Home Run: Smuggler’s Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book #3 by Nathan Lowell
Author Nathan Lowell continues to amaze and entertain me with his Golden Age of the Solar Clipper books. In this latest release, Nathan takes us on an adventure that features the two stars of the Smuggler’s Tales, Natalya Regyri and Zoya Usoko. In this story, Natalya and Zoya, having basically gotten rich from their dealings in the second book of the series, Suicide Run, decide that it is a good time to take a little rest and relaxation. They arrive at the home of Zoya’s grandparents, which happens to be in an asteroid and also serves as the corporate headquarters for Usoko Mining, one of the largest and oldest mining operations in the Western Annex.
Upon arrival, the two women, who have spent the last five years moving around Toe Hold Space doing odd jobs, are warmly welcomed by Zoya’s grandparents, Konstantin and Madoka. They are the owner/operators of the massive mining and metal refining operation that is Usoko Mining. Before Natalya and Zoya can really get settled and enjoy a little time off, a report comes in that one of the remote smelting stations of the company has stopped transmitting information. Natalya and Zoya take the Peregrine, Natalya’s small shuttle, out to investigate. What they find is that the operation has been obliterated in an expanding cloud of debris. As the women approach where the operation was stationed, they find partially destroyed ships and disoriented people, and no trace of about 200 Usoko Mining employees. It isn’t long before the women find that there has been a small group of extortionists that have been traveling around Toe Hold Space with a nuclear bomb and threatening to destroy numerous operations if their demands are not met.
Unfortunately for the criminals, their bomb detonated before they could make their demands and took out the smelter. Natalya and Zoya solve the crime, but that leaves a multi-billion credit hole in space where the smelter was. Zoya decides that they must rebuild the smelter as it is a key operation of her family’s company. The smelter was in a prime place in that sector of space and is important to everyone there, not to menton to Usoko Mining.
Zoya contacts her grandparents at Big Rock, the name of the asteroid where the company is headquartered and receives the reply, “Do whatever is necessary.” With that phrase in mind, Zoya, with Natalya’s help, begin rebuilding the smelter.
Much of the science fiction I read involves some large scale conflict, such as a war between civilizations, or a large population of people fighting some natural or manmade catastrophe that threatens to wipe out the population. These stories usually involve the use of very advanced technology and weaponry that can destroy entire planets. I am not saying that there aren’t some great stories with those parameters, but every now and then, I like to take a break from such intense tales. Nathan’s Golden Age of the Solar Clipper universe allows me to step back and just enjoy good storytelling. But that is also not to say that there isn’t plenty of intensity, especially in this book.
There are plenty of tense moments, they are just not high-tech, but rather they are between the characters in the book. The way that Nathan writes his characters is what I find most appealing about his stories. The major characters always seem to me like real people. They are not superhuman, but rather more like all of us, in all shapes and types. Natalia and Zoya are friends (not a couple, as they both point out to nearly everyone) that have graduated from the Port Newmar Academy. They originally intended to work their way up through the ranks as Spacers, perhaps eventually becoming Captains of their own ships. Both are very intelligent and are not afraid to work. They are also quite able to take care of themselves and are very strong female characters, and in Home Run, the reader has an opportunity to see just how strong.
In the first two books in the Smuggler’s Tales, I felt that Natalia was the stronger of the two characters. Probably because she is the one that owns the ship that her and Zoya travel in, but in Home Run, Zoya becomes the star when she is handed a huge responsibility that is very important to the family business. She really steps up and shines in this story and shows that she is up to the task. She seeks and listens to advice from others, but when it comes down to making the hard decisions, she makes them and moves forward without second-guessing herself. Along with the two main characters, there are several other supporting and peripheral characters that, while not as well fleshed out, they still come alive through Nathan’s excellent writing.
For me, the main theme throughout the whole book seemed to be making the hard decisions. Zoya is faced with numerous decisions to make, and to a lesser degree, Natalia also has some. It all comes to a head when both of the women are placed in a position to make major life decisions, and while it didn’t surprise me which directions they chose to go, I would have been happy either way because it seemed to be a win-win situation.
In any case, I highly recommend Home Run as a great Sci-Fi tale while at the same time recommending that one reads the series in order beginning with Milk Run, then Suicide Run. For that matter, I recommend anything that Nathan Lowell has written in his Golden Age of the Solar Clipper universe, but be sure to read them in order. I am pretty sure that once you get into these stories, you’ll be hooked and want to read all of them.
Well, there it is…
Qapla’!
