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Star Rigger #2

Dragons in the Stars

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Jael LeBrae, a young female star rigger, rebels against an abusive ship's master and dares to take "the mountain route" through a region of hyperspace where legend has it that dragons dwell. But no one believes that real dragons lurk in the mountains, ready to duel unwary riggers...until dragons actually appear in the night sky of the Flux, challenging Jael to a fight to the death. Help appears when a dragon named Highwing befriends the lonely rigger--but only afterward does Jael realize that she has been caught up in an ancient battle of good and evil, her own appearance foretold by an age-old prophecy. Upon Jael's return to the dragon realm she finds her friend Highwing sentenced to death for his acts of kindness, and her own life declared forfeit if she should try to intervene. But intervene she must, for the sake of a friend who risked his life to save hers.

314 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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Jeffrey A. Carver

51 books169 followers

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5 stars
124 (27%)
4 stars
161 (36%)
3 stars
113 (25%)
2 stars
31 (6%)
1 star
14 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
Profile Image for Frank Davis.
1,094 reviews49 followers
September 7, 2023
Loved it. What if the dragon thinks that you're the abomination?

This series has been surprisingly good so far. Book one pretty much established the method of travel that would be used by Star Riggers, presumably for the rest of the series, but it didn't pass on any characters or worlds. So book two takes off on a wholly new adventure that doesn't rely on any knowledge of the events in the first book.

If the cover art and the mention of dragons is putting you off giving this a try, I'd advise that the dragons aren't what you're expecting so maybe check it out anyway.
Profile Image for Fran Barton.
36 reviews
November 30, 2023
This book is an interesting blend of hard science with fantasy. I was swept away by the concept of how space travel was accomplished. I look forward to the next book to learn more about the characters and the science.
Profile Image for Micha.
111 reviews5 followers
November 4, 2021
Wonderful and different way to see space travel

I greatly appreciated this different outlook at deep space travel and that a single person's imagination is the driver of progress through the stars. Whether intended or not, the message of everyone being much more than their appearance alone, of the ability to be powerful and beautiful within the creations of our own minds, was demonstrated magnificently. Looking forward to reading more in the universe and from the authour.
Profile Image for Laura.
606 reviews24 followers
January 4, 2013
Dragons in the Stars is a science-fiction book with a fantasy twist: Although the setting is a space-age universe with star travel and the like, there are dragons that lurk in hyperspace (known as the Flux). Jael, after escaping the ever-tightening grasp of a cruel captain, discovers them and must later rescue the dragon she meets--Highwing.

This book actually gets 3.5 stars from me, but I've rounded up. The premise was interesting, although I had difficult stretching my suspension of disbelief for several important plot points, especially the parts with the dragons. Perhaps this was because the way the space society and the technology functionned was not well defined.

I love when characters develop addictions. I enjoy the mental struggle they must go through to overcome it because I know that I probably wouldn't have the strength or willpower.

Ar was a good foil to Jael. While Jael is fuelled by her emotions, Ar is fuelled by objective reason. Ed, the virtual parrot Jael rescues, was cute and provided comic relief.

Still, I enjoyed the story for all its cheesy and slightly-less-than-believable bits.
Profile Image for Jrubino.
1,153 reviews5 followers
January 2, 2021
"Dragons of Pern" in Space!!!!



Okay, it’s silly to knock a novel that unashamedly and blatantly ‘borrows’ from many other stories. It does its best to combine the space opera wonderment with a mythic fantasy middle-earth vibe. Does it work? Well, not on any level beyond a 12-year-old’s sense of adventure. 



Yeah, even though I do enjoy both Sci-Fi and Fantasy, I’m so not the audience for this story. I’ll give it a generous 3-stars knowing that there are many who’ll overlook the clumsy writing and patched together plot.
54 reviews1 follower
October 22, 2025
This book is an awful mess. It's bad - poorly paced, flat characters, unnecessary plotlines - and what's worse, it has an interesting premise that's just wasted. I'd read Down the Stream of Stars as a kid, and I don't think I'd really got it, so I figured I'd pick up one of the earlier entries in the series.

The book has the standard scifi trope of FTL travel necessitating a navigator with unique talents - see Dune's navigators. Here, the pilots are called riggers, and visualize hyperspace (the Flux) with a mind link which conjures a landscape that is responsive to their thoughts and moods. I guess there are a lot of these folks, which means they're all sitting around waiting for work. Apparently ship masters never seem to employ the same rigger twice, making them regular crew, but are only picked up as needed. That's where we meet our protagonist, Jael, who is blacklisted due to her father's abuse of riggers under his employ. She can't fly with a sanctioned flight, but ends up flying with an abusive ship master.

He controls her by promising a device that will enhance her rigging capabilities called a pallisp, but this is actually a stolen and prohibited medical device that gives an addictive sense of euphoria. There's a decent story hook here with the addiction and dealer/user dynamic, but it's not really explored. There is some unnecessary creepiness as the shipmaster has a similar device that requires Jael's assistance, but is only used for pornographic purposes. As soon a Jael realizes she's become addicted, she meets an actual dragon in the Flux.

This does the trodden fantasy trope of sharing your name when unasked forms an unbreakable bond with the dragon (Highwing), but it strangely never applies to other dragons. A prophecy is hinted at, but instead of exploring this, the dragon just takes her on a brief inward journey where she deals with personal trauma. Maybe a necessary step if you're going to write a broken protagonist to heal them so they can answer the call to adventure, but it falls flat. She's cured of dependence on the shipmaster, confronts her abusive father, and sees a dreamlink scene with her cousin earlier in the book from a new perspective. She exits the Flux, and does not encounter Highwing again until the very end of the book.

Upon realizing Jael is free, the shipmaster becomes violent and attempts to rape her. This is entirely unnecessary both from a plot and decency perspective. She pushes him out the airlock and takes the ship into port by herself. There's another decent story hook here that is abandoned - seems like the ship might be up for grabs with no claimants, but that plotline is dropped. Up until this point, the book was hovering between 2 and 3 stars for me, but the next 200 pages were something.

In a wild tone swing Jael ends up meeting a Star Trek style alien, who is just like a human but listens to discordant music and is a bit of an empath, but that's not really capitalized on. She also plays a video game which is just a full-sensory walk in the woods, but if you had the tech to do that, why not have a walk in the woods fighting orcs or literally anything else? The particular simulation she's into is being sunset, and she talks to the lead tech and gets him to reload it. She befriends a parrot AI named Ed who talks like a cartoon parrot, which is incredibly irritating.

Her and her companion end up planning a heist to save Ed instead of just trying to buy the data, which was being discarded anyway. This goes on for dozens of pages, and then the McGuffin they use is just acquired by Jael's companion and it's not even mentioned how. This is all done to give another character.

They go on another run with a competent shipmaster, and are given sole command of the ship on the next. They are blown off course, and reenter the realm of dragons.

In the last 20 pages, it's revealed that there is a big bad, the dragon realm has a curse on it, and they're going to execute Highwing. They do it by sending him to normal space, the riggers then take him back to the Flux, and that breaks the curse. I don't know how you write 200 pages of filler and then rush through the actual plot of the novel.

As I said, this book is a mess. Characters are dropped before being explored, characters are added that add no value, and the protagonist is completely flat. Jael doesn't make a single decision through the entire book. Competent writing has characters make decisions based on their personality, but Jael doesn't have one, and neither does anyone else. They're just moved around like pieces on a board instead of having any agency of their own. Even by the standards of schlocky scifi from the 80s/90s, this is bad; avoid at all costs.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Don.
130 reviews2 followers
May 6, 2022
I began this book a few weeks ago, put it down and then finished it over a week or so. Well written, entertaining story but a little too dark for my tastes. Although the author has set up where help will come from, they all seem too small, too insignificant and thus not any source of encouragement throughout the story. As a result of this, the story feels dark, hopeless with very little positive reinforcement along the way. As a contrast, although it is decades since I read Lord of the Rings, I am struck by how the hobbits meet the elves, the warders, the Ents, etc. and have times of some hope all through the 3 books of this series. On the other hand, I read The Hobbit maybe 50 years ago...it too felt too unremittingly dark and I did not enjoy it...which probably delayed me trying the other books by Tolkien. Again, Carver writes well, has a satisfying end and room for the development of the rest of this series. I still prefer more light to contrast the dark.
Profile Image for Lindsay.
134 reviews6 followers
February 7, 2022
This book started with an extremely interesting and unique idea. Rigging a space ship in a dream-like alternate reality was such an elaborate and intriguing concept. But for me, the book turned quickly into a strange story of a girl trying to overcome trauma, making alien friends, and saving an AI parrot who helped navigate the ship, and a magical and miraculous revival of a dragon world…

It was a few too many strange ideas and genres mashed into the story of a young girl’s struggle to forgive her past. Would have preferred the story to stay in the sci-fi genre and simply hear stories about a girl navigating the Flux as a Rigger.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
204 reviews1 follower
June 7, 2021
Now this is a book for lovers of fantasy. There be dragons here!!
Personally I love stories of dragons. This story is absolutely brilliant; rich with texture, drama, a battle between right and wrong...a couple of them, actually against an utterly unique backdrop-outerspace!
The story and characters grab the reader by the eyeballs and do not let go until the very end. You will want more when the story concludes and there is more...SEQUELS...YAY!
For young adults, older adults...yep, you will love this too. This is a book you will not want to put down. Relax, enjoy and let the story take you where it will!
Profile Image for Ruth.
4,711 reviews
October 21, 2022
17 This is definitely YA with the protagonist being 18 years old. But I couldn’t continue with this as it was making me very uncomfortable. You have a young girl in the close confines of a spaceship with a old man trying to threaten her, and also pressuring her to use some sort of mind altering drug/organism. A very vulnerable girl at that. Unable to recommend to anyone especially the normal crew.
Profile Image for Tanja Glavnik.
730 reviews13 followers
January 7, 2017
Oh my goodness.

I fell in love with the original idea of dragons even BEING in the stars, or in space as theysay, but then once I actually started reading it had everything. I loved the writing style, Jael was quite believable, and the dragons! Oh, the dragons.

Also, there's a parrott. Named Ed. Who helps fly a spaceship. Side-note: he's a cyber parrott.

It doesn't get any better than that.
196 reviews2 followers
May 19, 2021
Review of: Dragons in the Stars (Star Rigger Universe

Another Author that knows when to end a book and where to start a new book. Good characterization and story line. I enjoyed reading the book. This isn't my first of reading about riggers and the flux. Anyway I hope you enjoy this story!
162 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2017
Nice adventure.

I really enjoyed this story and the novelty of it's setting. Traveling in the flux was entertaining and the characters were likeable and interesting.
Profile Image for Natasha du Plessis.
1,062 reviews8 followers
June 28, 2021
Great new series that I started reading, I absolutely love the Sci-fi and fantasy element of this story. ?Still struggling to understand the Flux though.
23 reviews
June 29, 2021
I had a difficult time putting this book down and getting my chores done. I thoroughly the story that kept my interest until the end,
735 reviews
February 12, 2024
Interesting

This was an interesting read. It was a cross of sci-fi and fantasy. The combination was fantasy. I definitely enjoyed it
1,361 reviews8 followers
March 19, 2017
I miss Anne McCaffery. I look for novels that are innovative and have a bit of science fiction and fantasy. This book has filled the bill for me. Can't wait to start the next book in the series, but I have to wait until I finish the books I borrowed from the library.
Profile Image for bex.
2,435 reviews24 followers
June 15, 2021
4 star

I quite liked this book. Some very emotionally intense moments. And some dark,familiar emotions. I liked the developing friendship between the riggers.
Profile Image for Althea Ann.
2,255 reviews1,209 followers
June 9, 2010
The first book in this duology is a simple story of the star rigger Jael - a young woman wrestling with personal issues regarding her dishonest father, and her lack of success in her chosen profession. Desperation leads her to take a commission with a decidedly shady star captain - who, sure enough, tries to enslave his new navigator with banned drug technology, and assaults her when she protests.
However, Jael finds unlikely allies - in the 'warp' space known as the flux, which riggers 'visit' as a mentally-generated landscape, she finds that there has been some truth to the unsubstantiated rumors of dragons in space...
A very light and simple story - I almost felt that it would have been better as a short story rather than a novel.

The sequel, Dragon Rigger, is much more complex - one almost feels as if the first book was merely an introduction to the characters and scenario. Now, the realm of the dragons is torn by a vicious civil war. If the Enemy wins, he may even break out of the Flux and subsume human space with his evil plans.
However, an ancient prophecy seems to indicate that Jael may be involved with the end of the war - the good dragons hope that this means she will help them - but it could equally be interpreted to mean that her death will spell the end of the dragons' Realm. Better than the first one, I thought, but the book suffers from weak individual characterizations and a fairly typical fantasy plot.

(But I liked the parrot - more spaceships should have a cyber-parrot!)
Profile Image for Michael Blackmore.
250 reviews8 followers
August 25, 2013
It I had read only the first half or so of the book I would have given one star and just the last half would have gotten three. It's just that uneven between the two. The human story and characters in the first half simply don't capture my interest. But with the appearance of the dragons in the second half and the almost shift to fantasy thereafter it get way more interesting.

The attempt to balance a future SF world and a Fantasy world is interesting, but somehow the SF world comes across as too uninteresting which hobbles the book as a whole and since so much time is spent there there's not enough revealed of the fantasy world.

Have to see how it goes in the next volume to judge where this is going and where I like the series enough to continue beyond there or re-read it with the goal in mind.
Profile Image for Jean.
625 reviews4 followers
February 17, 2016
The author and series are new to me and this book proved interesting. It is a blend of science fiction and fantasy, sometimes imperfectly blended. There is a scene of pretty horrifying attempted violence and self-defense. The science fiction premise sort of reminds me of the Dune's spice-using pilots, but with some twists. Dragons are part and parcel of the fantasy section that may have its roots in science. There is a good deal of coming of age in the main narrative.

If you like science fiction and fantasy, I think you might like this book. I liked it well enough to order the sequel. I would rate it at 3.5 stars were half stars a possibility. I rounded it up on the power of imagined world.
Profile Image for Mrklingon.
447 reviews8 followers
November 21, 2015
Terrific!

Came up.. hm, not sure which list or social media, but I'd read Carver before, and - this was just the right moment for a story that blended fantasy and hard SF themes. I literally burned through this and wound up picking up the next book right away (along with an omnibus of the Chaos Chronicles, which I had in early free e-book versions, but that I wanted in the collection).

The blend of cyberpunk-like interface and fantastical (real? imaginary?) realm of star-rigging was ... enchanting (to use a magical term) and the idea of an interstellar economy and travel based on such a system intriguing. I look forward to reading more of the Star Rigger's universe!
Profile Image for Warren Dunn.
Author 9 books7 followers
December 16, 2022
3.5 stars
I found the first part of the book to be the most interesting, in how the protagonist dealt with the abusive relationship. After agonizing about the decision to go with a registered captain, she ends up betraying herself, and pays dearly for it. The second part, where she meets the other rigger was fun, but not as interesting, and the final part, where they interfere with the evil in the dragon’s realm, was very simplistic. Except for Jael’s unique solution, that was the least interesting to me.
Profile Image for D.L. Carter.
Author 12 books151 followers
November 28, 2015
Ran out of sympathy for pov character

Almost the next page after sample ended ran out of sympathy and interest in pov character. Whiny self involvement is to be.expected in teens but you can't have them be both amazing pilot and addict. Stupid set up. Found myself skipping paragraph s wondering why I was bothering with this weird universe and incomprehensible space flight technique. Sitting still in space until the pilot comes back.? Really?
Profile Image for Bill.
Author 14 books19 followers
July 26, 2015
Best novel about dragons in space that I read all year.

As a furry, you run into this theme a bit. ;-)

Still, my first rigger novel (although I ran into a similar concept in "A Horse of Many Colors.") and I enjoyed the universe. Each of these rigger novels seem to be about different people. I'd read another, but I'm not sure I'd buy another.
Profile Image for Christiane.
95 reviews25 followers
January 25, 2017
Great read

The realm of dragons is very well made, and the storyline is tight and developed. Karl's journey to become a rigger is enriched by her inner journeys to discover friendship, loyalty, and forgiveness of the past. The reader manages to make a journey as well totally in tune with the story.
Profile Image for Kathleen.
644 reviews15 followers
February 5, 2008
In order to travel the vast distances of space, starship pilots have to enter an alternate reality that is populated by dragon-like creatures. Makes this a kind of science fantasy space opera.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews

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