McDonald, Sandra. The Outback Stars. Tor, 2007. Outback Stars 1.
Sandra McDonald’s The Outback Stars begins as a standard space opera that takes a hard turn into indigenous Australian mythology, with indifferent results. The initial setup is familiar. Ensign Jodenny Scott won a medal for saving lives when her starship exploded. Her next billet is on an unhappy ship of the same design as the one that blew up, a recipe for traumatic flashbacks. She is put in charge of the Underway Stores office, whose crewmembers are unhappy and corrupt. She meets Terry Myell, an enlisted man who has been falsely accused of rape. He is in trouble because someone has stolen one of the repair robots he was working on. So far, there is nothing to break the expected pattern of a C. S. Forester-style space opera. But then, the plot takes a mystical turn involving out-of-body travel. The mysticism doesn’t work for me. Think Dune without its careful world-building. 3 stars. ( )

This space opera mixes colonization of the stars with Australian folklore. Lietenant Jodenny Scott has survived what looks like sabotage from a rebel group and finds herself taking any opportunity to get off planet and away from desk duty. However, she finds herself on a very troubled ship and in charge of a department filled with misfits and incompetents.

Sergeant Terry Myell is one of the people in her department. He was falsely accused of rape and carries that reputation. He is also being bullied by Chief Chiba who is the leader of a gang and one od the ringleaders of most of the trouble-making on the ship.

As Jodenny tries to conquer the fears that are a remainder of the loss of so many of her friends and crewmates, she is also trying to get things back in shape in her department which is the centerpiece of shipboard smuggling. She is also falling in love with Myell who returns her feelings. But falling in love across ranks in their service is very much discouraged.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this one once I had read enough to understand what was going on. The story tells about a new way of space travel stumbled onto by an Australian ship on their way to Mars which allows most to escape Earth which has suffered some sort of environmental catastrophe. The mysterious creators of this faster-than-light network also terraformed a number of planets and left various monuments on all of them.

After Jodenny and Myell accidentally discover that the monuments provide another way of interstellar travel - one definitely not designed for humans, they find they have involved themselves in even more mystery and intrigue. Myell's visions of an ancient Aboriginal spirit guide gives him needed information to use this new network and has him doubting his sanity.

The story was very engaging and fast-paced. I liked both Jodenny and Myell and loved their relationship. This is the first book in a trilogy but, thankfully, doesn't have a cliffhanger ending. But there are questions still to be answered. ( )

I've never been a big fan of fantasy, so I almost released this one without reading it. When I cracked open the front cover, the first paragraph caught my eye and I decided to read a bit and got hooked. While set in the future - and mostly in space - there were enough references to earth for some things to be recognizable. The world created here is so interesting. It is reminiscent of space travel and naval rank, of ancient aliens, civil unrest, and aboriginal custom and history. There is bravery, resilience in the face of petty and bullying behavior, there is pain from grief and loss, and there's romance. I liked it enough to read it in two days and want to read the sequel as well. ( )

Not sure why, but this just didn't grab me. Maybe it's all the military jargon, and too many characters too fast - I was so confused. I *think* it's probably a fun adventure for the right reader.

What I find interesting about Ms. McDonald's story is that so much of it is centered around the structure of the lower ranks of a very large crewed ship with a pseudo military organization. I have read and enjoyed such books before and with a reliance perhaps too much on acronyms and a sleuthing tale that might be a bit predictable, it is a tale that works.

I give Ms. McDonald high marks and take off some points for the deep Aboriginal subplot that emerges when tied to how this universes travel works seems too pat on one hand, for whatever Aliens to have developed and then too thin on another. (If you have something for starship travel, would a second means be needed for interplanetary travel another way?)

Further, presuming that in a far future the Australian Aboriginal tie is the great means by which all of mankind also emigrates to the stars seems very convenient as well. (Just so happens that that nifty star travel is something that Aboriginals can take advantage of and since Earth suffered a lot, Aboriginals are more abundant in a space program that Australia has a dominant hand in since the US, Russia, China, Brazil, India, didn't emerge as top dog...

But aside from that, the story weaves about and provides some interesting fun. An interstellar map, as well as a ships map could very well have made the story work a great deal better. Translating what the author has written without is a little difficult, but as Ms McDonald can write so swiftly about where everything is, it is easy for the characters to remain knowledgeable of where they are even as I was getting lost.

I look forward to more in this as I like the universe, the fleet concept, that has been presented. Though there are some issues I think that one may have issue with. The romance that comes out as necessary to the plot could have used more development than the mystery. Crossing barriers of rank, which eventually is discussed by a great many minor characters seems to be written about much more than the issue of why the heroine would wish to cross that divide. The reasons for the love story to exist seem small in comparison to all the discussion of why it shouldn't, or how the mystery is handled.

