Review: Great characters and a fascinating new world
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2013
Some adults look at YA novels and are turned off by them because they think they are more geared towards kids. This is not true the only thing that makes YA novels different then adult novels is that they don't have as much adult content and usually the main characters are young people. This doesn't mean that YA novels don't have great stories or fascinating characters. One example of this is Frontier Incursion by  Leonie Rogers.Humans crash landed on a planet they named Frontier 300 years ago. Life was hard on the planet, there were several species of dangerous animals that live there and some of the plant life was also deadly. The humans survived and adapted to the environment and built small settlements. They always said they would return to the stars some day but they liked their new home.One of Frontier's inhabitants is a teenage girl named Shanna, she lives on a farm with her family who breeds and raises starcats. Shanna is at a point where she needs to decide how she will contribute to society, so she decides to become a Frontier scout. The scouts job is to explore Frontier and help people in need when disasters happen. One day when Shanna and some other young cadets are exploring, they discover aliens called the Garsal creating a hive . The Garsel have plans on taking over this world and the inhabitants of Frontier suddenly find themselves in a war with a race that they know nothing about.There is so much going on in Frontier Incursion that it's hard to give a short description of the plot. At the heart of this book is a coming of age story. You see Shanna at the beginning as a young girl helping her parents on the farm and then you see her join the scouts. She then teaches other cadets on training starcats, learns how to deal with difficult people and learns to live in the wild and to survive under harsh circumstances. Also to a lesser extent the book follows her brother Kaiden as he learns how to master archery and take on more responsibility.Leonie Rogers did a great job of creating some deep characters and she does an excellent job of world building. As you follow Shanna's story, you learn more about the world they live in. You also get a look at the other people who live there and I loved how the cadets all had starcats to accompany them wherever they went. The starcats are panther like creatures with glowing marks on them which make great companions.Frontier Incursion is an excellent science  fiction fantasy tale that people of all ages will enjoy. My only issues with it was that it could have used a little more action. What this book lacks in action it makes up for in great characters and the description of a new world.My favorite part of this story was how the inhabitants were raised to believe that it is their destiny to go to the stars again but you see how many of them don't want to return to space and are happy on Frontier. I also liked how small glimpses are given of the Garsel, leaving the reader to realize that life is about to become hard for the people of Frontier.  If you like epic Science fiction check out Frontier Incursion.