A new science fiction epic from the national bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author. Expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet and facing charges of grand theft, Jules Truffant agrees to sign up as shuttle pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga in exchange for amnesty. After botching Pride's mission to RhoCorenae and upsetting an alien culture in the process, Jules must take part in a voyage across the galaxy to place a probe squarely in the path of a black hole as it plows through an inhabited star system.
Galaxy Blues (2007) 266 pages by Allen Steele.
The story is set in the Coyote universe, taking place after the events of Spindrift. The first person narrative of Jules Trussant kept me turning the pages. The characters were good, the story had a very good flow, and besides just this story, Steele also continues the Coyote storyline. We have more interaction between human and alien races, and at the end the Hjadd aren't a complete mystery.
Jules has always wanted to go into space and after graduating the academy, he is on his way, until he is kicked out of the service. Being that he has been blackballed he comes up with the idea of going to Coyote and requesting asylum. Using an alias Jules gets a job on a space station and works for months, plotting a way to get aboard the shuttle. We come in right as he puts his plan into action, the reader is instantly pulled right into the action, the baseball metaphors and planning let us learn something about Jules.
Once arriving on Coyote, Morgon Goldstein the CEO of Janus (one of the largest corporations formerly of Earth), is looking for a crew for his new venture in trading with the Hjadd. Jules now has a choice between joining the crew or being deported. Even without the alternative it sounded like a pretty good job. So off on the first human-alien trading mission they go.
This is another fantastic Allen Steele novel.
