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Taboo Tech
Lacie's parents leave her in her uncle's care to go back to their explorations when she's 18, but later he takes her on a jaunt on his ship, Fire Seeker, where his impatience grabs the attention of the Interstellar Guard, who've been keeping an eye on him, and he has to drop her off and make his escape. Fortunately, she wasn't left alone; she has Embers...
After she graduates from the space academy, she's contacted by her mother's friends, who've been biding their time; they take her to The Depot, where she meets aliens and AIs, and she and Embers find the star ship reserved for her there. This is a good thing because Embers has never stopped growing--and she's getting heavy! This is just the beginning of her adventures with more aliens, AIs, princesses, diplomats, and villains. It's going to be an exciting ride!
After she graduates from the space academy, she's contacted by her mother's friends, who've been biding their time; they take her to The Depot, where she meets aliens and AIs, and she and Embers find the star ship reserved for her there. This is a good thing because Embers has never stopped growing--and she's getting heavy! This is just the beginning of her adventures with more aliens, AIs, princesses, diplomats, and villains. It's going to be an exciting ride!
289 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2019
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Joy V. Smith
20 books39 followersJoy V. Smith has been writing stories since she was a kid. Her stories and articles have been published in print magazines, webzines, and anthologies; and her SF has been published in two audiobooks, including Sugar Time. Her books include Taboo Tech, Strike Three; Detour Trail; Sugar Time; The Doorway and Other Stories; and e-books: Velvet of Swords (SF), Well Met by Water (SF), Cold New Planet, Hidebound (SF romance/adventure), Pretty Pink Planet (SF), Hot Yellow Planet (the sequel), and Remodeling: Buying and Updating a Foreclosure. She lives in Florida with Pemberley, the tortoisehell cat, and Samwise Gamgee, a chihuahua cross.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 10, 2019
Taboo Tech tells the story of a young woman named Lacie Leigh Collier. Her parents seek out and try to understand old, dangerous, and forbidden technologies. As the novel opens, Lacie is graduating from primary school and preparing to move on to secondary school. Meanwhile, her parents have just found a lead on such a cache of taboo tech and leave her in the care of her uncle. If anything her uncle has an even greater interest in taboo tech and is soon tempted to explore yet another cache. He takes Lacie along with him, but they soon find the Interstellar Guard on their tail. Lacie’s uncle devises an intricate escape for his niece, but she soon finds herself alone in the galaxy with only the companionship of a fledgling AI called Embers.
At this point, Lacie’s adventures really begin. She completes school, then meets and befriends a group of professors who worked with her parents and they take her to a cache of taboo tech where she’s given command of a spaceship left to her by her parents. The professors and Lacie then hatch a plot to build a school on the site of the cache to allow the professors to investigate the cache while not arousing suspicion. To further allay suspicion, Lacie moves on to the resort world of Rainbow’s End where she befriends two members of the security staff and a diplomat’s daughter. All together, they help to thwart a plot against a princess. Lacie then must rescue her friends, the professors, from a plot to take over the school she helped to create. All the while, Lacie hopes to find clues to her parents’ and uncle’s whereabouts.
Taboo Tech is a rollicking fast story that propels Lacie from one adventure to another as she meets new friends, new adversaries, AIs and aliens.
At this point, Lacie’s adventures really begin. She completes school, then meets and befriends a group of professors who worked with her parents and they take her to a cache of taboo tech where she’s given command of a spaceship left to her by her parents. The professors and Lacie then hatch a plot to build a school on the site of the cache to allow the professors to investigate the cache while not arousing suspicion. To further allay suspicion, Lacie moves on to the resort world of Rainbow’s End where she befriends two members of the security staff and a diplomat’s daughter. All together, they help to thwart a plot against a princess. Lacie then must rescue her friends, the professors, from a plot to take over the school she helped to create. All the while, Lacie hopes to find clues to her parents’ and uncle’s whereabouts.
Taboo Tech is a rollicking fast story that propels Lacie from one adventure to another as she meets new friends, new adversaries, AIs and aliens.
July 22, 2019
This is a book well suited to YA readers of SF; to anyone curious, hopeful about our spacefaring future and keen to read about solving problems in ways that don't involve too much violence.
Our heroine Lacey is left by her parents with her uncle, while they go on a not-strictly-legal archaeology expedition to another planet. Turns out her uncle's spaceship isn't the safest place in the galaxy either. Lacey has to get through college without knowing if any of these adults are alive or dead. After this point her individual adventures start; accompanied by her growing self-aware computer Embers, she takes off on an interplanetary passenger liner, makes friends, meets up with like minds and alien beings. All while searching for the taboo alien self-aware tech that her parents were researching.
I love the cover and I'm intrigued by the concepts. The book does come to a conclusion but leaves room for more adventures, and I'm hoping there will be a series. Those who want wars in space can read the excellent Marko Kloos, for instance, but for more personalised, co-operative intrigue, without all the angst of romance, Taboo Tech can hardly be bettered.
I downloaded an e-ARC from the author and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
Our heroine Lacey is left by her parents with her uncle, while they go on a not-strictly-legal archaeology expedition to another planet. Turns out her uncle's spaceship isn't the safest place in the galaxy either. Lacey has to get through college without knowing if any of these adults are alive or dead. After this point her individual adventures start; accompanied by her growing self-aware computer Embers, she takes off on an interplanetary passenger liner, makes friends, meets up with like minds and alien beings. All while searching for the taboo alien self-aware tech that her parents were researching.
