On Her Majesty's Starship Eclipse you need know only one rule. Don't rock the boat. It could cost you your life. If you over-turn the boat, be very afraid; aboard Eclipse, there are consequences a great deal worse than death.

Eclipse is set in a future where humans have ventured in to space, bringing with them all the socio-political woes that have dogged them forever. One day Earth was utterly destroyed by means unknown. If anyone has even a clue to what may have happened they aren't talking. Kestrel, and then its orbital habitat, also disappeared from the universe with no explanation forty years after Earth's catastrophe.

Enter James Dunne, middle child, victim of all that means, thrust evermore into the shadow of his older brother, Colin, after he committed suicide. Then his mom left. Then there was the Academy.

Spacecraft Services Officer James Dunne is 21 when he joins the crew of the Eclipse after graduation. He's more than ready to leave the Royal Interstellar Service Academy and its cruel traditions. He wants to live "The Dream" and leave the nightmare of his past behind.

It looked like it might work out that way, too. Before he's even on board, he meets SSO1 Sorcha Riley. She'd been out of his league at the Academy but now, traveling up the Ganymede Stalk to begin life on the Eclipse, they're getting on well.

There was much SSO1 James Dunne would learn on his mission into the black. Some of it is sure to reverberate through human space forever. Very, very little would be pleasant.

He couldn't know meeting Sorcha would be the best thing in his life. He couldn't know meeting Sorcha would be the beginning of a nightmare beyond imagining. He couldn't know the Academy was a petting zoo compared to the bestial reality of shipboard life for an SSO1 who makes an enemy his first day on board.

James is barely aboard the Eclipse when he finds himself coming to Sorcha's defense. He rocked the boat. He didn't even know there was a boat, but he spent time in the infirmary none-the-less. It wouldn't be the last time Executive Officer Ron Ferguson would discipline James.

Soon, James knew he was all but alone in a whole heck of grief he'd never out-maneuver short of dying.

When he thought it couldn't get worse it did. They came upon the ship, the one that shouldn't have been there because it was not a human ship. Humans believed they were alone in the universe.

They put him on the survey crew; sent him into the depths of an utterly alien environment. The claustrophobic corridors were bad enough without the personal horrors James found himself reliving while exploring the mysterious vessel. He found them: aliens; big, creepy, bug-like aliens. They were dead except for the four only almost dead. His life was going to get even worse when the survivors were removed to the Eclipse. It would be Captain Rudyard's demons that would ultimately change everything.

James and Sorcha never have a chance; even had they not made a critical error on day one they'd have stumbled over a different tripwire soon enough. They have only each other to keep themselves sane and barely manage that. They meet when they can, send messages to and fro and even fall in love for all the good it does either of them. I promise there is no happily-ever-after for anyone on Eclipse.

Eclipse has a relentless pace and as many nasty people as I've encountered in a novel in a while. No cliché cardboard bad guys, but individuals, shaped into their own hells by an incredibly cruel and corrupt system. Bedford gives us enough back-story to flesh them out while still keeping the focus on how incredibly dangerous they are; on how vulnerable James is every second of every day. Even the good guys are a sickly shade of grey, morally compromised by their own need to survive on Eclipse. They do what they can to help James but they too are at risk if Ferguson were to find out.

What kept Eclipse from being truly outstanding were lapses in final, polishing touches. There were sentences that seemed too wordy and spots where I'd have handled the dialogue differently. Background information crept in when I'd rather not have been pulled out of the immediate action. All were things which made me want to tighten the writing and refine the pace until the words became invisible, leaving every detail focused on James' ever worsening predicament aboard Eclipse. James is the story. He's what Bedford wanted me to care about and I did, but little stuff kept popping me out of the intensity of the story and it was frustrating.

Eclipse works in all the ways that matter. It kept me turning pages way past bedtime. It has an edge of barely contained terror throughout; it has love, (sort of); it has mysterious, very alien aliens. It has a big picture that gets bigger as the story ends. It left me eager for more. Eclipse convinced me that K.A. Bedford is an author to keep an eye on.

Eclipse has been nominated as a finalist for the Australian Aurealis Award. I wish Mr. Bedford good luck.

Synopsis
Watching HMS Eclipse through the geosynch spaceport window, Officer James Dunne, a newly minted graduate of the Royal Interstellar Service Academy, thinks his first assignment will be routine . . . an easy going excursion on an aging deep-space cruiser, heading into the Dark, on a mission to explore the farthest reaches of known space.
James had always wanted to be a part of the romantic final frontier. Now, he thought, his lifelong dream was about to come true.

In fact, he was about to begin the greatest challenge, and worst nightmare, of his already-too-short service career!

Although repeatedly warned "not to rock the boat", it soon becomes obvious that it is too late for the young Officer!

He is drafted into the First Contact Team where he realizes two things: (1) that his contribution to the Interstellar Space Service might easily turn out to be that of a 'replaceable warm body' and (2) that disrespecting junior officers, like Dunne himself, often suffer 'unfortunate' and sometimes fatal 'accidents' out in the Dark.

Dunne's survival will depend on his ability to separate power from perversion while enduring the corruption and control of others!