The Spiderboys of Aranae

Volume I

by

Glenn Thomas

A story and writing so good I saw it as a movie in my head!

The Spiderboys of Aranae: Volume I by Glenn Thomas is a wonderful science fiction/western tale set in the Earth colony of Aranae, where spiders are the size of horses and are used in much the same manner. Sixteen-year-old Haley Morgan, the youngest daughter of Aranae billionaire and inventor Wes Morgan, is undergoing some growing pains. Having recently witnessed her mother’s murder during a holdup, she has one more argument in a string of arguments with her father and decides to show him the error of his ways by going after the man responsible for her mother’s death. 

Haley is everything her father claims she is: impatient, impulsive, reckless, and short-tempered, but also absolutely adorable. At that awkward point of adolescence, not a child but not yet an adult, Haley longs for the freedom she is sure her older siblings already enjoyed when they were her age. She’s determined to strike out on her own, support herself, and retrieve her mother’s wedding ring, stolen by her killer, to throw back in her father’s face as proof of her worth. 

She steals her favorite spider mount, Paladin, the subject of her and her father’s last big blow-up, and heads out across the treacherous and deadly desert plain of Aranae toward the outlaw Frank Nugent’s last known whereabouts. The girl is engaging and proves to be fairly adept at taking care of herself, not only eluding her father’s hired hands sent to bring her back home but staying one step ahead of the many villains she encounters along the way. 

I enjoyed that she met some of her goals and was disappointed when others didn’t work out as planned, which left room for future adventures. A tense standoff with a vicious example of one of Aranae’s native inhabitants had me on the edge of my seat. I fervently hope for a Volume II in the near future! 

I recommend THE SPIDERBOYS OF ARANAE: VOLUME I to readers of science fiction/space opera-style stories.

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