(Reviewed by Dorothy Rendon)
Locke Howden is a 17-year-old with ambitions to rescue himself and his sister from their dead-end existence in south Texas in the 23rd century. Mankind is using local wormholes to colonize the galaxy and Locke wants, by any means, to join the quest. He signs up for an asteroid mining job with no idea what is involved, just that it’s a way out. En route to his new job, he meets Danny and her idiot savant twin brother, Kai. Space pirates kidnap them and his whole life goes sideways from there.
So begins a great space adventure, told with a bit of humor and an overwhelming amount of detail. It’s quite reminiscent of Heinlein’s “Have Spacesuit Will Travel” and his other futuristic juvenile tales. Locke is not a super hero or even a Marty Stu (an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character). He faces bad guys, voracious beasts, and alien technology with less than perfect grace, but somehow always manages to end up on his feet.
This is a light read, not terribly profound, but entertaining and enjoyable. Locke is a likable character, the bad guys (being space pirates) were very sinister. How can you not go for that? The author clearly has spent a lot of time working out the details of the locale, making it believable (for an alien planet) and understandable. Actually, there is a ton of detail everywhere, even in parts of the story that don’t necessarily need them. It slows the action down, but adds to the reader’s submersion in the story.
If I would fault this book, it would be the ending. It comes a little too pat, wrapping up all the loose ends and settling the future of all the major characters a bit too neatly. It’s almost as if the author got tired of the story and just decided to stop.
However, getting there is fun. There’s a puzzle at the center of the story, which I find irresistible.
