Humanity has edged out into the solar system, bringing its mess and dysfunction along for the ride. On Journey Station, built into the asteroid designated 1036 Ganymed, a hostile corporate takeover results in chaos and starvation. Desperation drives a group from the station to piracy, boarding the cargo ship Valentine. Things go wrong, and the leader of the boarding party (cybernetically augmented Bardo Arai) kills the Valentine’s captain—instantly raising the stakes for everyone involved and prompting the Valentine’s pilot, Miriam Liberski, to swear vengeance. One passenger from the Valentine, Rue Áine, is indentured to the Renunciation, a group seeking to defeat death. Rue is working as a prostitute until she earns her way to a chance at immortality, but she makes the impulsive decision to join Arai and make a new life on Journey.

Meanwhile, corporations plot to take Journey and its rich mining profits for themselves, a water crisis on Mars forces the community there to melt glacial ice despite the risks (with terrifying results), and Rue discovers that she is somehow recognized as the authority in charge of Journey Station. As Mars rapidly becomes a zombie-infested horror show, Journey Station edges toward a revolution and true independence—one that will require a final, fateful act of piracy.

JOURNEY is a well-paced and imagined space opera. The solar system described by authors Shannon Phillips and German Yanovsky is complex, with battling political, business, and philosophical powers plotting and scheming while individuals pursue the more human-scale goals of revenge, survival, and love. The characters are all handled very well, with even relatively minor folks sketched to life. (However, Bardo Arai is saddled with an unfortunate phonetic accent that becomes distracting pretty quickly. For example: ““Now c’mon. Nobody wants ta hurtcha, but yer bein’ escorted from da ship. Basta, Lee, watch dese boys on da bridge till we’re sure of ’em.”)

It all moves along at a good clip that balances detail with action until the last batch of chapters, when a few too many plot threads need to be settled. Some of those points feel a bit rushed after the more languid pace of earlier chapters, and background characters are suddenly elevated to main status without enough buildup. But sequels are sure to come, and this is a largely satisfying and well-constructed space opera that fans of the genre will enjoy immensely.

A sturdy fictional universe feels lived-in and populated by rich, emotionally vibrant characters in Shannon Phillips’s and German Yanovsky’s JOURNEY, an enjoyable space opera that bites off a bit more than it should have by the end.

~ Jeff Somers for IndieReader