Title: Space Train
Author: David Bridger
Language: English
Published: 29th August, 2019
Publisher: Beaten Track
Edition: 1
ISBN: ISBN: 978 1 78645 334 1
eBook ISBN: 978 1 78645 335 8
ASIN: B07WNDCBGD
Length: 98,600 words (approx.)
Category: Fiction
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Romance and Relationships
Synopsis
FIREFLY meets WAGON TRAIN. Space pioneers, frontier worlds, alien societies, war refugees rebuilding their lives, heroes with heart, loving relationships of many flavors, and a scarily clever ruthless enemy.
Tom is a man of color in a social system where the respectable classes are exclusively white. An interstellar freighter captain who flew refugee ships for the resistance during the galactic war, he is tormented by the memory of a terrible tragedy. Never again will he lose a ship or allow anyone to hurt passengers he’s promised to keep safe. Not ever!
Nene is a telepathic blue-skinned alien spy embedded in a tyrannical regime that looks likely to reignite the galactic war, and she is dangerously attracted to the haunted human who flies refugee families to start new lives far away.
Saxe, an elite security executive whose career was damaged when Tom escaped from his custody during the war, is driven by cold hatred and revenge. If the only way to destroy Tom is by destroying the galaxy, then that’s what he’ll do.
Space is vast, but with a hunter so ruthless and the prospect of war so close, can people of peace ever find a safe place to live?
Purchase Links
Beaten Track eBook | Beaten Track paperback | Amazon | Smashwords
Review
I can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s like the Old West in space, and it’s absolutely marvelous. It comes complete with dashing heroes, scrappy townsfolk, stowaways, relentlessly evil baddies, and inquisitive youngsters. And it all comes with a side of queerness, blended in so seamlessly that it doesn’t feel like it’s screaming DIVERSITY HERE! (Even though it really is, given all the various characters.)
It’s difficult to both build a world and develop excellent characters. Often one of those will become lost or the pacing drags until they catch up to each other. But in this case, they run parallel. It helps that chapters and sections alternate point of view so we can see multiple locations and action. The lives of people in the different worlds and colonies intersect, so we also see various characters interacting.
There’s action all throughout, so readers should definitely buckle up for the ride. It doesn’t slow down at all with the exception of a few places where it’s intentionally just about the characters taking a breather and connecting to each other.
I love so many things about this book that it’s hard to point to any one thing that stands out above the rest. I’m a very character-focused reader, so I like all the diversity and the fact that there are so many different people in the story. It seems like that could be hard to keep track of, but somehow, it’s not. This is very much an ensemble.
I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series. It’ll be fun to revisit the places I love and catch up with the characters. Anything else I say could be spoilers, so I’ll leave it at this: I grew up watching both the old westerns and the science fiction shows my parents loved. Reading this felt like I was getting the best of both worlds. I wish there’d been something like it when I was a kid, but now I have it in this book, and I love it.
For a fresh (and somewhat literal) take on space cowboys, a fantastic thrill ride, and making the kid in me happy, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.
About the Author
David Bridger settled in England’s West Country after twenty years of ocean-based mischief, during which he worked as a lifeguard, a sailor, an intelligence gatherer and an investigator.
Then he got hurt, came home a bit physically broken, and for good measure caught a severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) virus in a military hospital.
Now he writes science fiction and fantasy novels. Sometimes they’re informed by his experiences out on the crinkly blue.
He writes what he loves for readers who love what he writes.
He is a Quakerish ecosocialist, a spoonie, an adopter of donkeys, a lifelong Liverpool FC supporter, a lover of blues and jazz, a browncoat, and a whovian of the 9 and 10 era (starting with Rose and ending with Donna).
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