Space Opera Fans discussion

For June 2017, our Young Adult Pick is Into the Dark by J.A. Sutherland.

"At fifteen, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem - she's a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family's vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other women. "

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Love this book. Very much like Honor Harrington's early books but with a stronger focus on characterization than the technobabble. Some of it is a bit silly like the tea-pot business but I think it's a really good coming of age drama.

Have just picked it up from Amazon.

In queue...

Sounds interesting. I got mine.

I enjoyed reading this one a couple of years ago, but not enough to reread it this soon. It's not a comfortable book for me, due to way women are treated, particularly in the sequel.

Have just started it. So far I'm finding it a good read.

Teresa, would you mind elaborating on that (in a private message is fine)? I ask because that is definitely something that I don't like to read.

This book isn't bad. I had to give up in the midst of the sequel. Rereading first book is hard because I keep being reminded of things from the sequel.

You shouldn't have problems with this book. And I'm a lot more uncomfortable with females being treated as having little or no rights these days than I used to be. I can't read dystopias any more either.

Teresa wrote: "This book isn't bad. I had to give up in the midst of the sequel. Rereading first book is hard because I keep being reminded of things from the sequel.

You shouldn't have problems with this book. ..."

Sounds like me with Gateway. No one seemed to bat an eye over the MC beating his girlfriend but I was horrified.

I've finished this one. I quite enjoyed it, but found a few things odd, namely the whole sails thing, and the archaic gender issues. I suppose they're part of the point of the story, but they almost kicked me out of it at one point.

Having said that, I will happily read the next one.

I'm looking forward to hearing what others think.

I enjoyed this book. Horatia Hornblower in space. The idea of needing sails and other sailboat-type equipment to catch the winds from dark space was interesting and different.

I liked Into the Dark and have started the next book in the series Mutineer

I think of the second book as terrifying but part of the point as she rises above all of the adversity she faces.

The second book Mutineer was intense, but a real page turner. I didn't like the cruelty, but recognize that it was based on real historical events. Overall, I think the second book was better written and more engrossing that the first.