barnesm31's review
5.0
A place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal .. all alone in the night. Well that's the introduction to Babylon 5, but THIS is the story of another space station in a different story - Asteri Station on the fringes of the Hegemon Economic Alliance.
These stories are told by and about a handful of characters and begin with the arrival of Ori Bligh the privileged scion of a wealthy family whose well mapped trail in the Grey Guards is delayed due to a stupid mistake. Ori finds herself on a 3 years hiatus on this backwater station the heart of which is the ZOO, a bar run by Absinthe Krull an aquatic alien with a terrible crime in his past. The station always seems to be on the verge of irrevocable breaking down with only Zev Smith an old Terran, as worn down as the station he constantly patching up, to maintain it. He has seen, or perhaps done terrible things to find himself here. Then there is Cordelia Bane a bounty hunter trying to clear a debt for a hidden boss hoping for work from an old and dear friend Clare O'Malley (a familiar name for fans) both with secrets.
The 14 tales cover the contemporary trials at the station, but as the characters engage with each other their stories reveal more of this unique universe's history from hundreds of years ago to more recently which only makes us want to learn more.
Each secret is revealed and characters face the consequences of historical choices made Ori Bligh is left to decide if the black and white world she was forcibly dismissed is really what she wants to choose over the people she has gotten to know.
I only hope there is more, as the ending was a cliff-hanger.
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