Gabriel's Ghost is a wonderful, fast paced science fiction romance novel that is packed with action, adventure and a steamy but tender romance.

Court-martialed on trumped up charges and sent to Moabar, the prison planet or Hell, as its know spacewide, the last person Captain Chasidah Bergren expects to see is Gabriel Sullivan, pirate, poet and devastatingly handsome bastard and dead or so the news vids had said. A death Chas had never been able to quite reconcile herself with and now he's here on Hell, just after she's forced to kill a guard intent on raping her. The fun though is far from over and when they are forced to run from a supposedly extinct jukor, a beast know for its uncontrollable killing instinct, she just knows her life is in for another major change.

The death of the jurkor is only the beginning of an adventure that will take her well out of her comfort zone and into the arms and heart of the man she has held lustful thoughts of for 6 years.

When she drags the information out of Sully that the empire is breeding jurkors in secret once again and that innocent Takan females are being used as surrogate mothers, who lose their lives horribly delivering the baby jurkors, she readily signs on to help, even though it means rethinking her straight-laced "by the book" upbringing, even though she knows through painful experience the empire is not above railroading her.

Her conventional knowledge will be both boon and anchor, causing Chas to have to suspend many on the "known" facts and histories she grew up on and trust the one man she both loves and at times fears.

Linnea Sinclair creates wonderfully deep characters in exciting situations with a liberal dash of sizzle between Sully and Chas in this excellent book. Ms Sinclair has a real talent for combining SF and romance into absolutely delicious novels. She has become one of that authors I pick up without question knowing that if she wrote it, it will be a great read.

If any of you out there are not familiar with the work of Megan Sybil Baker (or her very close and personal friend, Linnea Sinclair) let me be the first to introduce you to the extraordinary talent of this fantastic author. For those of you who are already in the know, there is no doubt that you are aware of exactly where this review is going.

I recently had the pleasure of picking my copy of GABRIEL'S GHOST up from one of my many bookshelves, as I was in the mood for a really good SF romp across the galaxy. Having read Linnea Sinclair's fantastic FINDER'S KEEPERS not too long ago, I was pretty sure that the ride in GABRIEL'S GHOST would be an exciting one as well. Let me tell you, I was NOT disappointed.

GABRIEL'S GHOST starts out on the prison world of Moabar where former Imperial Captain Chasidah Bergren has been banished after a Court Marshal stripped her of command. The harsh conditions of the planetary prison make her chances for survival close to zero. That is, until she finds herself smack in the middle of an impromptu rescue attempt by a man she had thought long dead. From there, the story twists and turns wonderfully through several plots and sub-plots (including the main thrust of the story, which involves some very illegal and horrific genetic experiments) in a headlong rush toward a very satisfying ending. What lies in between is great stuff, folks, a real-page turner of a tale to get you hooked and keep you that way right on through to the very last page.

I usually like to reveal a little bit more of the plot in these reviews but not this time, nope, no way. To do that might give away some of the fun in reading this novel and I wouldn't want to do that. It just wouldn't be fair to you. I will say this, though--once you pick up GABRIEL'S GHOST, good luck with putting it down. I've been on a pretty good pace with my reading so far this year, but this one was finished before I'd hardly realized I'd started it.

This tale is filled with fantastic characters, people who you come to know and hate to leave as the end draws near. One character in particular, Frayne Ackravaro Ren Elt (known simply as 'Ren'), a Stolorth Ragkiril, was my favorite. You see, the hated Stolorth are feared galaxy-wide for their deadly Ragkiril mind talents. Unfortunately, Ren is blind and so much of the deadly talents held by the Ragkiril depends on making eye contact with their victims. However, Ren retains his empathic abilities and this makes for a truly fantastic character.

Then of course, there is one more character I should mention (especially since his name is in the title of this great book), Gabriel Ross Sullivan. Known to Chasidah Bergren as Sully, known to the Englarian Monks as Brother Sudral and known to the Officers of the Imperial Fleet as a no-good smuggler and pirate who had finally been killed years ago, there is more to this man than meets the eye...or should I say, mind? Hmmm, I'll just keep you guessing there.

Ok, that's all you'll get out of me on this one. I'm not going to play the spoiler with GABRIEL'S GHOST. This book will more than please all fans of action-oriented science fiction, especially those who like a little romantic twist worked into their adventure tales. I highly recommend this book as well as the recent 2003 EPPIE Winner--FINDER'S KEEPERS (mentioned earlier). Readers can get more information about GABRIEL'S GHOST from the publisher's website: http://www.ltdbooks.com/ and can learn more about this great author and her other available novels at her own website: http://www.starfreighter.com/

I'm telling you, get your hands on this one, folks--I think you'll find that, just like me, you will NOT be disappointed.

Synopsis
Nothing to fear... or is there?

Imperial patrolship captain Chasidah Bergren has more trouble than she needs.

Stripped of command in a sham court-martial and sent to the harsh prison world of Moabar, her life can't possibly get any worse.

Until she's rescued by smuggler Gabriel Ross Sullivan, her former nemesis and almost lover. A dead man with a mission. He offers her freedom in exchange for her help in stopping an illegal genetics experiment that's already claimed far too many lives. And could place the Empire on the brink of civil war.

But Chaz doesn't know that Sully's a ghost with a deadly, dark secret. A secret she was trained to hate and fear; one she may have to risk her life and her heart to protect.