Abandoned

November 1, 2018
The colonists named the planet Donovan after the first victim of its savage nature, though many, many more deaths followed. In this second visit to Donovan (after Outpost, 2018), the stark reality that, owing to complications with interstellar travel, the Corporation may never send another supply ship is beginning to take hold. Technology is failing, and daily life is hard. The tense relationship between the two main outposts is further complicated by a third, much smaller outpost, Mundo Base, which has solved significant problems related to the flora and fauna of Donovan. Talina Perez, head of security for the libertarian-style government of Port Authority, is infected by a sentient Donovan creature. Kalico Aguila, who supervises the Corporation's mining operations, is forever changed thanks to four-winged mobbers that can clean the meat from a body in minutes, and her top lieutenant has become a loose cannon. Gear's characters have all the hallmarks of great western-frontier people, with plausible sf twists. For readers of John Scalzi and Greg Bear and of stories with strong female leads, this is compelling space opera.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)