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Boundary #6
Castaway Resolution
NEW ENTRY IN THE BOUNDARY SERIES BY ERIC FLINT & RYK E. SPOOR
Surviving crash-landings and monsters and island-eaters was only the beginning!
The Kimei family and a second group of castaways, led by Sergeant Campbell, had finally joined forces after both had been forced to land on the bizarre planet Lincoln, whose continents were huge floating coral colonies, inhabited by even stranger lifeforms. They had survived crash-landings and venom-filled bites and disease, their own despair, and even the destruction—and consumption!—of one of their floating islands, and had learned to live, even prosper, in their strange new home.
Far away, Lieutenat Susan Fisher slowly pieces together the mystery of what happened to the starship Outward Initiative . . . and begins to believe that—just possibly—some of the survivors might have escaped to a mysteriously unsuspected star system.
But even her preparations and the resourcefulness of the castaways may not be enough . . . for Lincoln has far worse in store.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Praise for previous books in this series:
“[F]ast-paced sci-fi espionage thriller . . . light in tone and hard on science . . .” —Publishers Weekly on Boundary
“The whole crew from Flint and Spoor's Boundary are back. . . . Tensions run high throughout the Ceres mission . . . a fine choice for any collection.” —Publishers Weekly on Threshold
“[P]aleontology, engineering, and space flight, puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution further the story, as well as wacky humor, academic rivalries, and even some sweet romances.” —School Library Journal on Boundary
Eric Flint is a modern master of alternate history fiction, with three million books in print. He’s the author/creator of the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series starting with first novel 1632. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the “Belisarius” alternate Roman history series, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War and two novels in Webers Honorverse series. Flint was for many years a labor union activist. He lives near Chicago, Illinois.
Ryk E. Spoor, while earning his master's degree in information science at the University of Pittsburgh, became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, then merely a startup, now the leading publisher of role-playing games, Magic: The Gathering®, and related gaming materials. He now lives in East Greenbush, New York, working as Research and Development Coordinator for International Electronic Machines, and spends his non-writer time with his wife Kathleen, two sons, two daughters, a poodle, and a lot of chickens. Ryk is the coauthor with Eric Flint of five books in the Boundary science fiction series including Boundary, Threshold, Portal, Castaway Planet and Castaway Odyssey. His solo novels for Baen include Grand Central Arena, Spheres of Influence, Paradigms Lost, and Challenges of the Deep, as well as epic fantasies Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, and Phoenix Ascendant.
Surviving crash-landings and monsters and island-eaters was only the beginning!
The Kimei family and a second group of castaways, led by Sergeant Campbell, had finally joined forces after both had been forced to land on the bizarre planet Lincoln, whose continents were huge floating coral colonies, inhabited by even stranger lifeforms. They had survived crash-landings and venom-filled bites and disease, their own despair, and even the destruction—and consumption!—of one of their floating islands, and had learned to live, even prosper, in their strange new home.
Far away, Lieutenat Susan Fisher slowly pieces together the mystery of what happened to the starship Outward Initiative . . . and begins to believe that—just possibly—some of the survivors might have escaped to a mysteriously unsuspected star system.
But even her preparations and the resourcefulness of the castaways may not be enough . . . for Lincoln has far worse in store.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Praise for previous books in this series:
“[F]ast-paced sci-fi espionage thriller . . . light in tone and hard on science . . .” —Publishers Weekly on Boundary
“The whole crew from Flint and Spoor's Boundary are back. . . . Tensions run high throughout the Ceres mission . . . a fine choice for any collection.” —Publishers Weekly on Threshold
“[P]aleontology, engineering, and space flight, puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution further the story, as well as wacky humor, academic rivalries, and even some sweet romances.” —School Library Journal on Boundary
Eric Flint is a modern master of alternate history fiction, with three million books in print. He’s the author/creator of the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series starting with first novel 1632. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the “Belisarius” alternate Roman history series, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War and two novels in Webers Honorverse series. Flint was for many years a labor union activist. He lives near Chicago, Illinois.
