The Bright Black Sea — C. Litka

Wil Litang, first mate of the tramp freighter Lost Star, reluctantly accepts the job as acting captain for a voyage, replacing the dying Captain Miccall. Unknown to him, the Lost Star has a mysterious and dangerous past. A past that has caught up with it. Haunted by this deadly past and driven by economic necessity, Litang and the crew of the Lost Star must venture far from their comfortable orbit â€" out into the lawless asteroid drifts of the Nine Star Nebula. The Bright Black Sea is not your typical space opera. While it has space battles, it's not military SF. And while it's a tale full of mystery and danger, star empires are not falling and the fate of the galaxy is not hanging in the balance. Rather, The Bright Black Sea is a lighthearted, character-focused adventure novel. Set in a small nebula of nine stars, hundreds of planets and vast lawless asteroid belts, it takes classic space opera motifs â€" space pirates, sentient robots, and rockets â€" and incorporates them into a rich, episodic adventure. For mystery, danger, and romance, join Captain Wil Litang and the crew of the Lost Star as they sail the black and bright space of the Nine Star Nebula in this first volume of the Lost Star Stories. The adventures and misadventures of Wil Litang continue in volume two of the Lost Star Stories â€" The Lost Star's Sea, which takes as its model the planetary romance, the type of story made famous by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and fondly reinvents the classic story of a stranger stranded in a strange land for the 21st century