Starship Repo is the second book in Patrick S. Tomlinson's current series, which started off with Gate Crashers, where mankind discovered that the final frontier was bounded by a fence marked "Human-Wildlife Sanctuary" and took a pair of cutters to the fence. Humans have been free-range for a while as this book opens, but still a pretty rare sight.

In fact, Firstname Lastname, which is what it says on our main character's galactic travel documents due to a "clerical error' is the first human most of the inhabitants of Junktion station, where she winds up at the beginning of the book, have ever seen. First, as she likes to be called, is a 17-18-year-old human female who lit out from the colony on Beta Centauri to get away from bad choices there and move on to bad choices out in the galaxy.

She's been making her way into the unexplored regions of galactic civilization by conning, stealing, and generally cheating the more gullible elements of galactic society.

At least until she goes 'straight' after being caught by the head of a firm that can use her talents for, if not good, at least more or less legal pursuits, like repossessing starships. Now her roommate is a sentient rock, her supervisor is a member of the race that tried to wipe humanity off the face of the cosmos, and her talent for getting involved in other people's problems has put her on probation.

Teenagers, go figure.

The 'novel' is really a series of short stories, one for each of the increasingly escalating capers, among which we're surprised to learn that stealing, I mean repoing a galactic cruise ship isn't nearly the biggest thing you could repossess. The capers are fun, but the real deal is the interplay between this particular band of misfits and our plucky gal.

Hopefully, she'll be back in future stories set in this universe, because she's just what humanity needs to make its mark in galactic civilization.

Here on NetGalley, Starship Repo got a pretty good reception, but over on Amazon, it's only managed to pull 3 stars. That's a pity because it's as smart as it is funny and well worth reading for fans of space opera and YASF, especially if you like it with a touch of humor. And when I say humor, it's not potty humor, but more absurd situation humor with a lot of classic SF references tossed in for fun.

I read a review that called this an episodic read, and that is true. I was able to put it down and pick it up. It was fun and quirky, perhaps a bit reminiscent of Becky Chambers. I enjoyed it.

Starship Repo by Patrick Tomlinson, a fun enjoyable read. Firstname Lastname is the only human on the station stuck with a name by way of a clerical error, She is looking to make money any way she can.