Ryk E. Spoor, while earning his master's degree in information science at the University of Pittsburgh, became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, then merely a startup, now the leading publisher of role-playing games, Magic: The Gathering®, and related gaming materials. He now lives in East Greenbush, New York, working as Research and Development Coordinator for International Electronic Machines, and spends his non-writer time with his wife Kathleen, two sons, two daughters, a poodle, and a lot of chickens. Ryk is the coauthor with Eric Flint of five books in the Boundary science fiction series including Boundary, Threshold, Portal, Castaway Planet and Castaway Odyssey. His solo novels for Baen include Grand Central Arena, Spheres of Influence, Paradigms Lost, and Challenges of the Deep, as well as epic fantasies Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, and Phoenix Ascendant.
- GenresScience Fiction
349 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2020
19 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Eric Flint
263 books881 followersEric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 19, 2021
This aptly-named volume brings the Castaway trilogy to a rousing and satisfying conclusion. It's labeled as the sixth book in the series for some reason, and while it is important to have read Castaway Planet and Castaway Odyssey before this one, the other three books, beginning with Boundary and continuing with Threshold and Portal, are an entirely different sequence and any connection is vague and unimportant. (But Boundary, especially, is an excellent book in its own right.) Castaway Resolution is a very fast-paced story, with two groups of survivors from a wrecked starship faced with an endless series of challenges and obstacles in their Herculean efforts to survive the very hostile world Lincoln. Just when things look like they're starting to go well for the intrepid heroes, a monster rises from the depths or the sky falls (literally!), and they have to gather themselves up by their bootstraps and start again... and they have have to figure out how to make boots, first. The characters are quite well drawn and developed convincingly, and you really get pulled into to rooting for them to make it. It's a fun and very engaging story.
December 18, 2019
So very good! So very stressful!
Seriously -- this is a read straight through book, not something to space out chapter by chapter! Some of the last sentences in a chapter are pure evil. :p (Seriously if you are reading aloud to kids -- they won't sleep if they don't see how it turns out on the next page).
Only con -- I want a gratuitous epilogue! Like a short story a year or two from the end to see how it all plays out!
Seriously -- this is a read straight through book, not something to space out chapter by chapter! Some of the last sentences in a chapter are pure evil. :p (Seriously if you are reading aloud to kids -- they won't sleep if they don't see how it turns out on the next page).
Only con -- I want a gratuitous epilogue! Like a short story a year or two from the end to see how it all plays out!
January 26, 2024
Flint and Spoor wrap up their second trilogy in a satisfying fashion with more danger, daring, and science.
March 10, 2021
Resolution indeed
I like adventure stories and I like stories where people must overcome natural problems. The first two stories in this arc had that in abundance and left me very satisfied. In book three we get two competing settings, first we see the colony ship damaged in the accident that caused al, the adventures limp into port, and eventually one of the three missing lifeboats also arrives in very poor condition. That is all very interesting stuff. The viewpoint shifts periodically back to the castaways on Lincoln, but now despite a year of har won experience and skill surviving one disaster after another hammers our group of survivors. I like adventure stories a lot and really enjoyed the first two books of this arc, but this novel jumps the shark. First a tidal wave hits our small castaway group badly injuring our alien member and stranding him with the two youngest children on the now much more damaged landing craft far out at sea. The two kids, nine or ten years old manage to do heroic emergency repairs and get back the colony where whips gets emergency surgery to repair his massive injuries. Okay, I can accept that though it seemed extreme, but then the authors drop a once in a million years meteor impact smack dab on our castaways continent forcing them to flee in their partially repaired landing craft just as the search and rescue team arrives in orbit.
