Rachel Aukes https://www.rachelaukes.com/ is the author of more than 40 books. _Black Sheep: A Space Opera Adventure _ was published in 2020 and is the first in her Flight of the Javelin series. This was the 100th book I completed in 2022.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this novel as R. The primary character is spacecraft Captain Halit ‘Throttle’ Reyne. Reyene and her crew are 15 years into a 20-year voyage when her colony ship, the Gabriela, has a breakdown. The catastrophic failure means Renene and her crew must abandon the Colony ship and the thousand colonists in cryo-sleep aboard. The only chance for the colonists is for the crew to find help.

They are surprised when they stumble across a derelict ship. It will be the find of a lifetime if Reyene and her crew can get it to civilized space. They find the ship intact and fully operational once they have boarded it. The onboard AI, who they name Rusty, has no memory of the ship’s origin or mission.

Reyene thinks their problem has been solved with the discovery of the ship. They head back to the Colony ship. When they arrive, they find that the Gabriela has been taken by pirates. They are forced to follow the pirates to the Jade-8 Terra orbital colony.

The Gabriela is docked at the station, but it is hardly the safe haven Reyene was looking for. The space station is run by pirates and gangsters. The inhabitants are virtual slaves to the two siblings that are in power.

Reyene and her crew’s freedom is in question and the future of the colonists looks dire. Can they escape Jade-8? Will they have to abandon the colonists?

I enjoyed the 6.5+ hours I spent reading this 262-page science fiction novel. I do like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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I really liked the start of the book and found it easy to get into but I got quite bored of it by the middle and had to make myself finished it and I didn't like the way it ended. I don't think I will read any more in the series. I received this book from netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

First in a new series. Great cover. We know that this is space opera because the title tells us. I love that the book has a strong female main character. The plot is exciting and it made sense. It was a fast paced rollicking read. Good writing and flowed well. Full of good guys and bad guys.

All in all it was a pretty good read and well worth reading, Gave it 4 stars.

Looking forward to Book 2 of the series.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for sending me this ARC.

This was a solid space opera that I really enjoyed reading. The world building was fantastic and appropriately revealed through character interactions as needed for understand the context of the story, leaving enough mystery to pull you deeper into the world and keep you engaged. Although not eactly a character driven story, the development of the protagonists was enough to drive the action (no hero's arc here) ... which is really what the bulk of the story consists of ... action ... which was generally well executed all the way up to the end; the final scene should have either been in a epilogue or at the beginning of the next book; so I docked it a star just because you pissed me off. So if you are looking for a good story where the heros win and ride happily off into the sunset, skip this one. If you don't mind killing off major characters with events that do nothing to advance the current plot ... this one might be for you.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Nothing is as it seems in this space opera. Filled with interesting characters, a plot that changes, and some interesting world building this is fun reading. It does change directions ofter as our characters have to overcome many different obstacles Look for an real plot twist as the book ends. First of a trilogy.

I enjoyed the book. I thought the plot was believable and a fun read. The characters were well developed.

I had finally caught up on my NetGalley reading, so I went on the hunt for more books to request, and Aethon Books was kind enough to grant my request for Black Sheep: A Space Opera Adventure. The description sounded very promising, and for the most part I would say that Rachel Aukes delivers on that promise. The protagonist is also disabled! Content note: the book contains ableist language, which I will discuss shortly in this review.

“Throttle” Reyne is the captain of a colony ship out of the violent Trappist system. When the ship suffers a catastrophic failure, she and her small but plucky crew must abandon it to search for help. They find a derelict vessel that might be their answer—except, when they return to their original ship, they find that pirates have stolen it! Eventually, Throttle and her crew end up in the Ross system, which has previously been colonized by other Earth expeditions. They are at odds with the pirates who stole the colony ship, and they need to find a way to get the ship and the cryogenically-preserved colonists back before it's too late.

I was pleased to encounter a disabled person as a protagonist! Specifically, Throttle has a childhood spinal injury resulting in paraplegia. To be clear: I am not disabled, so I’m not going to comment overly much on Aukes’ portrayal of Throttle’s disability. That being said, I have to question whether Aukes had any sensitivity readers for this book, because some of language used to refer to Throttle and her disability made me cringe. Almost at the very beginning of the book, Aukes refers to Throttle as “after spending much of her life confined to a wheelchair” (emphasis mine). I’m given to understand, in my learning about how to be less ableist, that many wheelchair users feel this language is harmful because their wheelchairs actually provide them with freedom and mobility they wouldn’t otherwise have. They are therefore confined/restricted without their wheelchairs.

A bit later in the book, Aukes mentions:

> Throttle found herself as comfortable, if not more so, in zero g. There, her useless legs weren’t nearly as much of a detriment as they were in gravity.

I’m sure there are more examples throughout the book, or even subtler things I’m not picking up on because I’m abled. Look, I get that you want to explain how your protagonist’s disability makes her more comfortable in zero g, because it obviously alleviates some of her mobility concerns. There are ways to do that, however, that don’t compound ableist portrayals of disabled people. And this is an excellent example of why we need (paid) sensitivity readers in publishing: this is careless use of language and therefore easily fixed. Aside from the word choice, I didn’t pick up on any hugely problematic aspects of Throttle’s portrayal (but, again, I’m not qualified to do a sensitivity read here).

Ok, let’s move on from that and look at the rest of Black Sheep. Let me confess this book grabbed me more than I expected. I didn’t want to stop reading after I began it later one night, and I finished it the next day. I was into it! I like the snappy characterization, the way Aukes differentiates between their various personalities, and the way that each character gets a little more depth throughout the book. Certainly some of the tropes felt a little too worn—the computer with a heart of gold that just wants a friend, for example—but Aukes is skilled enough at making you not care about those clichés because you’re just having a good time.

The plot is fairly sensible and keeps to a good clip. Aukes sets up realistic problems and her characters come up with realistic solutions, with a good amount of wrenches thrown into the works for dramatic effect. My only real quibble here is with the ending itself. Without going into spoilers, let’s just say that Aukes pulls one of those fake-outs where you think everyone is safe and then BAM, disaster strikes. I understand the desire to leave on a cliffhanger to get people reading the next book. Nevertheless, on a purely subjective level, I would have preferred a happy ending and for this … explosive event … to occur at the beginning of Book 2, to jolt me out of my seat.

I also like the world into which Aukes throws us: for the first part of the book, Throttle and her crew from the Trappist-1 system believe theirs is the only one successfully colonized by Earth. So there’s a good element of mystery throughout, such as Rusty’s origins, and this doesn’t disappear once they reach the also-inhabited Ross system. Indeed, I love how Aukes answers a few of our questions but leaves more of them open for future books—or perhaps never to be answered at all (life isn’t fair)!

The subtitle is a little on the nose, but what can I say? It’s true. Black Sheep is space opera, is adventure, is fun with pirates. Throttle is that sassy-yet-capable heroine in the style of Dutch from Killjoys, and she has a good crew around her. Will I read the next book? Definitely maybe.

A nice little space opera with lots of action. The characters are a little two-dimensional, but they perform their roles with humor. The ending is somewhat heavy-handed, but sets up the series nicely while still providing a complete story for this book.

My favorite thing about this book is the dashing, unbeatable space captain is a paraplegic. Her situation affects her life and choices without disabling them. Nice twist.

This is an entertaining book. Throttle is a great pilot. Ramming a space ship isn't something I expected her to do. Trouble may just be her middle name. The action is non-stop and the world building is excellent.

Took me a little bit to get into it, but then was unable to put it down! I love Throttle and the relationship she has with her crew. Her and Birk were my favorite, and I was HEARTBROKEN we he died. I plan on reading the rest of the series, especially after THAT ENDING!

Quite a few of the same plot points from Aukes' previous series, Fringe Station, have been repeated here: ship captain central character (also named Reyn - I assume a relative?), various side characters there to be killed off to create pathos for the main character, station and ship battles for justice and vengeance, heist scenarios, and an aggressive central bad guy who will develop a personal vendetta against the captain. That isn't to say the story is bad - it is straight-forward sci fi that is personality and not technology driven. But the story feels very heavy-handed and overly plotted, lacking an organic growth or trajectory that would resonate more with the reader.

Story: "Throttle" Reyn is the captain of a long-hauler taking colonists from the Trappist system to a new home they will arrive at in 15 years. The colonists are in cryotanks and the ship, the Gabriela, has a minimal crew for the journey. But when the ship has a catastrophic failure, the crew have to abandon the ship in a smaller gunboat and seek out help for the sleeping colonists in the failing Gabriela. What they encounter is an abandoned AI sentient ship with no memories but a lot of personality. With it, the staff may just have a chance to save their colonists.

There is plenty of action both on-station and in space. As with the Fringe Runner series, we have a central heist plot in the middle that once again feels more like filler than a naturally developing story. As well, all heists have to have the perfect complement of skills in the heisters: superb hacker, guy with exceptional military technical savvy/fighter skills, guy with the right inside information. I admit that I do tire of the sci fi trope that no matter what the purpose is of the ship, here is always a perfect elite hacker on board who can facilitate plot pooints. At least in this story, we have a ship who is clever on its own for a legitimate reason (it evolved to survive) and therefore its hacking skill might make a bit more sense than the human hacker on board the Gabriela.

This is a straight-forward sci fi; meaning, it's about the characters and not pathos of people in space (e.g., Jack Campbell), the mental game (e.g., CJ Cherryh), or the future tech. The characters are likable enough and of course, firmly on the side of do-gooders. The ending, however, took this book from a 4 star to 3.5 star because it was clearly there to set up the plot for books and felt both disingenuous and egregious. For me, it showed the heavy handedness of the author and why e.g., the Peacekeeper series by Tanya Hahn does that scenario much better. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.