Search Worlds Without End

When the Betelgeuse message was detected, it changed a lot of things on Earth. We began to look seriously outward, not with the heady optimism of the early days, but with deliberate calculation. We knew that Someone was out there, and that eventually, they'd be coming. If Earth didn't occupy the High Frontier, it could be ours to lose.

Esther "Star" Svensdotter's job is overseeing the completion of the American Alliance's first O'Neill cylinder -- a massive space hab capable of supporting thousands of colonists. It's just weeks away from commissioning, and she'll be damned if Luddite terrorists, squabbling bureaucrats, military takeovers or rogue AIs will stand in the way. Frontier justice on Ellfive sometimes involves an airlock -- you don't want to be on the wrong side of justice. Or the wrong side of Star Svensdotter.

The first in Dana Stabenow's Star Svensdotter trilogy, Second Star is a tale of first contact, declarations of independence, and new frontiers.

Ellfive colony won its independence in the One-Day Revolution, but while much may be forgiven, its debts haven't been. The orbital nation needs a serious supply of minerals and ore to realize its manufacturing potentials, and in this solar system, the cost of lifting rocks to orbit is prohibitive, the only viable option is to mine them yourself.

And so, Star Svensdotter leads a prospecting expedition to the Belt, almost two AUs out, on the very edges of Earth's colonization of space. It's not exactly unexplored territory--a motley assortment of grifters, drifters and fortune-hunters have already made the Belt their home--but Star and her crew soon find that they have a lot to offer the anarchic frontier society, and that there are richer opportunities than merely mining for minerals.

The second in Dana Stabenow's Star Svensdotter trilogy, A Handful of Stars follows humanity's outward migration into the solar system.

Twelve years have passed since the events of A Handful of Stars. Star continues to silently mourn Caleb's death, World Builders, Inc. is completing its first asteroid-based Bernal sphere, and the Svensdotter twins are of a restless age. When the opportunity to undertake a survey mission of Mars' Cydonia region presents itself, Star leaps at the chance.

Drifting above Mars' surface, the family rediscovers the wonder of pure exploration. With strength and humor, Star addresses her parenting difficulties, battles 21st century piracy, connects with a self-sustaining Martian colony and discovers a mysterious link with the red planet's--and Earth's--ancient past.

In this concluding volume of the trilogy, Svensdotter comes to terms with the repercussions of The Big Lie and is forced to look back to Terra as well as out to the stars.