This was an excellent thriller/ adventure in space. The character building and diversity was wonderful. The plot moved with the pace of a thriller but the crew camaraderie made for a pleasant and enjoyable read. This was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more of this writer's work.

"Stars Uncharted" eBook was published in 2018 (August) and was written by S. K. Dunstall (Sherylyn and Karen Dunstall - http://www.skdunstall.com). This is their fourth publication. 

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in the far future. The primary characters are Captain Hammond Roystan, Junior Engineer Josune Arriola, and Body-Modification Artist, Nika Rik Terri.

The Road to the Goberlings and her crew led by Roystan had come across the infamous ship Hassim. The Road, while basically a merchant vessel, was not about to overlook a financial windfall. What they had found when they boarded the Hassim was the crew dead and the ship occupied by heavily armed Company men. The Road's crew took the Hassim from the Corporate men and claimed her for salvage. Roystan needed to lead his crew in a quick sale of the Hassim and disappear before the Corporation's men could find them. 

Arriola had been undercover on board The Road. She was really part of the Hassim's crew. She had been sent to The Road to keep an eye on Roystan. Terri had wound up in the pocket of ruthless Corporate thugs. While a Body-Modification  Artist, she had more than enough ability to mend the Corporation's men. When an assassin forced her cooperation, she took the opportunity to run from the Corporation. 

Roystan, Arriola, and Terri find themselves together and struggling to avoid the same Corporation. The Corporation believes that Roystan may have information that will lead to an incredibly valuable mineral deposit. All of this leads the three into one dangerous situation after another. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 10 hours I spent reading this 416 page science fiction thriller. I liked all of the characters created for this novel. I did think the whole body-modification art was a bit weird, but we do have a growing 'Body Hacking' movement so who knows. It did give a little different twist to the plot. I am not a big fan of the chosen cover art. This is the third work of Dunstall and I have enjoyed them all, though I think this is the best of their novels. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

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This was ... good. Capable. Can't remember much about it right now, which says more about me than it does about the book, but also a little about the book. Perhaps it's the lingering disappointment that all of those body modification conversations skirted so, so far around the margins of identity, orientation, attraction, and so forth. And that one of the first things that happens in the book is that several of our main characters lock a bad guy in a body mod machine without his consent and change his body while he's unconscious. Sure, he's a bad guy. Sure, he eventually thanks you for it. But hell, that's ... that's incredibly against everything that I believe in about the body and its relationship to identity and the individual's right to have control over what happens to their own body. Maybe if it had been dealt with in a nuanced and sophisticated fashion, rather than dismissed out of hand because bad guys deserve whatever they get, and bad guys deserve for their bodies to become a source of comic relief ... maybe I wouldn't feel as I do. But I won't be getting past that anytime soon.

World building: 4.5 plot: 3.5 characters: 4.5 Writing: 4

Thoroughly enjoyable, action-packed, sci-fi about a motley crew of spacefarers thrown together by circumstance. In this world, body modification for health, style, or pleasure is easily available if you have the cash, and the “modders” who do those modifications are held in far greater esteem than doctors. Nika Rik Terri is the acknowledged best, but some nasty customers who prefer not to leave witnesses have her on the run; Josune Arriola was sent to spy on Captain Hammond Roystan — clearly not the simple cargo runner he appears — but remains when her own ship shows up with a full complement of dead crew members.

In a galaxy where the big 27 Combines run the legal system, justice can be difficult to procure leading to intrigue and imaginative fight and / or flight scenes. Exploration of the art and science of body modification via genetic engineering is pervasive throughout — details of design, implementation, requirements, source materials, equipment, and the challenges of difficult cases make for interesting reading. Plenty of technical detail on fixing up their (oft attacked) ship as well. In addition to the action, I found a couple of other points interesting: Nika — the top notch modder — thinks about why style and appearance are so important to her and how that may have caused her problems in the past. Also, I found the contrast between current and previous modder training interesting — the newer training taught people to rely on technicians and equipment rather than their own deep expertise; Nika prefers to be able to maintain, extend, and even create her own equipment. A good analogy for traiing in many fields today.

