Space Trap by noted filksinger Juanita Coulson (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia) is her vintage standalone science fiction space opera adventure novel involving some sort of inadvertent alien first contact after a spaceship mysteriously becomes downed on a strange planet, free courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press's Venture, who are e-printing it from its original 1976 paperback, where it was #20 in the old Laser Books (non-romance) science fiction imprint (
Wikipedia) from Harlequin.
Fun fact: the main reason why I know Juanita Coulson's name in the first place is because long, long ago (but not in a galaxy far, far away), the Firebird Arts & Music catalogue used to have a listing for one her very old OOP quasi-historical-based sf/fantasy paperbacks, which boasted that it had perhaps the most inaccurate cover art ever for the actual story within.
Which is the kind of description one pays attention to, given the notoriously low standard of cover art for sfnal genre to begin with. (I don't really recall the details, but apparently the publisher may have decided to market it as a straightforward historical romance, and that seemed not to have been one of those genre-hybrid sorts of books, and the ensuing character/situation/period depictions were also wrong on top of that.)
Anyway, since then I've been kind of morbidly curious about her actual writing, so it's a real treat to receive one of her novels to try, thanks to Endeavour's generous giveaways of their reprint program.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the
UK and probably pretty much everywhere else they sell worldwide, since this is being done via the KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
It was tough picking between this one and the Aarhus University Press' competing offering of a very nifty-looking cultural studies book which includes a lot of Canadian case studies. But I guess there's also some adjacent-Canadiana for Coulson as well, as it turns out that she was an
inductee into FilKONtario's Hall of Fame for her filksinging contributions, so I guess it all works out.
Enjoy!
Description
O Brave New World…
Ken Farrell has been paired with the best – and the hardest – mentor as a new Surveyman out of the Academy.
R.C. Zachary is a legend; one of the first Surveymen and a stickler for the rules. Tough but fair, R.C. snaps at an undeserving Ken after a meeting with top brass, piquing the apprentice’s curiosity.
What happened in the meeting that almost caused them to miss their flight time? When R.C. has the two-man team drop by an unscheduled planet, Ken begins to suspect that something is going on.
Soon after a mysterious face warns Ken away from the planet, their ship is caught in an incredibly powerful gravity well, sucking them down towards the strange planet.
After making it to the surface, thanks only to R.C.’s legendary piloting skills, they soon encounter an alien race, one that has become hostile due to a misunderstanding. Ken connects with one of them, Thayenta, and he works to understand the telepathic race even as their leader, Briv, proves to be extremely aggressive.
Can he, Thayenta, and R.C. clear the air?
Will there be peace between the two peoples?
In this thrilling race against time and conflict, alien worlds are explored, human issues addressed, and connection, the most basic instinct of all, is built.
Space Trap is a gripping science fiction outing from Juanita Coulson, beloved author of the Children of the Stars series.