Kate McMurry's Reviews > Astray

Exciting beginning to a fabulous SF series

This is Book 1 of what is basically a five-part, serialized, SF novel. None of the books stand alone. To experience the complete story, it is important to read all five books, and read them in order.

This first book introduces all of the major players who appear throughout the series. The FMC is Nora Devi, the xeno-archaeologist referred to in the name of this series. Nora is a 29-year-old widow who lost her husband five years ago in a 12-year-long, interplanetary war between Capitoline and Palantine, which only recently ended, and which resulted in half a million military casualties and over a million civilian deaths. Nora's in-laws are wonderful people, who invited her to stay with them on their small farm, but she is a loner by nature and took another path. She has her own small, well-fitted spaceship and works as a tagger, someone who patrols the border areas between Capitoline and Palantine. She specifically is looking for possible xeno-archaeological excavation sites. During the process, her ship's operating system produces detailed maps of her travels, which generates income when she sells them. She also sells mineral samples and, during her many hours alone in space, she builds or repairs clockwork toys, which she sells at the marketplace on the Capitoline Border Station.

The actual cause of the end of the brutal war was when 30-something Captain Liam Kimani of the Royal Navy of Capitoline captured Prince Dominic of Palantine. Rather than being publicly lauded for this crucial feat, Liam has been scapegoated for the humiliation of Prince Dominic, a ridiculous concept that exists because of the dangerous flaws in the interplanetary political systems run by all-powerful, despotic monarchs. Liam has been ordered, for the next five years, to take himself and the crew of the battle-cruiser RC Genghis Khan to patrol the border areas of Capitoline space. It is on the Border Station where Liam and Nora first meet.

This series is told from the dual POV of Nora and Liam. In this first novel, we meet another absolutely crucial and completely wonderful character, Jonah, an AI, humanoid android with an astounding origin and tremendous abilities. We are also introduced to another central character throughout this series, a 10-year-old orphan named Aria Kelly. Additionally, Nora's half-sister, Cheryl ("Cherry") Pendit, plays a crucial part in this first book, is in every book of this series, and is the FMC of a spin-off trilogy of this series.

There are so many subcharacters in this series, I was tempted to make a list of them just to keep track of all of them. Instead I just highlighted all the names in my Kindle version, and when I would forget who somebody was, I would use the Kindle search function to look them up.

The important background history of the six planets mentioned in this series was initially quite intimidating to me to keep track of. But, fortunately, it actually can be summed up in less than 500 words, and those words are repeated in each of the five books so, after a while, the crucial details finally stuck in my mind.

I would not characterize this series as SF romance, because it takes a while for Nora and Liam to get together, and when they do, it is basically a case of instalove and immediate eternal commitment. However, given their mutual, political circumstances, it makes sense that it happens that way, and it allows them to function together onstage in meaningful ways, above and beyond romance, that are absolutely riveting.

More than anything else, this series is about the creation of a "found family" AKA "family of affiliation," based on love and loyalty. That is my absolute favorite theme in both romance fiction and women's fiction in general. For that reason, and the fact that the action-adventure portions are quite enthralling, I absolutely loved every single book in this series.

I experienced this series not only in Kindle format but also in audiobook format. I was really glad to have both, not only for keeping track of important information in the Kindle edition, but to be able to keep listening to the story in those moments of my day when I was engaged in activities that did not allow me to focus on a page of print. This is the type of story that I just could not stand to put down.

In short, I rate this book 5 stars and the series as a whole as 5 stars.