You might not know this yet but I’m a Star Wars fan. Not the type who can list all the planets or the different ships (my memory doesn’t work that way), but put John Williams’ music on and I’m in heaven. Princess Leia is my hero (as was Carrie Fisher), I love Chewbacca, R2D2 and BB8 and I have a Millennium Falcon tattoo. If there’s a spaceship in a story, chances are I’ll read it, especially if there are lesbians on that spaceship.
Safe Passage is part space opera, part heist of the century and part romance. Kay is the programmer behind the Conglomerate’s (some sort of space crime syndicate) bank’s security system. She’s really good at her job and the Conglomerate wants her dead as she’s the only person who could break into the bank. In an effort to leave the desolate planet where the Conglomerate has left her stranded in the meantime, Kay meets Captain Magdalene Landon and her privateer crew. They offer to help her get away if she helps them rob the bank. Kay doesn’t trust them at first, she only sees them as pirates, but she has no real choice if she hopes to stay alive a little longer. As days go by, she finds herself making friends and unexpectedly falling in love.
I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Barbara Rich, and the different voices were great, very easy to distinguish, even though I felt Kay’s was a little too fragile. I loved the laughs. I haven’t heard many laughs in audiobooks, it was nice to not just know the characters were laughing but hear them too.
If you’re not a sci-fi fan yet, this would be a good entry point. It’s not too technical, there are just enough aliens and planet-talk to feel in space but not so much that the reader would get confused. The pace is good, the characters are well-written and the action is exciting.
Jude in the Stars 