Under Fortunate Stars
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4.5 • 29 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Two Ships. One Chance To Save The Future.
Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.
The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five's legendary ship—and the Five's famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.
But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hutchings's intricate, clever debut plays familiar science fiction tropes backwards and serves as a reminder never to meet one's heroes. The alien Felen race waged war against humanity until five human Peacemakers overcame incredible odds to broker a peace with them. Now, 152 years later, the research vessel Gallion is on a routine mission carrying a Felen ambassador when an anomaly takes its engines and communication systems offline. The crew determine they're stuck in a rift in space-time, with no power to escape. A broadband local distress call leads them to a second ship lodged in the rift. But this ship is impossible: it is the freighter Jonah, the very vessel that carried the Peacemakers. Aboard are several people who are definitely not the Peacemakers as they've been mythologized. It's down to the crew of the Gallion to get them to be the right people, at the right place, at the right time—otherwise their peaceful future will be doomed before it can even begin. Tackling the way history sacrifices truth for hagiography, Hutchings lovingly fuses a sprawling cast of charmingly flawed characters and a plot with many moving parts into a smooth and satisfying whole. Sci-fi readers will be delighted.
Customer Reviews
Thank gods for such an amazing volatile standalone sci-fi novel
Finished 03/23, absolutely one of the best sci-fi novels I’ve ever read. Haunting characters that you get caught up cheering for. Anachronistic storyline where you fall in love with the characters as the story goes, but then feeds you heart wrenching backstories and makes you want them to succeed even more. The stories of war and peace, human vs alien, and FTL travel satisfied all my sci-fi cravings. However, the best part which I’ve ever read, or have ever seen in a movie, is how she tells of, and uses, time travel as amazing as this story does. Hutchings focuses on the right things while also leaving you imagining how things would be for other matters. She wrote this as a stand alone and made it perfect.