THE CASE OF THE PRINCESS AND THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNTY HUNTER

A bounty hunter and a librarian pursue a group of rebels in a bid to rescue a bureaucrat’s abducted niece in Alexander’s SF adventure, one in a series.

On the planet Offyonder, hundreds of light years from Earth, CenSec (Central Security) enlists Martin Allgeier for a special mission. The “modest” third assistant librarian is an obscure fellow, making him an ideal candidate to track down Claire Montaigne, who’s missing and presumably kidnapped. She’s the niece of the planetary government’s Director and called “the Princess,” a seemingly honorary title. Martin hires a female bounty hunter named Sol to help find Claire. They traverse such Offyonder towns as coal-polluted Bannion (which Martin calls the planet’s “armpit”) and the ominously named Edge-of-the-World. The evasive rebel leader Spartacus and his Spartacists, the likely abductors, aren’t Martin and Sol’s only threat, as Offyonder is rife with crime and corruption. The duo chases down leads and faces off against thuggish types, all in the hope of reaching Claire in time. A full-bodied cast and setting highlights Alexander’s sophomore series installment, which is set in the same universe as Complicated: The Interstellar Life and Times of Saoirse Kenneally (2021). Detailing the rich locales, the author showcases pithy writing, like this description of the stacked buildings in Edge-of-the-World: “Building up was preferable to spreading out, because the presence of people and business brought bandits the way garbage brings rats.” Despite the dense worldbuilding, the story moves at a steady clip and delivers several tense sequences. The mystery element of the narrative is relatively light, as it generally consists of Martin and Sol questioning people and running into various kinds of trouble, but the final act kicks everything up a few notches with surprising turns and an ending that lingers.

Indelible characters will draw readers into this thrilling futuristic yarn.