world of fiction

Beyond Those Distant Stars
by John B. Rosenman
Mundania Press
978-1-59426-328-6/978-1-59426-329-3
Science Fiction
344 pages
Trade paperback/eBook

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Stella McMasters is a retread, a retired naval officer who, thanks to a nuclear accident, has been turned into a cyborg and given a space command she thought she’d never attain. And her luck doesn’t change. An unlikely encounter with the aliens who are threatening the human empire thrusts her onto the galactic stage in a big way. McMasters has to overcome all kinds of difficulties, both personal and professional, as she attempts to use newfound knowledge to save her species.

Beyond Those Distant Stars explores hate of that which is different in a science-fiction future. Not just hatred of aliens, but of the part-machine heroine, of families of perceived traitors and even of those of different castes. Published by Mundania Press, this book reminds me of the space operas of the 1940’s and 1950’s (which I grew up reading) and, specifically, of Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.

Starship Troopers is a novel by one of science fiction’s greats. It’s a tale in which a recruit goes through the toughest boot camp imaginable and into battle against a terrifying and nonhuman enemy. I mention this book because John B. Rosenman is a true professional and deserves to be compared to Heinlein. His writing not only invokes memories of Heinlein, Rosenman also makes the unpopular choice (as did Heinlein and others, like Isaac Asimov) to insert a real message into his story. In fact, the message is open enough in the final pages of Beyond Those Distant Stars that the author will probably be criticized for it.

You’re in good company, John.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

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