Outward Bound by Juanita Coulson (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia,
SFE), who is also an award-winning filksinger, is the 2nd novel in her Children of the Stars quartet of epic star-spanning generational saga science fiction novels sparked from an early contact between aliens and a powerful Earth family dynasty, this one starring a Mars-raised heiress who is determined to use an experimental faster than light stardrive to navigate through deep space, rather than waiting through the long cryogenic sleep which is the proven technology, despite opposition from her family and lover, who stand in the way of her dreams, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Venture imprint.
This was originally published in 1982 by Ballantine Books's Del Rey imprint and we've previously received the
entire quartet in an omnibus edition, as well as the
1st novel standalone.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)
Description
Brenna Foix Saunder is the Martian-reared daughter of Earth’s dynastic Saunder family.
Fiercely ambitious, beautiful and determined, she puts an untried and dangerous experimental star drive above her own life. Stifled by the media frenzy surrounding the Saunder family, she has utter contempt for newshunters who will risk anything to uncover information. Charlie Dahl is one such newshunter who proves he would rather see someone die than let a story slip through the net.
Brenna must seek refuge in the arms of her lover Derek, a man of immense charm, but trouble brews when he tries to stand in the way of her dreams. Can they maintain a truce or will politics infect their relationship in ways even they cannot begin to imagine?
To reach the stars by passing long years in frozen sleep is the only safe and sure way to complete her star drive mission. But Brenna Saunder can’t wait — even though faster-than-light drive experiments had already proved fatal once. She meant to conquer the light barrier — and to hell with everything her family and her lover could do to stop her.
They are outward bound, challenging the stars and fighting battles against one another.
And so continues the magnificent story of the dynamic Saunder family, as they reach beyond the grip of Earth’s Sun and its system in ‘Outward Bound’, the second volume of science fiction’s greatest family saga.