Review: Last Ship Off Polaris-G by Carol Van Natta

Posted February 18, 2019 by Lola in Review, Romance, Sci-Fi / 6 Comments

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Last Ship Off Polaris-GLast Ship Off Polaris-G (Central Galactic Concordance #0.5)
by Carol Van Natta

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: M/F

Blurb:
A bureaucrat and an interstellar trader must overcome treachery and their broken past to save the last inhabitants of a dying planet. Frontier planet Polaris-Gamma is dying, afflicted by a suspiciously-timed blight that destroys all crops. Worse, the whole system is now under military quarantine by the Central Galactic Concordance to prevent the catastrophic blight from spreading. The settlers must escape—or perish.

Caught behind the blockade, independent trader Gavril Danilovich finds his interstellar trading ship commandeered in the desperate plan to escape. He tells himself that’s the only reason he stays, and not because he’s worried about the woman he walked out on two years ago—who still lives on Pol-G.

Government supply depot manager Anitra Helden races to gather the last of Pol-G’s assets. Her plan to launch a mothballed freighter off Pol-G may be crazy—but it can work, if she can talk Gavril into helping. Their precious cargo? Four thousand stranded colonists.

Can Anitra and Gavril, and their ragtag crew get past the deadly military blockade?

It’s a desperate bid for freedom in deadly deep space—get your copy of Last Ship Off Polaris-G today!

Series note: The events in Last Ship Off Polaris-G take place several years before Overload Flux (Central Galactic Concordance, Book 1). Think of it as an introduction to the series, and a foreshadowing of things—and people—to come.

My Review

I love this series and the world that carol Van Natta created and after reading all the full length books and most of the novella’s I realized I still hadn’t gotten around to this one, which is technically the prequel. It really can easily be read anywhere in the series as it doesn’t have any strong ties with any other plot lines or characters, although it is set in the same universe and deals with the same themes. Namely the corrupt and dangerous CPS and minders who are just trying to survive.

I really liked Last Ship Off Polaris-G, even tough it’s shorter than the full length reads, the length feels right for the story it tells. The pacing is well done and I got quickly invested in these characters and their attempt to get off the planet. I also liked the plot, the planet Polaris-G is in a bit of a pickle. There is a blight and now there’s a blockade and people just want to get off the planet and there is this plan to do a massive exodus from the planet with everyone who wants to leave. The main characters are right in the middle of it all. And there are also some chapters from a captain aboard one of the CPS blockade ships who will have a role in what’s going down.

Gavril and Anita were easy to like and their chemistry was clear from the start. It’s a bit of a second chance romance, they walked away from each other years ago when their paths took them in different directions. But now they’re both stuck on this planet and Anitra asks him to help pilot and rebuild a ship she found and maybe they can also rebuild their romance. I enjoyed reading about these two. Anitra is hiding from the CPS and this frontier planet is the perfect place for it. Gavril is a trader who is now stuck behind the blockade. They both felt realistic and likable and they worked well together too.

I enjoyed seeing them work together and also meet the other side characters they interacted with. It also was great how the story had the same tone and feel than the rest of the series, but the story itself mostly stands alone. I was just happy to have had another story by Carol Van Natta to read. The plot kept my attention and got a bit suspenseful even later on. And there are some cute animals who make an appearance too.

I liked how this book had two empaths as main character as that’s a minder skill we haven’t seen as much about and I felt like this book definitely added to my understanding of this type of minder. And Anitra has another minder talent we hadn’t heard of yet in the rest of the series, which was interesting too.

I feel like each book in this series adds to the world and makes the whole universe come more alive. I enjoy how each book has likeable realistic characters that I enjoy reading about and fun stories with a bit of action and/ or suspense. I just love the series.

To summarize: I love this series and this was another great addition to the series. While listed as prequel it can be read anywhere in the series. I enjoyed the story of this planet with a blockade around it and the people stuck on the planet who wanted to leave. Gavril and Anitra were great main characters and I enjoyed reading about them. I also liked their second chance romance and seeing how well they worked together. Their feelings for each other were clear and came across really well even with most of their history being before the start of this story. I had a fun time with this story and now am all caught up with this series before book 5 releases. Can’t wait!

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last sci-fi book you read that took (partly) place aboard a space ship?

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6 responses to “Review: Last Ship Off Polaris-G by Carol Van Natta

    • I agree it serves as a great intro or as a novella to pick up anywhere later in the series. I am so happy she decided to turn it into a series as I love this series.

  1. A great review, Lola – I definitely need to get hold of this author. I’ve recently finished reading Honor’s Flight by Lindsey Buroker, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

    • I hope you pick up one of her books, she’s one of my favorite sci-fi authors. I am currently reading my first Lindsey Buroker book, Junkyard. It’s a prequel novella and I have book 1 to start after that. Good to know you enjoyed Honor’s Flight, i think I have that one too.

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