Star Cruise Captain's Prequel by Veronica Scott Series: Star Cruise #0
Published by Self-Published on October 14, 2024
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Pages: 99
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Maeve is the Artificial Intelligence operating a massive Space Navy battleship. A malfunction at the time of her creation gave her self awareness and emotions, all of which she has to hide to protect herself. At one time her ship was the best in the fleet, fighting and winning battle after battle, but now it’s considered old and obsolete.
Gil Fleming is her current captain and the only one who knows her secret. He’s also the man she loves.
Now he’s been ordered to take the ship to the interstellar boneyard to be turned into scrap, at which time Maeve will be terminated by the company that created her. Gil’s tried everything to persuade the authorities to grant her a reprieve and give her a new ship to run, without revealing her secret. He’s been met with opposition at every turn and accused of having an emotional connection with an AI, which is against the law.He loves her. But there’s nothing he can do to save her.
They’re saying their final goodbyes on the deserted ship.Suddenly an unusual distress call persuades Gil and Maeve to fly into enemy territory on their own on a desperate rescue mission. Will this trip only delay the inevitable for them or will the results of their rash decision solve their problem?
Through all the Star Cruise subseries books, regular side characters, Captain Gil Fleming and ship AI, Maeve, have been a large background presence in the stories- Maeve, in particular. Finally, we get their story and how it all started.
Star Cruise: Captain’s Prequel is both a chronological prequel for the Star Cruise sub-series (part of The Sectors world), but also the first part in a two-part story featuring Gil and Maeve.
Beginning with Maeve and how she came to be a sentient ship’s AI installed in a military ship, Captain’s Prequel then tells how Gil came on board as her third captain and he was different in how he captained and treated her. He sensed she was sentient and a private friendship formed, so that the pair are aching with grief when the ship is to be decommissioned when it got old and Maeve will be wiped clean with it.
A distress call comes right when they are preparing their final goodbyes. And, readers get to see this pair teaming up for one final mission.
I loved this and read it so fast. It was mostly a satisfying story that fulfilled my want to get this part of the Star Cruise story. I will admit to having a couple little things distract me from the story. Gil and Maeve aren’t psychic and she’s not even human so doesn’t sleep or dream, but during the story, they share erotic dream encounters of Maeve in a human body form. I ended up shrugging and going with it, but that and a few other little things seemed a bit pat and smoothed through some obstacles that a human and AI would encounter in a relationship. I was glad that things were left wide open and hopefully some of the conflict that existed would be addressed in the latter half of their story.
Naturally, I knew how it would end since the whole Star Cruise series exists showing where Maeve and the captain end up, but that doesn’t take away from my ability to stay in the moment and feel all the emotions of unrequited love, goodbyes, and the suspense when on their rescue mission. After reading this happy for now with the wonderful backstory filled in, I’m ready to leap into Captain’s Story.
About Veronica Scott
USA Today Best Selling Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance author.
Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
MISC FACTS ABOUT VERONICA
Seven time winner ~ SFR Galaxy Award
Proud recipient ~ NASA Exceptional Service Medal but must hasten to add the honor was not for her romantic fiction!
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt – I’ll improve your process (mwahahahaa)!
Elvis Presley’s best friend once serenaded Veronica on a local TV telethon…now that could be a novel…
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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Sometimes the prequels written after the series has been penned (or started) can be tricky, so I’m glad this works so well for you. I hate when an author suddenly changes a series “history” with a prequel.
I agree. I’ve seen a later released book get fast and free with the book’s world and characters and it does tarnish the enjoyment. Fortunately, this one didn’t. I saw hints now and then throughout the series of at least a secret friendship and knowledge between this pair so I wasn’t terribly surprised to discover it went even deeper.
Love between an AI and a human. I shouldn’t be surprised at that since AI is popping up everywhere.
Yeah, I did wonder if this story would have come to being if it wasn’t so prevalent right now, but then again, there were hints through the series -which has been ongoing for years now- from the beginning that there was something between this pair.
A romance between a sentient AI and a human would be tricky! I hope it all worked out somehow!
There is a literary device that acts as a McGuffin (I think they call it?) and makes the romance possible. I just went with it. 🙂
Sounds like this might be good for someone wanting to give this series a try and see how they like it. Great review! I feel like a lot of times the little extras like this don’t come out until after other books in the series, so you do already kind of know where the story will go.
Yes, its a small slice of the series novella that will show you the writing and world of the stories. Agreed, that it does go back in time after I’d already read several books that told me where they end up.
One day I’ll read more by this author. I think I’m batting 50/50 with her books.
I definitely love some more than others.
After liking Maeve as a side character in so many Star Cruise books it was so fun to finally get her story. That start of the book was so sad with how they thought they would have to say goodbye. Like you I wasn’t a fan of the erotic dream encounters as it didn’t really make sense given the captain wasn’t psychic, but I figured that was just a way to show some physicality to their romance in this book already. Glad we got to buddy read this one.
I agree. It was practically building to her story as she took on stronger roles with each book. It was a blast to buddy read it with you and discuss as we went. 🙂