Samhain Publishing, $3.50, ISBN 978-1-60504-906-9
Sci-fi Romance, 2010
Captain Steffi Savannah – not a porn star, honest – leads a crew of smugglers on the ship Albatross and she’s secretly tired of the life. She’s tired of losing her crew members, always being on the run from the law, and getting involved with fights with other ships. Even sex is no longer an effective way of temporarily forgetting about real life. Still, when Steffi and her crew discover an unusual ship bearing even stranger passengers on board, their lives are going to change. Not all will survive to see the happy ending or the promised land, however – be warned, this story has a pretty high body count for a short story.
I would hesitate to consider this a romantic story because if you are expecting a story that is focused on the characters’ emotions like a typical romance story would, you may just walk away feeling disappointed. However, while the romance may not be as well developed as I’d have liked, I find The Mythmakers a most interesting story of the lives and losses of the crew of Albatross. From the highs and lows to the ambiguous happy ending, this story is laced with enough heartbreaks and close calls to make the happy ending, no matter how ambiguous it can be, more precious as a result of what was lost in getting there.
While I would consider The Mythmakers more of a space opera with some romance, I find it a very interesting and well-written story all the same. It’s an unusual story, one that I won’t forget in a while, for a good reason.
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