Nerys captains a solar craft, hauling freight without a crew. The tough-mouthed girl has learned the hard way that life is not simple. When a fast-flyer yacht gets snagged at the edge of the solar road and looks like it's heading for the blackness of space, like any sailor she offers a hand. She wasn't expecting the yachter to be her ex- husband, Kelvin, a grade one rat.

Kelvin is now retired from military life and thought he could handle anything - it turns out his computer goes down and he can't fly manually. Icaria is known as a dangerous planet and his experimental craft hasn't been fully tested. He's dependent on the freight captain, like it or not. The road is treacherous and rough, and creatures lurk just out of vision - spatial architeuthis, the giant squid, strikes and they lose an engine. More scary for Nerys is the concern that she just might lose her heart.

Cordwainer Smith gave us the brilliant 'The Game of Rat And Dragon' about space roads and monsters, and SOLAR STORM follows in his footsteps, with heavy emphasis on sailing. Soldiers are surgically enhanced and pumped up on an amphetamine-like drug. Was Kelvin responsible for his actions in a civilian context? Nerys has a wealthy father, a chancer and exploiter, and in consequence of this and her failed marriage she doesn't want to be dependent on a man, preferring to patch up her elderly craft and eat nutri- rations while pursuing bonuses, as in McCaffrey's 'The Ship Who Sang'. Space pirates add to the action.

A few very familiar details amused me about this far flung future: men still button their shirts, sailors still talk about walking the plank, girls about being a wallflower, and bodices are still ripped in the heat of passion. Marriages can still founder on non-consummation and annulment, a husband can be legal guardian of his wife.

Mina Carter lives in England and is both a writer and an illustrator. I'm delighted that she has given us this action-packed SF adult romance, SOLAR STORM, and look forward to reading more interstellar adventure from her in the future.