Once s bad luck, twice us coincidence but three times is enemy action! The third time being when the submerged landing craft over 1600 km away from the coast of the continent hit by the meteor is miraculously hit by blast degree, crippled and sinking in the first hour after impact forcing the survivors to abandon ship and ride out the impact storms in survival rafts. Implausible things happen all the time in real life, but having three linked disasters strike the castaways within a few weeks when the area they had been living had been stable on a multi million year time scale is like the President pitching a perfect strike to start the world series. Sure it is within the realm of possibility, but it jumps the shark of plausibility. I was actually looking forward to the possibility that there would be further novels in this collection set say another 150 years later with Lincoln as a successful colony world. Instead the authors chose to destroy the entire continent the castaways had successfully survived on and give the entire planet a dinosaur killer level climate impact at the same time. Jimminy Christmas, talk about taking your toys and going home! Not cool!
I like adventure stories and I like stories where people must overcome natural problems. The first two stories in this arc had that in abundance and left me very satisfied. In book three we get two competing settings, first we see the colony ship damaged in the accident that caused al, the adventures limp into port, and eventually one of the three missing lifeboats also arrives in very poor condition. That is all very interesting stuff. The viewpoint shifts periodically back to the castaways on Lincoln, but now despite a year of har won experience and skill surviving one disaster after another hammers our group of survivors. I like adventure stories a lot and really enjoyed the first two books of this arc, but this novel jumps the shark. First a tidal wave hits our small castaway group badly injuring our alien member and stranding him with the two youngest children on the now much more damaged landing craft far out at sea. The two kids, nine or ten years old manage to do heroic emergency repairs and get back the colony where whips gets emergency surgery to repair his massive injuries. Okay, I can accept that though it seemed extreme, but then the authors drop a once in a million years meteor impact smack dab on our castaways continent forcing them to flee in their partially repaired landing craft just as the search and rescue team arrives in orbit.
Once s bad luck, twice us coincidence but three times is enemy action! The third time being when the submerged landing craft over 1600 km away from the coast of the continent hit by the meteor is miraculously hit by blast degree, crippled and sinking in the first hour after impact forcing the survivors to abandon ship and ride out the impact storms in survival rafts. Implausible things happen all the time in real life, but having three linked disasters strike the castaways within a few weeks when the area they had been living had been stable on a multi million year time scale is like the President pitching a perfect strike to start the world series. Sure it is within the realm of possibility, but it jumps the shark of plausibility. I was actually looking forward to the possibility that there would be further novels in this collection set say another 150 years later with Lincoln as a successful colony world. Instead the authors chose to destroy the entire continent the castaways had successfully survived on and give the entire planet a dinosaur killer level climate impact at the same time. Jimminy Christmas, talk about taking your toys and going home! Not cool!
April 24, 2020
Wonderful end to the second Boundary Trilogy. This finishes the adventures started in “Castaway Planet” and “Castaway Odyssey”. Read those first. The first three books in the Boundary Series are not necessary. The events of this trilogy take place much later and the happenings of the original trilogy are barely referenced and only casually as ancient history.
The first two novels speak to two different sets of castaways. Now they are all together. Will they survive on the hostile alien world or succumb to the dangers? If you like “Lost in Space” or “The Martian” you'll dig this book. As you would expect there are still dangers that the group must overcome through using their wits, the supplies at hand, and relying on each other. Great stuff. Reminds a bit of early Heinlein.
By this time, you’ve spent two books with these characters. You care about them and are rooting for them. These were just fun reads and this is a most satisfactory ending.
The first two novels speak to two different sets of castaways. Now they are all together. Will they survive on the hostile alien world or succumb to the dangers? If you like “Lost in Space” or “The Martian” you'll dig this book. As you would expect there are still dangers that the group must overcome through using their wits, the supplies at hand, and relying on each other. Great stuff. Reminds a bit of early Heinlein.
By this time, you’ve spent two books with these characters. You care about them and are rooting for them. These were just fun reads and this is a most satisfactory ending.
August 18, 2020
Castaway Series had reduction in quality in every book.
