Hunter, T.M.: Seeker (Aston West) (2011)

T.M. Hunter describes Aston West thus:

“Aston is not what your first choice for a hero would be. He doesn’t fit the stereotype of the (as my favorite label from the “Firefly” series indicates) “big d*** hero” like most in the genre do. He’s the everyman who just happens to get into more than his fair share of tricky situations“

In Seeker this is how Aston describes himself as well. Aston’s way of making money is as a scavenger pirate and cargo transporter. That means that he cleans up after the pirates if he comes across one of their kills. Not an unknown occupation in today’s world either. Although here we probably just call it the way business is done.

Both Aston and the Seeker are prey to a freelance operator who happens to be the system’s law enforcement service provider. Whoop, dee, doo. Naimakeeda (the seeker) is in as much goo as Aston himself. With his arrival she sees the light at the end of the tunnel appear knowing that it is not a train. I guess there must be some advantage to not being able to avoid knowing what is going on inside people’s heads.

Seeker is a space opera with most of its focus on characters. The one bit of tech that we kind of get to know about is “Jeanie”. Other than that the novella is an adventure story for young adults with pirates that you see and pirates that you do not see. The biggest pirate of them all is the man who is supposed to uphold the law. Tsk, tsk, corrupt politicians – whoever heard of such a thing???

This is a light and easily accessible read in the form of a short-story/novella.

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