Where such may hold a stronger allure for others, the genre I think places a greater emphasis on the scene and setting in this case, rather than the veneer of a love story that Ms McDonald has given us. In this first book, if that gets the matter out of the way, hopefully in the rest of the trilogy we can see more of the Universe and how our heroes deal with the adventure that they started on in this first book. ( )

TBR

I may be being too harsh on this book. It is a competent enough retelling of military SF tropes, although that perhaps tries to do a bit too much at once, because by the end things felt quite tangled. Of course, by the end I was increasingly irritated.

I was originally annoyed by the problematic handling of the rape accusation. Then I noticed the appropriation of aboriginal culture: unlike the bizarrely phrased description of a minor character as coming “from authentic Aboriginal ancestry", it felt vague and uninformed and somehow wrong. So I checked online to confirm my suspicion that the author had no Aboriginal ancestry herself – and found not only that, but she appears to have no association even with Australia. Knowing this, the whole book felt more and more of a cheat. And then the appropriation just kept getting worse and worse.

To top it off, we then get the theme that if someone abuses you then says he's sorry you should totally trust him and be friends again. This not only with Myell, but also with Dyatt. (Or perhaps I misunderstood that subplot. Perhaps it was just amplification of the “just because a woman seems to be raped/abused doesn't mean you shouldn't keep trusting her boyfriend unconditionally" theme.)

So, story wise, it was engaging enough, but if you want any ethics in your characters you will find this highly frustrating. ( )

The romance was predictable and contrived. The aboriginal deus ex machina was an interesting twist, but the outcomes fit a familiar pattern. I was much more interested in the operations of the ship stores and the alien transportation system than in the romance and intrigue. Something tells me McDondald felt the same while writing them. Still, it was rather pleasant brain candy. ( )

If you like Elizabeth Moon you'll like this--basically it's military sci-fi, enjoyable and suspenseful. ( )

Her last ship blew up, and she's still dealing with the trauma - but Lieutenant Jodenny Scott has a new berth and command of supply. Things should be looking up, right? Except something's rotten somewhere aboard, and the trouble goes beyond the malfunctioning DNGOs, poor moral, a sergeant accused of rape and an ensign suspected of semi-legal prostitution. Can she get to the bottom of things before the situation goes critical and her career (or another ship) goes down in flames?

Don't let a bit of Aussie influence throw you off. This is solid space opera with a good, if semi-predictable plot, and enough twists and turns to make the ending not entirely sure. ( )

Although an enjoyable book to read with interesting characters and an interesting world system, "The Outback Stars" suffers somewhat from an overload of minor characters, in addition to a slew of lingo that might require a second reading to fully understand the story. ( )

This comfortable & predictable space opera, with an add women & stir approach to military gender issues, features a pleasant, unproblematic gender inversion of a superior-subordinate love interest. (No difficult gender politics here!) The narrative's blithe bequeathing of spiritual/mystical/cosmic Aboriginal heritage to a white male (who may or may not have an aboriginal ancestor buried in his past-- the idea being, I suppose, that genetics, not cultural identity, will out, an assumption much too essentialist for my taste), though, offered perhaps one cliche too many. Still, the book's competent, serviceable prose made it a quick, easy read, perfect for sickbed reading. ( )

Quite possibly the whiniest protagonist in existence. Almost unbearable to read because of it. ( )

Pretty good series. Nothing new for space travel, but I liked the Australians taking over the world. ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/jun07.html#mcdonaldtos ( )

Part military SF, part space opera, and part science fiction romance, it's a very enjoyable read, with a plot that I thought would be simple but became rather complex. Definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series, and lucky for me, I'll get to read it very soon. :)

For the full review, which does contain spoilers, please click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.com/56581.html ( )

The Outback Stars is a keeper - a book that will stay on my library shelves because it is original and enjoyable. McDonald creates a unique and believable premise - that an Australian astronaut discovers an alien method of star travel connected to aboriginal artifacts - which she skillfully weaves throughout her plot.

Hundreds of years after the discovery, the protagonist and other characters are from planets the Aussie discovered, around a chain of stars which the rest of civilization refers to as the Outback. I was fascinated by the setting, an enormous military ship bringing settlers and supplies and keeping peace among far-flung planets.

The Outback Stars is McDonald's debut novel. With that as her opening standard, I've pre-ordered her next work, The Stars Down Under. ( )

An interesting first book. Definitely in the military science fiction tradition but with very little combat. A very bureaucratic military.

Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is the survivor of the destruction of the Yangtze by terrorists. After recovering from her injuries she trades on her heroism to jump the queue and get assigned to the next ship.

It turns out that as the head of Underway Stores, she has trouble. Corruption seems to run through the ship, and as a honest officer, it's her job to fix things.

I enjoyed it, and became engaged with the characters, but was a little disenchanted with the occasion dips into Dreamtime one of the characters experiences. It fits within the flow of the novel but nothing explains how the mystical side steps fit into reality. Are the aliens who created the interstellar transit system responsible? We never know. ( )