Book Review: Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg

Dace is too young to be the captain of a starship, but she’s never let details like that stop her before.  Fueled by determination, she obtains her own ship, takes on a crew, and is on her first official voyage when something goes terribly wrong with the ship and she is forced to crash-land on a planet much more primitive than her own.  The inhabitants of the planet believe she is a demon who has come to destroy their crops, and they want to burn her at the stake to rid the land of her evil.  She manages to escape, but then runs into Tayvis, a delegate from Space Patrol, who’s not entirely certain she’s telling the truth either.

Tayvis has come in search of information about drug smuggling on this planet, and he’s not sure what to make of Dace.  She’s spunky, but she has a propensity toward getting into trouble like nothing he’s ever seen.  He’s either rescuing her … or being rescued by her … seemingly all the time, and he doesn’t know if she’s lying to him at every turn or just having a really long run of bad luck.  But one thing he does know—she’s getting to him in ways no woman ever has before.

Nexus Point: The Fall of the Altairan Empire by Jaleta Clegg is a science fiction novel with strong romantic elements.  I have to admit, I’m not much of a sci-fi fan—my experience is largely confined to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Many of the finer details of the story went right over my head.  But I thought the action was compelling, the romance was sufficiently heart-thumpy, and Dace makes an inspirational main character, someone you can root for and want to see succeed. I can see myself broadening my usual reading fare to include more novels along these lines.