Great for fans of Andy Weir, Becky Chambers, CJ Cherryh, and Lois McMaster Bujold.

This had somewhat of a slow start, but became more engaging as it progressed. I liked the characterizations and the premise was interesting. I could see the plot twist a mile away, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment.

An engaging story. I cared for the characters and found the story interesting. I will be on the lookout for the sequel!

This was glorious fun. Sort of a cross between Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga (minus Miles - he's in a class by himself) and C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter series. A nicely worn universe with intriguing characters and riveting action; you'll be pulled in from the very start and you'll never let go. Great plotting - just how are they going to get out of this pretty pickle? I haven't had this much fun in ages. More, more!!

Stars Uncharted may start off at a gentle pace, but it soon takes off and becomes a thrilling, riveting book that I could not bring myself to put down. The world-building is truly top notch and I found myself fully immersed in this story. I've found myself reading more and more space-themed books, and Stars Uncharted is going right to the top of those that I've read.

**Full review to be posted closer to publication date and cross-posted to Goodreads and Amazon upon release.**

Space travel, body modding, corrupt Companies, and three people who mask their true identities lead to an adventure of grand proportions in Stars Uncharted by S. K. Dunstall. 

Nika Rik Terri, a renowned body modder, Josune Arriola, a crew member on The Road keeping her past on The Hassim's crew hidden for a seamless infiltration, and Hammond Roystan, captain of The Road who keeps numerous and incredibly impactful secrets about himself, are brought together by circumstances that threaten their lives. Coming to the modding studio where Nika has just enlisted novice modder Snow's aid in order to escape the problems her past brought to light, Roystan inadvertently provides a convenient escape that also helps him and Josune accomplish their goals of evading those seeking the valuable memory they took from decimated The Hassim. As forces seem to conspire against them, they'll need to work together and use everyone's strengths to have a chance of surviving against a Company attack. 

A slow-burning build that incrementally ratchets up the tension until the action is nearly constant, this novel gets readers invested in the distinct characters and their stories as they intertwine into one cohesive tale. This narrative is both entertaining and intriguing with the unique technologies it incorporates; though the new technology and terminology that was presented within this story didn't overwhelm and was a great attraction that sets it apart from many sci-fi stories, the overly familiar space travel and bad guys chasing good guys elements detracted from the strength of the narrative as a whole. Amidst the technology and science that is necessary to sustain the world presented the human element and characterization isn't sacrificed, particularly in the two strong female narrating characters of Nika and Josune, making the complexities of the story easy to follow and relate to. 

Overall, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

This another of those books that are very confusing for the first couple of chapters. You must stick with it because it rapidly starts to make sense and the adventure is outstanding. I initially thought of giving this four stars but by the finish it was a solid five star book. The science of future body modification is well thought out and does not overwhelm the story. 'Stars Uncharted' would make a great summer beach read. It's a studio, not a shop.

Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall Ace Books
A new book by the Dunstall sisters, authors of The Linesman novels, is a space adventure
set in Earth’s future. In this era, humankind has expanded out from one planet to many systems,
many of them run by companies, which act as corporate governments, and are as brutal to deal
with as any Earthbound mob. Business owners who don’t want any trouble pay protection money
to enforcers, and are often forced to do favors to keep from having their livelihoods forcibly
curtailed.
Body modification has expanded from a few nips and tucks here, an implant there, to a
full-on art form, practiced by experts known as modders. Nika Rik Terri, one of the two
protagonists of the book, is one of the finest ever trained, with an eye that catches details no one
else would notice. Her abusive former boyfriend works for Eaglehawk Company. After years of
violence and control, she appealed to his boss to keep him away from her. He obliges, but only in
exchange for her remodeling any of his people who are injured, remaking their faces and bodies
to disguise them as necessary with her genemod machines. An enforcer comes to her bleeding
from a stomach wound, demanding to use her exchanger, a device that she invented, that swaps
the minds of two people for a period of twenty-four hours. She had thought that the invention
was a secret. The assassin needs her body to carry out a job. Nika knows she won’t be left alive.
She sets up a trap to change the assassin out of all recognition and and trap him in a machine
until she has time to escape. Nika goes on the run, desperate to get as far away from the assassin,
the boyfriend, and his boss as she can.
Josune Arriola, the second protagonist, is an engineer on board the Road to the
Goberlings, a trading ship captained by Hammond Roystan, a good man who suffers from a
number of ailments that might or might not be genemod related. Josune used to be on board the
Hassim, an exploration vessel. She was sent to insinuate herself into the crew of the Road by
Captain Feyodor. The entire crew of the Hassim is obsessed by Goberlin, an explorer of the past
century, who found an unbelievably huge vein of the rare transuride minerals. Feyodor wanted to
meet Captain Roystan, but does not manage it. Her ship arrives in the vicinity of the Road, but
everyone on board is dead. Because Hassim has traveled widely, many of the companies believe
that it holds information about Goberlin’s discoveries, and won’t believe the Road’s salvagers
that they have not discovered its secrets. Therefore, their crew must also go on the run, hiding
their identities from everyone the meet. Along the way, Nika, a younger modder named Snow,
Josune, and the crew of the Road have to band together to survive.
The Dunstalls have created a complex and coherent universe that comes alive in Stars
Uncharted. Their descriptions of how the so-far fictional science of body modification works,
how long it takes and what materials and chemicals are involved, is beautifully depicted.
Everything they present has a meaning and, like Chekov’s gun on the mantelpiece, is used before
the story ends. They are adept at creating realistic characters whose fates the reader will care
about, even when it seems that it’s impossible for them to survive. Every so often, they present
the reader with what seems like the world’s worst-kept secrets, and one conclusion in particular
that you come to early in the book about one character, then dismiss because of numerous red
herrings, turns out to have been right all along. The book makes very good reading. If you enjoy
space opera and great characters, you will enjoy Stars Uncharted.

S.K. Dunstall is the nom de plume of a pair of sisters who both were writers from an early age, until deciding that collaboration would play to both their strengths. And they were right. I ripped through this book almost without stopping.

We have a genius “body modder,” Nika Rik Terri, who redesigns people's bodies right down to the molecular level. Famous throughout the reaches of space, she has of late made a discovery that unfortunately has caused her abusive stinker of a boyfriend and his very shady friends to curtail her life even more than it’s been. She is meticulously planning her escape (because she knows they will come after her) when events spiral out of control . . .

We then meet Josune Arriola, who was crew on the famous explorer ship the Hassim, until her captain sent her in secret to infiltrate the crew under Captain Hammond Roystan, who seems to be an ordinary trader, piloting The Road. But Roystan has many secrets, one of which, Josune believes, might be the key to finding a lost world full of a crucial element. Whoever finds it will have untold wealth and power.

Josune, Nika, and Roystan end up together, along with a vivid cast as they are chased across the galaxy. The story is full of twists and turns as The Road’s crew is forced to be inventive, staying half a step ahead of very bad people, while wondering if they can trust one another, because everybody has secrets.

The action accelerates to a crazy pace, but characterization is not forgotten. I especially loved the unfolding friendship between Josune and Nika. Such very different women, alike only in their growing respect for each other.

I really hope there will be more in this universe.

This one opens up an entire new world for S. K. Dunstall to have fun and play with. I loved their Linesman series and could not wait to see what they came up with next. What they did is an entirely new world with characters who have a very different backstory. There are no lines or linesman just an rip roaring adventure filled with tension and danger. Captain Hammond Roystan is older than he looks and more than he seems. Josune Arriola was on a very different mission that has left her out in the cold. Nika Rik Terri is running from an abusive lover and a dangerous client. Together they make up a very unusual group trying to keep ahead of their enemies and stay alive. They are joined by interesting side characters who also help keep the story moving. Just a note; Nika Rik Terri is a body-modification artist, something that adds a interesting twist to all the characters and action.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.