Full speed to a crash landing

Revis (Across the Universe) opens her space cowboy trilogy with a quirky sci-fi romp set in a universe where climate change has rendered the original Earth inhospitable but newer, better versions of the planet have been created for those rich enough to emigrate. Readers meet space debris looter Ada Lamarr as the oxygen in her spacesuit dwindles during an ill-planned scavenging mission. In need of a quick rescue, she gets picked up by a government salvage ship headed out on a secret mission. At the center of the plot is the push-pull conflict and romantic tension between Ada and government agent Rian White, both of whom have strong ideas about how to solve Earth's climate crisis. Rian and readers alike soon come to suspect there's more to Ada hiding behind her self-deprecating, dad-joke-loving facade. While Ada's characterization occasionally grates, Revis throws in enough surprise twists to make up for any annoyance. With plenty of teasing about what's to come, this is sure to leave readers itching for the next installment. Agent: Navah Wolfe, Writers House. (Aug.)

Ada Lamarr is clearly up to something, even as the oxygen dwindles in her spaceship and she worries whether or not she'll be rescued. Her eventual rescuer, a government ship on its way to salvage a badly crashed ship on a self-destructing planetoid, is up to the same thing as Ada was. There's high-value cargo hidden somewhere aboard the wreck, and Ada planned to get it. The government agent who rescued Ada is hoping to keep her in the dark about his mission, even though he couldn't manage to leave her in the blackness of space. But she's playing him, he's playing her, and they're just befuddled enough by each other that her much better-planned mission is the one that wins out--at least for now. VERDICT Readers looking for a wild romp of a sci-fi caper story, complete with long games, big plans, wild heists, and epically flirtatious banter, are going to fall in love with Ada Lamarr every bit as much as Agent Rian White does in this first of a projected trilogy from Revis (Museum of Magic). Perfect for fans of Valerie Valdes and Constance Fay.--Marlene Harris