Thursday, March 03, 2022

Atalan Adventures: Return to Sender (Atalan Adventures, #2) by R.M. Hamrick

Atalan Adventures: Return to Sender (Atalan Adventures, #2)Atalan Adventures: Return to Sender by R.M. Hamrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun, not-too-serious space opera-ish adventures of the crew of the Atalanta Empress.

Stranded in subspace for what seems like months, the crew of the Atalanta Empress encounters drifting shipping containers with blinking red lights stamped “Undeliverable.” The crates are missing deliveries from Instant Transport (AKA “IT”), the company that effectively put the Atalanta Empress out of courier and cargo business. But when an unidentified vessel arrives on the scene, sweeping up the lost packages, Frankie goes against her crew’s wishes to hail it and ask for help to get back into real space. Frankie is worried that the newest crew member, Quaja, whom they’ve all come to like and respect, will be taken into custody for her past criminal activities.

In the meantime, the two triplets, Lorav and Patav, discover their sister, Etav, is in trouble in another star system and needs their help ASAP. The ship itself is infested with fertisrats, a species that can literally eat them out of house and home. A captain’s work is never done.

Return to Sender is the second book in R.M. Hamrick’s Atalan Adventures, and it is as fun and entertaining as the series starter, Rats and Bolts. Readers learn a little bit more about the individual crew members; there’s even a dinner party customized for each of them that highlights their different species. The plot never lets up, there’s never a lull in the action, and the scrapes and situations they encounter are exciting and imaginative. I’ve already gotten book three lined up; I enjoyed this one so much.

I recommend Atalan Adventures: Return to Sender to readers that enjoy a not-too-serious send-up of the space opera genre, strong female characters of various species, and don’t agonize over cliffhanger-y endings.


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