Review - The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion by Marie Sexton & Cari Z

A few hundred years from now, an alien race makes contact with earth. They're friendly at first, and help humanity achieve it's dream of planetary space travel. But soon earth is drawn into a generations-long war between their new “friends” and another race. The two battling species eventually move on, leaving an earth that is almost uninhabitable and a decimated population of humans occupying colonies and space stations strewn out among the outer planets.

Twin brothers Denver and Laramie, along with their friend Merit, eke out a meager living picking over the wreckage of the alien ships floating just outside the rings of Saturn. Laramie suffers from a wasting syndrome that sometimes affects humans in space. It can be slowed down with expensive medicine, but what he really needs is an earth-like planet where he can live like humans were meant to. When the trio stumble across something that's more than just a piece of space junk, they think they've hit the jackpot, but cashing may prove a lot harder than they imagine.

“The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion” is a really classic piece of space opera, with ships, space stations and at least the idea of aliens in the background. The story is related entirely from Denver's point of view. He shares a special bond with Laramie, and feels obligated to take care of his brother, which doesn't always go down well with Laramie, who often wishes Denver would get a life.

The three partners are the main characters in the story, but they pick up a few friends, lovers and stowaways on their big adventure to find the ship from the book's title, and the new life it promises. The story-telling is gritty enough that you're never quite sure how it will turn out, as the characters chase something that many people considered an urban myth. The world-building is very well done, even if it does paint a rather bleak picture of the future of humanity. With the nail-biting third part, this book became quite a page-turner to see how things turn out.

“The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion” is available from Amazon.