Castaway Planet is family survival in alien planet, with redevelopment of various tech (lime, iron, etc). It show triumph of human spirit in new planet.
Castaway Odyssey never lost their tech, and depended on it. The Planet also less ecologically interesting place, instead treated as hostile place.
Castaway Resolution is horror story. With planet, and meteor strike as hostile monster who actively against human survival. Everything that had been built in Castaway Planet is trownaway carelessly in two meteor strike. Human cast just continue to run until they finally rescued. A ship docks that major plot point in Odyssey is abandoned by ship that suddenly do not need it.
In a way, this mirror Boundary first three books decreasing quality.
Castaway Planet is family survival in alien planet, with redevelopment of various tech (lime, iron, etc). It show triumph of human spirit in new planet.
Castaway Odyssey never lost their tech, and depended on it. The Planet also less ecologically interesting place, instead treated as hostile place.
Castaway Resolution is horror story. With planet, and meteor strike as hostile monster who actively against human survival. Everything that had been built in Castaway Planet is trownaway carelessly in two meteor strike. Human cast just continue to run until they finally rescued. A ship docks that major plot point in Odyssey is abandoned by ship that suddenly do not need it.
In a way, this mirror Boundary first three books decreasing quality.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2021
Eric Flint and Rik Spoor finish off their series in great fashion. The two surviving lifeboats from the colony ship both make it to the planet Lincoln in the Emerald system. Two families link up and become a stronger team.
Which is a good thing. The alien ocean planet is about to become a lot more hostile. Between surviving predators, poisonous and mountain-sized, they also have to deal with a steady onslaught of meteors--some a hundred meters in diameter and some kilometers across.
Meanwhile, at Orado, the nearest settled system, the colony ship limps into port and they diagnose what went wrong. There's no hope of looking for the others lifeboats--space is too big.
Then another lifeboat comes in, with the biggest news yet.
Which is a good thing. The alien ocean planet is about to become a lot more hostile. Between surviving predators, poisonous and mountain-sized, they also have to deal with a steady onslaught of meteors--some a hundred meters in diameter and some kilometers across.
Meanwhile, at Orado, the nearest settled system, the colony ship limps into port and they diagnose what went wrong. There's no hope of looking for the others lifeboats--space is too big.
Then another lifeboat comes in, with the biggest news yet.
April 13, 2020
The colonist star ship Outward Initiative was hit by disaster losing four lifeboats with passengers in them. One makes it to Orado as does the Outward Iniative. The other three land on a Castaway Planet (paper) they call Lincoln filled with floating continents. When one continent rots away because of the interference of one group, it takes an Castaway Odyssey(paper) for them to reach another continent where the other colonists have survived. Back home the search has begun to find them, while the planet has more surprises before the Castaway Resolution (hard from Baen) sees them rescued. A bit predictable, but light fun.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press
August 26, 2020
With the two castaway groups on Lincoln united, the struggle for survival against a hostile planet continues. Meanwhile, on the nearest colony, stragglers from the initial accident have shown up. This leads an accident investigator to a remarkable discovery. A previously hidden star system, and a faint hope that the castaways might have survived.
The final book in this second Boundary trilogy brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, but the corniness of the dialogue and interaction remain. Everyone is still almost comically rational and humble.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/2020/08/...
The final book in this second Boundary trilogy brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, but the corniness of the dialogue and interaction remain. Everyone is still almost comically rational and humble.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/2020/08/...
June 12, 2025
Pretty good finish to the 'Castaway' stories featuring lots of action and peril. Although, at times this one pushed my WSoD right to the limit. Flint and Spoor basically give the poor castaways no rest as they face one after another do-or-die situations.
This story is not the place to start. Either go all the way back and start with Boundary (my suggestion) or start with Castaway Planet the first of the 'Castaway' books. All good reads.
3.5 stars rounded up.
