OF STARLIGHT AND BONE

Government agent Aurelia “Auri” Peri botches her first mission and uncovers a disturbing conspiracy in Layne’s YA SF thriller series starter.

By the year 3319, humanity has settled in the Ancora Galaxy. The people of the Federation are descended from the crews of long-ago military missions sent there by the United States and Japan; the General-in-Chief is the supreme leader, aided by military agents of an organization called the DISC. The GIC’s adopted 18-year-old daughter, Auri, has just completed the first of two mandatory years of military service. Freshly enlisted in the taskforce, she and her canine partner, Birdie, take over a mission after another agent is injured. After a heated chase ends in a death, Auri discovers that everything she’s been told about the Federation may be a lie. Auri is a cyborg with mostly artificial organs; she also has a blue robotic eye (“a little too light, the pupil not quite matching, the sensors in the iris almost transparent”). According to her father, she received these enhancements after she was injured by a wild animal at age 6. She has no memory of the attack or of her family before the GIC and his son, Tyson Peri, took her in; she’s harbored an unrequited crush on Ty for years, while he’s always resented their father for the attention he lavishes on Auri, even though in Federation society, cyborgs are hated and feared. Despite the complexity of the world, the plot doesn’t get bogged down because the various elements of the story are added seamlessly and gradually. The story picks up when Auri and Birdie must investigate a potential conspiracy, far away from the center of the Federation. There, she encounters a ragtag group of renegades reminiscent of the crew from the former Fox TV show Firefly, who seem interested in her investigation. As they investigate, Auri begins to find companionship in a way she’s never felt before, effectively strengthening a theme of the importance of found families. This raises the stakes of the exciting action sequences, which are well balanced with strong characterization.

A futuristic, adventurous adventure with engaging characters and action.