Review: A well-written sci-fi adventure with a unique take on immortality
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2013
I rarely buy books before they've accumulated enough in-depth reviews that I can pretty reliably pre-judge what they'll be like, but I'm very glad a sale price led me to read a blurb for this book. The interesting premise was enough to make me try the sample, and that was enough to prove she knew how to write a plot and protagonist that draw you right in. To make a long story short, I bought it, read it nearly in one gulp, and really enjoyed it, so I came back here to help build her online "rep". Considering the massive number of books I've read (many being SF/F) and the just-a-handful of reviews I've posted, I don't bother very often. It's not quite polished/deep enough to merit the rare 5-star rating, but it's well worth the read.I've gotten kind of sick of every other character in current fantasy being an immortal supernatural creature of some sort, generally w/species politics and stereotypes that are getting all too familiar, but here we have a likable  "ordinary" woman captaining the idiosyncratic crew of a merchant merchant space vessel (occasionally on the grey side of the law), with just one big difference: she hasn't aged for about the past 50 years!The book is as much a touching and ultimately hopeful exploration about how that has twisted and shaped her family, as it is a fun space opera of their attempts to elude the ruthless quasi-governmental corporation that wants her secret. The dynamics between Luta Paixon, her elderly husband, their resentful daughter who looks older than she does, and the driving enigma of her scientist mother (vanished into hiding when Luta was a child) who may still be alive and hold all the answers, make this work feel fresh and original.Oh, there's one more point in its favor: a completed, satisfying resolution, NOT a cliffhanger!