★★★★★ Sci-Fi pulp in the best sense of the term: a ripping good yarn.

Disgraced Star Corp Captain-turned-smuggler John MacAlister decides to protect the teenage girl he’s supposed to be kidnapping. When he uncovers a corrupt plan to seize a remote colony devised by the man who robbed him of his rank and reputation, he must find a way to defeat him using only a weaponless robot, a teenage girl and a group of scared farmers.

A great sci-fi western

This is a good read. Well written, well paced, interesting and with fully developed characters. This was a really unique twist on two widely disparate genres; westerns and sci Fi.
The theme was traditional Western ( disgraced officer with sidekick meets and saves child. ) The sci-fi was delightfully off beat. I really enjoyed it,and look forward to the next book in the series. Highly recommend this book.

Daddo

A spacer frontier story in the classic tradition

This novel is a spacer frontier story reminiscent of Heinlein and others, a western-style adventure with a message. To the mix the author adds dashes of humour in the style of Douglas Adams. The result is a fun read, carrying you along with characters you could really like – or hate, in some cases – if you knew them. I felt invested in these characters; Mr. Dell’Aringa made even the aliens (can we call them that if we’re on their planet?) feel like real people. I want to read more of his work.

CassE