Less Star Wars, More Star Work?

[brainwane]

I was reading a bit of military SF whose protagonist is a woman, and it got into more "galaxy-spanning intrigue and conspiracy" stuff, and I realized that what I had actually wanted was chick lit about a woman's career as a space mercenary and her ambition to get promoted. (As Leonard put it, "Can a space woman have it all?")

I welcome recommendations for, like, The Devil Wears A Prada EVA Suit. Pro fic and fan fic are both of interest!

(So far I think what I know to read in this subgenre is Elizabeth Moon's work (edited 30 Jan to add: I read a single Moon book once, Trading in Danger), and Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik which someone recommended.)

Feel free to publicly link this to help find more recommendations!

Comments

[oracne]

I would read that! Have you read The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald? Not mercenaries but very gritty-details about quartermaster stuff. It's first in a trilogy.

"Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a hero. She has the medals and the scars to prove it.

She's cooling her heels on Kookaburra, recovering from injuries sustained during the fiery loss of her last ship, the Yangtze, and she's bored -- so bored, in fact, that she takes a berth on the next ship out. That's a mistake. The Aral Sea isn't anyone's idea of a get-well tour.

Jodenny's handed a division full of misfits, incompetents, and criminals. She's a squared-away officer. She thinks she can handle it all. She's wrong. Aral Sea isn't a happy ship. And it's about to get a lot unhappier.

As Aral Sea enters the Alcheringa -- the alien-constructed space warp that allows giant settler-ships to travel between worlds, away from all help or hope -- Jodenny comes face to face something powerful enough to dwarf even the unknown force that destroyed her last ship and left her with missing memories and bloody nightmares. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is about to be introduced to love.

Author Sandra McDonald brings her personal knowledge of the military, and of the subtle interplay between men and women on deployment, to a stirring tale that mixes ancient Australian folklore with the colonization of the stars."

[brainwane]

THIS SOUNDS GREAT. THIS SOUNDS PRECISELY LIKE WHAT I WOULD LIKE. Thank you! And I see the whole trilogy is out so I wouldn't have to wait for the sequels!

[oracne]

BOOK PIMPAGE VICTORY ACCOMPLISHED.

[emceeaich]

I loved those books and I want more space logistics fiction.