This story is not the place to start. Either go all the way back and start with Boundary (my suggestion) or start with Castaway Planet the first of the 'Castaway' books. All good reads.
3.5 stars rounded up.
March 16, 2023
This book perfectly scratched the sci-if itch that I was looking for over my Spring Break! It’s a classic tale of science fiction about two families that come together and brave the natural disasters and predators of the planet Lincoln that they are marooned on. It’s a very fast paced novel and filled with very entertaining characters and plot. I really enjoyed this book and the prose, I didn’t even know it was part of a series-I had no trouble understanding the plot and the world but I’m very keen to revisit it and read the other books in this series!
March 28, 2020
The final installment in this YA SF/Adventure trilogy continues the fine storytelling. The castaways continue to encounter problems and resolve them. The primary perspective is from the younger members of the parties, as appropriate for a YA novel.
Although I am far, far past young adult age, I enjoyed this story.
Although I am far, far past young adult age, I enjoyed this story.
October 10, 2021
I have read several of the books of this series. This was the last one.
The book/series reminds me of some of the Heinlein young adult books with similar pros and cons. It was well written, engaging and developed the principle characters. Were they all believable - not really, was the technology a 'fix' - yes.
I enjoyed the book but am unlikely to make the effort to reread,
The book/series reminds me of some of the Heinlein young adult books with similar pros and cons. It was well written, engaging and developed the principle characters. Were they all believable - not really, was the technology a 'fix' - yes.
I enjoyed the book but am unlikely to make the effort to reread,
March 26, 2020
An excellent start for a new fantasy series.
Well written, with an excellent world building and a great cast of characters.
The plot flows and kept me hooked.
It was a fun and engrossing read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
Well written, with an excellent world building and a great cast of characters.
The plot flows and kept me hooked.
It was a fun and engrossing read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
April 9, 2020
An interesting conclusion to the Castaway series. Jumping to the colony ship and the colony world provide a fresh new perspective to the narrative. Fleshing out the character dynamics and how survival has affected the characters was very well done.
June 10, 2020
Eric Flint and Ryk E Spoor - two of the best names in science fiction, wrap up the tale of the castaway series with the finest of the series! It has everything you could want in a finale...I couldn't put it down!
June 25, 2020
A fun finish. This series was pure space opera. No sooner was one disaster/problem solved or overcome but a new update new one reared it’s ugly head. But, as I said, pure space opera. That is what is supposed to happen.
August 18, 2022
Like the other two novels, this one has many cliffhangers, both figuratively and literally. As the title says things do get resolved - eventually, after getting progressively more hazardous. The characters are pushed to their utmost. Very fun adventure read.
January 25, 2021
Good finisher to the Castaways trilogy. It made for a fun read.
February 14, 2021
Fantastic Series!
I love a good Robinsonade, and these novels delivered satisfyingly. So good, I read all three novels in three days!
I love a good Robinsonade, and these novels delivered satisfyingly. So good, I read all three novels in three days!
April 2, 2021
This is probably my favorite book of the second trilogy. It was very fun overall. I will say the title seems very lazy. :)
May 22, 2021
A satisfying conclusion to to the breath taking three book series ! Thoroughly enjoyable !
July 13, 2021
An excellent series
This has been a riveting series to read. I went from one book to the next, not wanting to miss a beat between them!
This has been a riveting series to read. I went from one book to the next, not wanting to miss a beat between them!
January 31, 2022
This was a good finish to the series and made for a great read! Flint and Spoor did a great job.
March 19, 2020
This was a great story with many levels of interesting action taking place thru out. Survival was the main story line, but social interaction between different cultures was also prevalent. Both were handled very well. The characters were real and believable. Well done.
March 6, 2020
Wonderful
A very satisfying conclusion to a delightfully different sci fi book series. Excellent story telling from the beginning to the end.
A very satisfying conclusion to a delightfully different sci fi book series. Excellent story telling from the beginning to the end.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews