From Amazon: The year is 2277. Many of Earth’s ills, such as poverty and pollution, no longer exist, but others have surfaced. Besides bringing a viral pandemic to Earth, Man’s stretch beyond his solar system results in a conflict with a race called the Karlonians. Man keeps the alien threat from home shores on a perimeter zone several light years from his planet, but because of the results of the pandemic manpower is critical. New methods of keeping the remaining population healthy and alive longer are devised. Most effective, however, is the ability to distort space and time via an anomaly on the far side of Jupiter. Through this portal they select missing persons from their history to bolster their numbers. Most of these missing persons are designated for Transplantation where knowledge can be shuffled from brain to brain. This produces trained technicians in a week or two to replace the skilled lost through death whether natural or unnatural. Harriette (Harry) Calder is the most recent and unwilling addition to the 23rd century. She is a Transplant match to a PDC Bounty crewmember lost in battle. The transplant surgery results in the appearance (within Harry’s mind) of JM who is a recreation of the seventeenth century poet John Milton. Believing him to be a schizophrenic auditory hallucination Harry remains silent about his presence. Her presence aboard the Bounty produces mixed reaction from her fellow crewmates. In the main she is accepted because she is needed, yet she is also vilified and many times her life is jeopardized. While the Bounty is on perimeter patrol a horrifying communiqué from the normally silent Karlonians informs the Bounty of another pandemic which threatens not just Karlonia but Earth as well. A temporary truce allows them to address and contain the virus, and leads to a shaky alliance. Because of this alliance Quinn, Captain of the Bounty, is court marshalled by his own government based on records which have been tampered with by unknown saboteurs. Again the Karlonia/Bounty alliance works to reveal the truth. In both instances Harry proves vital to the plot. Like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein the benefits of scientific innovation versus mankind’s inability to apply it responsibly and/or nurture it to a responsible end predominates. This is coupled with the presence of the “other” found within the main character , and to a certain extent the idea of the “tabula rasa” demonstrated through Victor Frankenstein’s creature. Man’s historical perseverance and ability to adapt figures prominently as well even if these characteristics are brought about through humanity’s short sightedness and abuse of the natural — a paradox that has haunted humankind since the mythological Fall.

My Review: Out if time for sure. Take Star Trek and mix in some aliens, fighting, time travels, bringing back to life, like Frankenstein, love, cool futuristic devices and ships, weapons, and much more, and then you have this five-star read. #scifi