Sara Creasy transports us to space and visions of a bleak future in her debut novel SONG OF SCARABAEUS, an action packed sci-fi adventure with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure.

Edie, an orphan raised by the Crib, a secretive, interstellar, meddling government, is kidnapped by rebels who need her special skills to escape Crib domination. Once caught, Edie is taken aboard the ship The Hoi Polloi and made an offer she can't refuse. And if truth be told...she really doesn't want to. Psychically linked or leashed to her bodyguard, Finn, Edie sets out to fulfill her part of the coerced contract. Although the rebels know a lot about Edie's past and her teck skills, there are things they don't know yet -- an episode in Edie's past she can't afford to let the crew or Finn find out about. Scarabaeus, a planet where terraforming went terribly wrong, as well as Edie's involuntary part in the disaster, was not insignificant.

Riveting and believable science fiction, SONG OF SCARABAEUS plays on our fears about the government meddling in our lives and big business caring more about the bottom line than human life. Much like JURASSIC PARK, the future science is presented in believable arguments and it all makes sense. The parts where the Crib creates a peasant class and then ruthlessly exploits it really ring true. There are some surprisingly scary parts on the planet's surface, the alien world is really alien and not just a sideways Earth. An enjoyable read, although the technical jargon tripped me up a bit.