Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: Shooting Star
Author: Colby Hodge
Publisher: Dorchester
ISBN: 0-5055-2628-X
Release Date: November 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Futuristic Romance
Year/Setting: Future/Faraway planets
Overall Rating: 4.25
Sexual Content Rating: Sensual
Language (Profanity) Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: Mild
Colby's Website: cindyholby.com/Home_Page.html
Rubikan Benjamin was born to the mighty emperor of their world, Emperor Rashad DeMarco Monaco of the plant Amanor, and the Princess Rowena of the planet Kalember. The Princess, however, is simply wife number four so she doesn’t rank great attention and her two sons are fair down the list of succession to the throne. The first wife doesn’t particularly like the other wives or the other children but she does accept them. Once per year, though, on their birthday, the boys get to spend a day with their father (it is basically the only time they see him). On Rubikan’s special day, he is standing and patiently waiting for his father to arrive. When he does, the first wife and one of the other sons are standing alongside them. His father thinks the other boy is him and he is cheated out of even his one day. From that point on, Rubikan decides to find his life on his own.
He becomes Ruben (instead of being nicknamed Ben) and the pilot of his own ship. He has become quite adept at getting the right cargo to the right people at the right time and extracting the right amount of payment, which has been accumulating for quite some time. He is beginning to think of retiring. He has made some great friends, namely Lilly of Oasis who was married to his best friend, Shaun Phoenix. Shaun and Lilly were both descended from a group of people, the Circe, with some incredible mental powers and thereby their children had even greater powers and the Circe wanted them. To that end, Shaun and Lilly had gone into hiding so he didn’t even get to see them.
Finally, a whole lot of activity has caught up to Ruben. He has been accused of killing his father and the oldest son. This has put him on the run. As he is trying to outrun another hunter, he crashes onto Lavign, a planet a bit behind the technology available in most places.
He meets Tess and Boone there as they help him mend from the wounds he received in the crash. He begins to discover that even though there are many planets in the universe (and beyond) the world is actually a very small place. His brother is on this planet and in trouble. He sets out to help him and in the process helps Tess and discovers whole new worlds to explore (and I don’t mean planets).
Colby Hodge does a nice job of creating factious other-worlds – that can be a hard feat. The worlds her characters dwell in are lush and filled out so that the reader can easily envision them in their mind’s eye. The words used even create the sense of hearing certain things like one of the plants on Lavign and the sounds it makes in the wind. The sense of sight is invoked with the colors and scenes laid out. The sense of touch comes into play as Ruben touches water that feels like fire. All in all, Shooting Star does reach all of the senses. The only caveat is that there are quite a few characters mixed in with all of the planets so the reader has to work just a bit to keep everything straight. Well, worth the read, however.
Lori
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