BEYOND THE NEXT STAR

In the first installment of a planned SF romance series, aliens abduct an Earth woman and take her to a strange planet, where she’s treated as a pet.

Delaney Rose McCormick is kidnapped by aliens and is soon en route to the planet Lorien to be trained as a domestic companion creature. Fortunately, Keil Kore’Weidnar, the domestication specialist who’s in charge of learning about how to properly feed and care for her, is kind enough to teach her the aliens’ language. Later, she’s the only witness to Keil’s murder, but she realizes that it’s in her best interest, at least in the short run, to continue to act unintelligent as the aliens expect. One of these spacemen, Torek, was ordered to get a pet to “facilitate mental recovery” after a particularly traumatizing incident while in the military service. Delaney, now renamed “Reshna” after an alien word describing her curly hair, becomes Torek’s constant companion. Torek can tell that she’s smart, but nothing prepares him for the fact that she can speak, understand, and reason with him—although she’s careful to stay quiet whenever they’re not alone. As the pair grows closer, Torek learns that one of his fellow aliens is keen to do Delaney harm. Johnson effectively introduces readers to the planet Lorien and its alien inhabitants, the lorienok, in this opening series entry. Overall, the novel does a good job of immersing readers in a strange new realm, and its use of Delaney’s perspective allows them to learn details of the culture and characters organically, as the protagonist does. Along the way, the author describes her alien creations in exquisite detail—“two rows of sharp predator teeth filled his overly large mouth, and pointy bearlike claws tipped each finger and likely each toe on his boot-shod feet”—and her comparisons to familiar Earth creatures make for easy visualization. Even pacing and smooth transitions to different characters’ points of view make for a quick, solid read that remains consistently compelling.

An engaging and unusual otherworldly tale.