Wormholes, aliens, and space pirates, need I say more?
I met the author Michelle Browne in my social media ramblings. She’s a snarky, interesting girl, which pretty much describes her writing.
I have read A LOT of sci-fi novels and short stories. I subscribe to Analog magazine and enjoy every issue of it. This novella could easily have been a miniseries in Analog. It’s top notch sci-fi. She has an easy-flowing narrative style in first person, essentially a woman’s diary of her unusual work assignment aboard a wormhole mapping space vessel.
As the plot unfolds, the vessel receives a series of threatening messages from an unnamed source. The threat: If they continue their work on wormholes in that sector, they’ll pay the price with their lives. The mapping isn’t going well, unexplainable wormhole anomalies pop up where they shouldn’t be. Something is definitely not right. Amidst this setting, our heroine is falling in love with a coworker, very much against ship regulations. Overall, it was a very interesting, creative, and entertaining read. My inner sci-fi nerd crept out from under its shell to smile.
I found it fascinating they actually map out and create or repair wormholes through space for interstellar highways. And the various different alien races that interact, sharing meals, relating to one another, bridging massive gaps of culture and language to find common ground.
My only complaint is that it should have been longer. I would really like to see a full length novel of this quality sci-fi from Michelle Browne.
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