Frontier Incursion: A Sci-Fi Novel that Animal Lovers Will Love

“Frontier Incursion” is a science fiction novel written for young adults. It’s about a young girl named Shanna, who has just attained her dream of being part of the Scout Corps, a group tasked with studying Frontier, a planet that their ancestors had discovered centuries ago. But Frontier is threatened by hostile forces, and Shanna and her compatriots need to do what they can to help save it.

Now, I am neither young nor a sci-fi fan, but I am happy to say that I enjoyed the book. As a work of fiction, I think it ranks among some of the most interesting ones I’ve read.

The book’s strongest point, I would say, is the author’s clean style of writing. I’ve noticed that many fantasy writers have a tendency to use too many words to describe too many things, but this book mercifully spares me from that. Ms. Rogers budgets her words like a prudent manager; still, she is able to pull you into the story. The narrative moves quickly, and you feel the characters, you get wide-eyed at the fascinating world that the characters see, and you believe the situations that the characters find themselves in.

One of the things that make this book special is its uncommon empathy for animals. Among the book’s highlighted characters are the starcats, a set of intelligent and regal pantherlike creatures who end up playing an important role in the scouts’ mission. Right now, I am in love with starcats. You simply don’t find a lot of books that have this kind of heart for animals these days, so I think animal lovers would enjoy this novel very much.

As a parent, I appreciate that this book was written with young adults well in mind. You see, our family shares one Kindle account, and my kids can access everything I download. Now some books, although I enjoy reading them myself, I would not feel comfortable having them displayed in my Kindle library, where they can be seen and read by my impressionable teenagers. But this is one book I would actually want them to read. The language is robust but clean. The story is adventurous but not crass. There are good values without any preaching. I dare say my kids will enjoy it too!