Recommend by: Riley

On the surface, Star Cruise: Marooned is a story about survival. Due to a major snafu, the cruise ship Far Horizon end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. A shuttle from the ship went down to the planet Dantaralon for what was supposed to be a lovely afternoon on a beautiful tropical shore. But most of the shuttle crew and passengers get stranded just in time for the Shemdylann pirates to show up.

What follows is that story of survival. Meg Antilles is the hard-working crew member who takes charge when things go awry. Retired Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill brings his knowledge about surviving the unknown to the situation. As a team, Meg and Red will face the pirates, try to avoid the dangerous fauna and find a way to hold out against the violent Dantaralon storms. I liked the adventure of hiking through the forest to the abandoned station where they can plot their way off the planet. The situation brings Meg and Red closer together as they learn about each other, and admit to their attraction to each other.

There are other characters in the story, but most lack depth. Many of them will not make it to the end of the story. Star Cruise is about Meg and Red and their survival. Any one else that made it to the end of the book were just lucky, as they did not make much of an impression.

Star Cruise: Marooned is quick read – about 140 pages.  The non-stop adventure aspect of it keeps the story clipping along.  So it is a great way to spend a few hours.

What I find most interesting about this book is that the survival plot, while the main theme in this book, appears to be a side story in a much bigger tale. Here is what I noticed. There is far more than the fates of Meg and Red at stake here. For one thing, there is a war going on out there. There is also that mysterious research that was going on at the abandoned station. And there is the Mellurean prophecy. Can’t say more about the prophecy – read the book. What I am getting at is, Veronica Scott’s Sectors SF Romance universe reaches far beyond the tourist planet of Dantaralon. This is the first book I have read in the series, so I could be way off base here. I’ll just have to read some more to test my theory. 🙂

Links:

Veronica Scott’s Website

Sectors SF Romance on Goodreads

Sectors SF Romance Amazon Links: