Stars Like Us

Invent any innovative technology and it won’t be long until someone finds a way to use it to make money via base entertainment. We are talking wine, woman, and song. The same can be said of future worlds; the Emperor may have thought he had an iron grip on all his subjects, but just below the surface were more wretched hives of scum and villainy than you could shake a Lightsaber at. In Stephen K. Stanford’s Stars Like Us, the people of the universe are so hungry for a place to let loose that they have placed it in a parallel universe, but even this is not enough to save them from the Movement for Morality (M4M).  

Col has settled into his new life as the Head of Security of Jubilee, a vast space station housed in parallel space catering for all your base needs. He lives happily with partner and two young children, and his ex/current wife next door. Life is a little complicated, but not as complicated as when the station is invaded and destroyed by the M4M. Col finds himself on the run, separated from his family. Can he return to Jubilee, or what is left of it, and find out if his family survived? It is going to be tricky as they leaped decades of light years away with no jump technology left. 

Jubilee was the first outing in Stanford’s entertaining action-adventure sci fi series. It was a fast paced, and at times anarchic, novel as Col and his allies fled from crisis to crisis. It felt that by the end of that book, and the start of this, that times would have settled down for Col. He has a very steady life at this point, even if he is the Chief Security Officer of a debauched settlement. There is enough happening on Jubilee for a series of novels to be set, but this was not in Stanford’s plans.... as it explodes. 

Therefore, Stars has a lot more in common with the first outing. Col ends up in a smaller ship with his current/ex Sara, his friend the killer robot Batura, and a random hanger on called Chook that they picked up during the escape. Stanford lights the touch paper almost immediately, and we are off; the pace is breathless. Until it is not. 

The book is almost told in three acts. There is a sedate portion in the centre that is bookended in frantic and entertaining action. This central section is the opportunity to learn more about Col and his past. He returns to hide on his home planet and whilst there decides to investigate a decades old missing person's case. This section shows Col’s skills as an investigator and reaffirms why he would have been hired as head of security. 

The fast pace of the book works as this is a lighter science fiction tale. It is humorous and violent, a modern take on pulp. It has sensibilities in common with Hitchhikers, both in terms of how it denounces bureaucracy, but also in the way that the characters are often swept up by events beyond their control. The drop in pace at the centre of the book is jarring, but also an interesting way to develop the characters. I would have been happy to have run full pelt throughout the book, but even with a dip, this book will be some of the most fun science fiction you will read this year.