SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in July 2001.

Earth is a new and very junior members of the Confederacy of Allied Worlds. The four senior members of the Confederacy are the only ones who know the secret of faster-than-light travel, and they intend to keep it that way.

As a token, Earth has been given charge of a rather out-of-the-way space station named Jocasta, orbiting the inner world of the Abelar system, Given its location and rather dubious history, business hasn't been exactly great.

However, Commander Halley is dedicated to making this station successful, and things are slowly turning round.

But now the station has been blockaded by alien spacecraft, there's no sign of the Confederacy mounting any kind of rescue and an alien resident has been brutally murdered. To cap it all, an old earth spacecraft has been detected close by, light-years from where it should have been and fifty years late.

It's a bit of a detective mystery, and a few too many things happen that aren't essential to the plot, so rather longer than ideal, but it's a remarkably good first novel. Our tired, sick and aging heroine is convincing, we empathise with the stresses wearing her down.

What's it got? action, aliens and artificial intelligence.