereted his Security cell duing the Ford affair - but all in all, he could safely say he had never been asked to chase something down in the icy darkness, something only his lieutenant thought she saw.
"There's nothing there," he said.
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.