Ash Jackson is indentured to the Aurora Corporation, traveling the galaxy scavenging relics from an alien war as she works off her years of service to gain Auroran citizenship (it's all corporations now that the governments are long gone). However, every time she needs medical attention, that deducts credits from her account, adding more years to her indenture. Complicating matters, Ash is hiding a serious illness that will eventually kill her and will almost certainly put the rest of her ship's crew in danger — but if she seeks much-needed medical attention, her chances for citizenship plummet. When Ash's ship comes in contact with a high-powered alien weapon, Aurora and its competitors start a fight that finds Ash, her colleagues, and the alien race as expendable in their fight for market share.
The Orcs & Aliens Book Group will be discussing this title next week, and I really think that this book will give us plenty to talk about: corporate greed and the treatment of low-level employees; exorbitantly expensive health care; the pitfalls of stereotypes about the "other"... there's a LOT here. That said, the characters were a little two-dimensional and, combined with the many plot twists and shifting alliances, it made it a bit hard to keep track of who was doing what. Osborne created a truly alien species, which is refreshing — these are far from "human in a lizard suit" aliens, and I'd love to learn more about them. There's a second book in this series, and I'll definitely check it out.
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