I love the cover and I'm intrigued by the concepts. The book does come to a conclusion but leaves room for more adventures, and I'm hoping there will be a series. Those who want wars in space can read the excellent Marko Kloos, for instance, but for more personalised, co-operative intrigue, without all the angst of romance, Taboo Tech can hardly be bettered.
I downloaded an e-ARC from the author and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
June 23, 2019
Intellectual fun
This author’s favorite genre is science fiction and I’m sure that helped her imagination as she wrote this book. Here is a “rule” the protagonist, Lacie, remembers when in a tight spot.
“ . . . remember the course on Blending into Other Cultures, aka Undercover Coping. Among non-humanoids, acting lost and scared can work. On humanoid planets, find out what other humans are doing that you can do. Do it.”
Lacie’s parents have to leave her and she manages to cope with the help of what she learned in class and technology. Danger is close at hand many times which is often solved with brainy and complex solutions.
I found the information from classes such as Blending into Other Cultures aka Undercover Coping to be believable. The names of the ships, security characters, robots, aliens, and planets were clever and fun to read. There is a character map in the back of the book (instead of a family tree) to help keep the many characters, humanoids, princesses, miners, families, and interactive plants straight. The ships and robots have personalities and can adapt to changes and grow in knowledge.
Characters are suspicious of each other at first as it is difficult to tell which are trustworthy. Being safe is of utmost importance and there is cloaking and traveling and secrecy involved. An energy net pulls a damaged ship to where it can be repaired. A school is a central focus, SAKAWE, and people with criminal intent take it over for some time. Students, however, are not injured.
This author’s favorite genre is science fiction and I’m sure that helped her imagination as she wrote this book. Here is a “rule” the protagonist, Lacie, remembers when in a tight spot.
“ . . . remember the course on Blending into Other Cultures, aka Undercover Coping. Among non-humanoids, acting lost and scared can work. On humanoid planets, find out what other humans are doing that you can do. Do it.”
Lacie’s parents have to leave her and she manages to cope with the help of what she learned in class and technology. Danger is close at hand many times which is often solved with brainy and complex solutions.
I found the information from classes such as Blending into Other Cultures aka Undercover Coping to be believable. The names of the ships, security characters, robots, aliens, and planets were clever and fun to read. There is a character map in the back of the book (instead of a family tree) to help keep the many characters, humanoids, princesses, miners, families, and interactive plants straight. The ships and robots have personalities and can adapt to changes and grow in knowledge.
Characters are suspicious of each other at first as it is difficult to tell which are trustworthy. Being safe is of utmost importance and there is cloaking and traveling and secrecy involved. An energy net pulls a damaged ship to where it can be repaired. A school is a central focus, SAKAWE, and people with criminal intent take it over for some time. Students, however, are not injured.
April 2, 2023
Reviewed by:
Olga Markova
Review Rating:
5 Stars
Reviewed by Olga Markova for Readers’ Favorite
Have you ever piloted a spaceship, had a run-in with Interstellar Guards, visited the Museum on Nothing Beyond, or savored jellied garloss and rainbow omelet? Reading Taboo Tech by Joy V. Smith, I felt I was doing precisely that in the company of Lacie and her companion AI Ember. Lacie is an eighteen-year-old graduate of the Caterpillars to Butterflies Academy on her home planet Loyce. Lacie’s parents took off on a mission to explore worlds for old forbidden technology and have left Lacie to continue her schooling at the Stars and Planets Academy. Lacie’s Uncle Sterling is meant to watch over Lacie. Before long, Lacie loses touch with her parents and uncle and finds herself in a breathtaking swirl of interplanetary missions and adventures.
Taboo Tech by Joy V. Smith is a fascinating and thought-provoking sci-fi fantasy novel. I loved accompanying Lacie on her interstellar quests and was captivated by her exhilarating space escapades. Joy V. Smith has a unique talent for presenting intricate spaceships and futuristic space travel in a way that feels like watching a film. At the same time, I enjoyed how Smith explores and portrays the depths of Lacie’s feelings of losing touch with her family, finding new friends, and growing up in the perils of her interstellar adventures, making Taboo Tech a great story of friendship, love, affection, and perseverance. I highly recommend it to fans of sci-fi, fantasy, experience, and space travel.
Olga Markova
Review Rating:
5 Stars
Reviewed by Olga Markova for Readers’ Favorite
Have you ever piloted a spaceship, had a run-in with Interstellar Guards, visited the Museum on Nothing Beyond, or savored jellied garloss and rainbow omelet? Reading Taboo Tech by Joy V. Smith, I felt I was doing precisely that in the company of Lacie and her companion AI Ember. Lacie is an eighteen-year-old graduate of the Caterpillars to Butterflies Academy on her home planet Loyce. Lacie’s parents took off on a mission to explore worlds for old forbidden technology and have left Lacie to continue her schooling at the Stars and Planets Academy. Lacie’s Uncle Sterling is meant to watch over Lacie. Before long, Lacie loses touch with her parents and uncle and finds herself in a breathtaking swirl of interplanetary missions and adventures.
Taboo Tech by Joy V. Smith is a fascinating and thought-provoking sci-fi fantasy novel. I loved accompanying Lacie on her interstellar quests and was captivated by her exhilarating space escapades. Joy V. Smith has a unique talent for presenting intricate spaceships and futuristic space travel in a way that feels like watching a film. At the same time, I enjoyed how Smith explores and portrays the depths of Lacie’s feelings of losing touch with her family, finding new friends, and growing up in the perils of her interstellar adventures, making Taboo Tech a great story of friendship, love, affection, and perseverance. I highly recommend it to fans of sci-fi, fantasy, experience, and space travel.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews