Skirmish

This is a very good series, and it's a shame that they aren't better known. There are five books in all, great, fast reads with plenty of dramatic twists and turns, a tough, likable female protagonist (and, all too rare to find, no trite romance or sex subplots, just straightforward action!).

In the future, humanity has spread outward, colonizing all the way to the asteroid belt, and mutations have caused a social divide between those who can survive only in freefall, Fallers, and those who need exposure to gravity to survive, Grounders. There are also Floaters, people who have one of each gene, and can survive in freefall or gravity fine. This division has caused resentment and outright war between Earth and the colonies.

As our story begins, several years after an uneasy truce has been established, an Earth space liner has been sabotaged by colonists intent on provoking Earth back into war, and it's slowly falling into the sun. The automatic docking systems have been destroyed, and Melacha Rendell, the Skyrider, is the only one crazy enough- and skilled enough- to shuttle a liner pilot out there to rescue it. For the right price, of course.

That pilot is Jamin, an arrogant Faller forced to live under medication in the constant agony of gravity for his adopted Grounder son Collis, who can't tolerate freefall due to a medical condition. Jamin's wife, Collis' mother, was killed in the war with Earth, in which Jamin also participated.

The story follows Melacha as she tries to overcome survivor's guilt from an accident that killed her lover Django, guilt from sitting out the first war with Earth, and the sometimes overwhelming impulse to punch Jamin in the face so she can reach the stranded liner and prevent the incident from blowing up into all-out war.

The not-too-distant future setting is well fleshed out, with details like Ford and Chevy branded shuttles and Melacha's discomfort with the wind on a visit to Earth (in space, wind means an air leak and impending death). There are no aliens, but the setting doesn't suffer for it, and the first-person writing, a feature which usually turns me off in a book, is tight and the protagonist engaging. Highly recommended, all five of them. ( )