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Stella
Her name is Stella. She loves sunshine and fresh bagels, and absolutely hates space travel. She's a rookie cop, making her way in a 25th Century world complicated by Universal Legal Care and automation taxes. Cornered by a villainous conspiracy, she is trapped aboard an antique star-liner mockingly called the City of One. There she finds new friends, intrigue, and the fight of her life. Cyborg warriors from a long-forgotten colony threaten her, the ship, and civilized space. Is this the end of everything? Not if Stella can help it!
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2012
About the author
Richard Winder
12 books4 followersI live at the edge of British Columbia, on southern Vancouver Island. My back yard is forest frontier, but I also explore the rest of Canada and travel the world as a retired research scientist. I study forests and their diverse creatures and systems, and have worked on a variety of topics in forest biology and ecology. But I also love to create paintings, drawings, and stories, and to speculate about things that might lie ahead. For me, Science and Art are two wings of the same bird.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 1, 2015
Sly (Stella), a cop, is the way back from an assignment in Canada when she’s drugged and shanghaied as part of a roundup onto the City of Wonder, a starship. She wakes up in a cabin. The ship has already made a jump, taking it far away from Earth, and the uniforms in her cabin have “Stella Holmes” on them, not her real name.
She finds that she’s part of the maintenance crew.
The rest of the story is a tour-de-force into a strange world where ships “freeze up” to jump between the stars, time is measured in “beats”, people are not always who they seem to be, pirates prey on ships and worlds, and a touring entertainment outfit runs the ship. There are also several mysterious pods wired into the ship at several points.
Sly is immersed into all this with no idea what’s going on. It’s obvious that someone has provided her cover identity, but beyond that she’s clueless. There’s an important mystery she has to solve while staying alive herself.
Murder, double dealing, corporate greed, and some new friends keep her life, and the story, interesting. Once I started reading, I had trouble laying it down when it was time for me to go to bed. There is always something happening, so the plot never slows down.
She finds that she’s part of the maintenance crew.
The rest of the story is a tour-de-force into a strange world where ships “freeze up” to jump between the stars, time is measured in “beats”, people are not always who they seem to be, pirates prey on ships and worlds, and a touring entertainment outfit runs the ship. There are also several mysterious pods wired into the ship at several points.
Sly is immersed into all this with no idea what’s going on. It’s obvious that someone has provided her cover identity, but beyond that she’s clueless. There’s an important mystery she has to solve while staying alive herself.
Murder, double dealing, corporate greed, and some new friends keep her life, and the story, interesting. Once I started reading, I had trouble laying it down when it was time for me to go to bed. There is always something happening, so the plot never slows down.
July 8, 2012
5/5 Stars. A slow burner, but boy does it burn bright.
A story weaved with Politics, Betrayal, Love and Conquest. Machines, cyborgs, intelligent talking cars and that’s only half of it. This book has it all and meshes them together like scrambled egg for you to sift through and explore. It starts slow and steady, introduces you to what and who you need to know and doesn’t stop till you've got Cyborgs coming out your ears. The characters are likable, the enemies are everywhere and who's gonna stop the enemies from taking all and leave nothing standing. Stella is. Stella evolves from being a rough and eager rookie to being a captain and heroine of the day. The support characters each chip in when needed and have some interesting twists of their own waiting for you.
The story starts off simple. You know who the bad guys are, but soon it ends up a lot bigger than anyone expected. Stella travels from one side of the known galaxy to the other and back in time to avert disaster and barely survives to tell the tale. She struggles all the way and it never seems easy to keep going but she does.
An excellent story that demands you read it.
A story weaved with Politics, Betrayal, Love and Conquest. Machines, cyborgs, intelligent talking cars and that’s only half of it. This book has it all and meshes them together like scrambled egg for you to sift through and explore. It starts slow and steady, introduces you to what and who you need to know and doesn’t stop till you've got Cyborgs coming out your ears. The characters are likable, the enemies are everywhere and who's gonna stop the enemies from taking all and leave nothing standing. Stella is. Stella evolves from being a rough and eager rookie to being a captain and heroine of the day. The support characters each chip in when needed and have some interesting twists of their own waiting for you.
The story starts off simple. You know who the bad guys are, but soon it ends up a lot bigger than anyone expected. Stella travels from one side of the known galaxy to the other and back in time to avert disaster and barely survives to tell the tale. She struggles all the way and it never seems easy to keep going but she does.
An excellent story that demands you read it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews