When people read my first novel, they often fail to realize how many women are in the book and not just as supporting characters. At first I was pleased by that. Maybe casting women as starship Captains and Special Forces team members was normal these days. But I keep coming across blog posts and stories about how women are stick figures and don’t contribute to the story in engaging and realistic ways. Huh. Here are a few of the more prominent characters in Starstrikers.
Millie Havic – She’s the hero’s wife. She stays at home when he goes off to save the galaxy. That is the stereotype that the character normally fits into. However, in this story, she’s also a Professor of Marine Biology for a major university. The day her husband goes off on a dangerous mission, she is out to sea on a catamaran, following a sea sloth family with her graduate students. This is where she is kidnapped by a radical environmentalist who happens to be a former student. Oh, and yet another strong, intelligent woman.
Erin Kent – Professional thief, ecological zealot and yes, a woman. Erin kidnaps Millie Havic aboard her submarine/spaceship and flies into all kinds of danger trying to help a dying species on some remote alien planet. Erin is a starship pilot, an environmentalist and, as it turns out, a major plot mover and shaker.
Tamia – A Special Forces team member who can fly better than the hotshot male members and kick some serious ass after having been beaten up by the bad guys. To say that this tall, serious woman is tough and smart, would be barely scratching the surface. In a time when women are forbidden from joining Special Forces in the U.S. Military, Tamia is proving how antiquated that line of thinking is.
Commander Reyna – The cold and calculating Intelligence officer who plays a key role in helping the good guys decipher and use the latest enemy technology. Reyna is one of many characters with a pivotal role to play in the plot. That’s all I’m at liberty to say.
Those are the four primary female characters in the novel. There are a whole host of secondary and background characters who are women. Everyone from Spacer First Class, who survives the destruction of two starships to Captian Doris Anon a starship captain.
So there you go, a brief look into the strong, intelligent women of my first SF novel. You can purchase Starstrikers in paperback and ebook vendors like Amazon and Smashwords for only one US Dollar. Or you can read the entire book for free from the web site dedicated to my SF universe: http://starstrikers.ning.com