Gravity of a Distant Sun

December 2, 2019
Stearns concludes her Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy with this action-packed but emotionally vacant space opera. Space pirates Adda Karpe and her nonbinary lover and coconspirator Iridian Nassir are on the run from artificial intelligence and the government following the betrayal of their leader, Captain Sloane, in Mutiny at Vesta. After an artificial intelligence tricks Adda into trying to hurt Iridian, she wakes in a government-controlled hospital with brain damage. Meanwhile, Iridian is arrested for the crimes they committed with Adda and meets a few familiar faces in prison. Communicating via a psychic link, Iridian and Adda plot to reunite by jumping solar systems using an interstellar bridge, but they’ll have to fight mind control and escape government facilities to get there. Stearns’s writing is cinematic and packed with plenty of drama, but the characters take a backseat to the plot, and it’s difficult to invest in their love story when they spend so much of the book apart. Readers will enjoy the propulsive storytelling and many daring escapes but yearn for a stronger connection to the heroines. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc.

December 1, 2019
Adda and Iridian are back for the third installment in Stearns' Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy (Mutiny at Vesta, 2018, etc.). Adda and Iridian just want to live together in peace, but it seems the entire galaxy is out to stop them. First it was the killer artificial intelligence on Barbary Station. Then, it was the noxious Oxia Corporation on Vesta. And now it's those pesky awakened (meaning: sentient, self-aware, and therefore terrifying) AIs that have been trailing Adda and Iridian throughout their adventures. This third novel starts off with Iridian in prison and Adda trapped in a hospital, being treated for AI "influence," a condition where an AI gains control over a human's mind. When Adda has recovered enough to be put in a dormlike hospital room but not enough to be transferred to jail, she and Iridian manage to break themselves out and escape to a station far enough out in space that the authorities won't follow them. Despite the great risk of being influenced again, Adda decides to find out what exactly the awakened AIs want from her. It turns out that the AIs and humans may share the same goals. If Adda agrees to help them, she and Iridian will finally be free to live their lives, but is it worth the risk? Much like the second book in the series, this final story feels episodic, which allows for lots of action and adventure even if it drifts a little. Stearns has clearly put a lot of work into fleshing out the world and the tech used here, sometimes including details that could be cut. Still, the final pages give satisfying closure to the trilogy. A worthwhile finale to a fun SF adventure series.

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January 1, 2020
After the events of Mutiny at Vesta (2018), this final installment of the Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy finds Adda injured and her wife Iridian in the custody of the Interplanetary Transit Authority (ITA). In addition to their troubles with the ITA, they are being hounded by awakened artificial intelligences that want to control them. Adda, Iridian, and their motley crew engage in a cat-and-mouse game to escape their enemies, and their quick-witted and snarky banter during the direst circumstances relieves the sometimes plodding pace of the story. The ambitious world building is reminiscent of James S. A. Corey's Expanse series, and the relentless and evolving AI calls to mind Neal Asher's Dark Intelligence (2015). The conclusion, although a tad anticlimactic, offers an opening for future adventures of this engaging, space-faring duo. Offer to readers looking for an intricate and immersive space opera with diverse characters and strong female leads. Due to the linear time line and recurring characters, readers will benefit from starting with book one of the trilogy, Barbary Station (2017).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)