Zero Gravity Outcasts is short, fast paced, fun novella. It doesn’t have very much romance, but it does have a fun rag-tag space crew ensemble that skirts the edge of the law. Basically, if you liked Firefly, you’ll like Zero Gravity Outcasts, but you might be annoyed that you don’t get more of it.

Behold the plot: When Minka was kicked out of Central Command, she only knew how to do one thing – fly. She got a spaceship and a crew (her friends Anjali and Tex) and went into business shipping cargo just inside the boundaries of the law. Minka prefers not to do business with Central Command, but she takes on a job for them that comes with something unexpected – a passenger, Major Reyne, who happens to be Minka’s ex-boyfriend. They attended Central Command School together and he shunned her when Command kicked her out. Reyne forces Minka to carry his cargo, and bring him along, which launches Minka into the crosshairs of multiple violent factions.

By far the biggest appeal of the book is the characters and the Millennium Falcon/Serenity vibe. Minka is first introduced cursing an impressive string of inventive insults at a bolt that won’t loosen. She’s not played for sex appeal. She has things to do. She also has the cynical veneer that all semi-outlaw captains seem to be required to have, but this is undercut by her sweetness to her friends and her possession of a small tree with a string of lights. She got the idea for the tree from reading a history book that discussed early holidays and rituals:

The holiday was about birth. Hope. Optimism, I guess. Kindness. People sang songs to strangers. They gave gifts to each other. They remembered the poor…

Starting over – after Central Command – I needed those feelings. I wanted to remember those feelings. So I got the tree.

 

The action of the story is thrilling and the mechanics are interesting if not entirely convincing (the spaceship runs on steam, so I guess it’s slightly steampunk, although the overall vibe is pure science fiction). Minka has a small ship with limited defensive and offensive capabilities, but her tools are quite clever and inventive.

Minka’s crewmate, Tex, teeters on the brink of stereotype. Tex is gay in the most outrageously campy flamboyant manner. There’s a fine line between depicting a caricature versus depicting a character, and I think that Tex falls safely on the ‘character’ side of that line, but took a while for me to come to this conclusion. Tex uses a particular kind of theatrical humor and persona to defuse tension and protect himself, and he’s clearly tough as nails, extremely capable, and fiercely loyal. When drops his mannerisms to have a serious talk with Reyne, it has a lot of power behind it because it’s so different from his usual manner.

As far as romance goes, there is a hint of a romance that happened in the past and that might be rekindled, but nothing overtly romantic actually happens in the book. Clearly, the stage is being set for romance (sequel, please, NOW) with Reyne gaining respect for Minka and questioning his allegiance to Central Command. And clearly Minka has some respect for Reyne’s abilities and isn’t totally over their break-up. By the end of this book, they’ve reached a grudging rapport, leaving the reader to assume that there are sexy times in the future.

Honestly, the conclusion to this book simply screamed “TV show pilot”. That’s not a bad thing except that I really want to see the TV show. This novella introduces a big, politically complex world and the core characters, and has the “found family” and “outsider joins the team” components that are so common to the beginnings of series in any medium. It also introduces two people with a past romantic history, plenty of conflict, and enough sexual tension to keep a “will they, won’t they” thing going for six seasons and a movie.

The only problem with this is that the story isn’t a TV pilot, and I can’t find a sequel to it. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger by any means, but it did leave me wanting more. If you want a quick adventure tale with derring-do and space battles, this will provide you with a very happy lunch hour or two, but you’ll probably be with me hunting through space for the sequel.