On the galactic frontier, the Federation’s wildest (and most scientific) citizens have gathered to ride in the Space Rodeo. The Navy’s in charge—of the arena. But beyond the naval perimeter, there is only Interstellar Sheriff Max Smith to keep the peace. Fortunately, he has some extraordinary allies. And enemies. And then, there is his girlfriend.Thelma Bach attracts trouble like the bunyaphi … bunyaphi attract feuds.
She should have been safe, riding for an urself inventor in the Space Rodeo. So how did she end up in the middle of a mercenary corporation’s devious designs for galactic war?
Buckle up for a thrill ride of bandits, shadowy government agents, cyborgs, AIs and strange science.
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Great story, loving he adventures of the Lonesome
A Coment Helices, a rare anomaly has popped up in the Saloon Sector, triggering a “Space Rodeo”. Bringing adventurers, scientist, and tourist. The navy has assumed responsibility for policing the Rodeo, and Max and his team are busy taking care of everything else. While investigating the Keele issue.
Max, Lom and Harry are being forced by the new Chief of the Interstellar Sheriff’s Service to take on a new deputy. Carl Jafrov/Jameston, a cyborg, covert ops agent, and a spy as far as the Lonesome’s crew is concerned.
Thelma is away from the family, helping a scientist, acting as his pilot in his experiments into the Comet helix.
Aubree asks Thelma to pull one of her assets from the Diner using a friend of hers. Once again she is passing info on the Max.
Then an attempt is made on Thelm’s life, and Owen and his family go into protection mode. She is kidnapped by another AI, the socially awkward Reynard, because Lon was worried.
Aubree’s meddling leads Max and Carl to a base with illegal mechs. A clan war. A plot to assassinate Max. Just as things are winding down, Nefertiti returns home and she has news for Harry.
Loved the Lonesome’s latest adventure. Loved Owen’s family. Carl and Reynard are great additions to the family. Looking forward to their next adventure.
Enjoyed! Interesting universe and characters.
Finally enough free time to read Space Rodeo, knew I wouldn’t stop once I started and I was correct.
All the main characters from book 1 are present, along with new characters who could be friend or foe or both. Love how all the plot threads come together in the end, the space rodeo, the bunyaphi, the artificial intelligence or A.I.s., etc.
And Thelma, what a character. Her personality and brain power are only surpassed by her concern and protectiveness of her family and friends. Max isn’t too far behind in the brains and protectiveness.
In a darker universe Thelma’s musings on A.I.s and their relations to humans, non-humans and civilization would be extremely concerning and prophetic. In this universe I’m not too worried that the A.I.s will take over but book 3 is still to come.
KU – yes, purchased after reading, it’s a keeper and a re-read
Overall rating – 5
Recommend book – definitively
Tags – space opera, alien interactions, artificial intelligence, mystery, suspense, romance, humor
No cliffhanger, happy for now, still lots of questions for the next book
Sex – closed door except for a few kisses
Violence – yes, the villains have no hesitation in mass murder of innocents but not overly descriptive
Rereading – yes, so many details that I often don’t catch until the rereads
Series – book 2 of at least 3
Reading out of order – not a problem, enough info given of characters and situations that the story doesn’t confuse or overwhelm. Didn’t have time to re-read book 1 and had no problem jumping into book 2. Although I plan on rereading book 1 then 2 so that I can more fully enjoy the world building and characters.
Reading the next – planning on it! I’ve even preordered rather than my usual reading in KU then buying. Think Jenny talked on facebook about a spin off series next year featuring Carl and Helen, yay!
Recommend author – definitely, one of the authors I turn to when I need a positive reading experience. Jenny is one of my auto-buy, auto-read authors. Love that her series usually have a set beginnings, middle and end. She also layers in the details throughout the series making it fun to go back and re-read earlier books.
(Why incorporate a template rather than just writing out a review? I started thinking about what I’m looking for in a review, regardless of the review’s rating, and wanted to make sure I was providing solid information to a potential reader rather than “read, loved, more please.” I also tend to start a review and then get distracted by the next shiny book before I finish the review, so this is my attempt to help me write the review before moving on.)
cross posted goodreads, bookbub, amazon