The Ocean in the Sky

Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle, Book 3

By: Gene Doucette

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Paul Boehmer

The mystery deepens....

In the heart of the authoritarian country of Wivvol, astronaut Xto Djbbit is about to embark on his first mission off-planet when the exiled High Hat of Chnta comes to him with an unusual request: Help smuggle a Septal artifact out of Wivvol. It’s an impossible favor to ask of Xto, but it’s also impossible to refuse; the High Hat of Chnta is also his uncle.

Meanwhile, waiting for Xto in space? His estranged father - who has his own impossible favors - and a mysterious anomaly whose secrets Xto is uniquely positioned to unlock.

On Lys, the space station for the super-wealthy, former Septal Other Dorn Jimbal struggles to understand what Professor Orno Linus learned before his untimely murder. Did Orno truly figure out how to stop the Outcast?

To get to the heart of Linus’ research, Dorn is going to have to work with the one person they absolutely cannot trust: Viselle Daska.

Xto and Dorn will both make discoveries that change the course of all life on the planet. Both will wish they hadn’t.

©2021 Gene Doucette (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc.

The puzzle pieces are coming together

The first two books in this series were fun read but all in all it wasn't clear at all where things were headed. In this book, the pieces are beginning to fall in place. Much of the story is told from the POV of a new protagonist, the astronaut Xto, from whom we'll hopefully hear more! Like almost all of Doucette's books, this was great writing with wry fun, nicely crafted but accessible. With the Immortals series and the Spaceship books he's become one of my favorite sco-fi authors of the last decade. If you like Scalzi, I'm sure you'll like this.

Why aren’t more people reading these?

This is an excellent series with well developed characters and great readers performing them. But where is (are) the 4th (and maybe 5th) book(s). Please Mr Doucette, I really want to know what happens to Dib and these wonderful characters.

he's such a good writer of scifi

my fave is the character development. his use of language incredibly satisfying with its original arrangements

Half of a Story

Doucette always writes well and often tells great stories. This one is slow getting underway, and then just as things are getting interesting it ends. Recommend waiting until the next book in the series comes out to get the completed story.