The first book in the Starship's Mage series. The book was originally five different novellas that were later published in one volume.
Damien Montgomery is a newly-graduated Jump Mage, one of the men and women capable of teleporting starships a light-year away, making interstellar travel possible. Unfortunately, he is also a Mage By Right, meaning he was born into a mundane family instead of a magical one. While there is no legal distinction, he does not have the political connections of a Mage By Blood, leading him to be passed over in favor of others.
That all changes when the merchant ship Blue Jay is blacklisted after their mage—the local governor's son—kills himself jumping the ship to safety. Due to his limited options, Damien signs on. When the ship is attacked by pirates, Damien rewires the amplifier designed to allow mages to jump the ship, letting him attack the enemy with magic. Unfortunately, since everyone knows it is impossible to modify an amplifier safely, Damien is charged with the attempted murder of the entire crew.
On the run from the Protectorate, a Hand of the Mage-King, and UnArcana worlds, Damien and the crew of the Blue Jay are forced to confront their morality and decide what they are willing to do to survive.
This book provides examples of:
- Big Bad: Mikhail Azure is the head of Blue Star Syndicate.
- Cool Ship: Mikhail Azure travels around in a stolen Navy battleship.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Kelly LaMonte and Damien break up at the end as he has to do training on Mars.
- Dramatic Irony: Damien and the Blue Jay flee across all of space to escape the Hand. The Hand is trying to protect them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- Amber, which is a bit of a future utopia for American Libertarians. Healthcare coverage is required by the Protectorate, but in Amber, you still need to pay the toll to get to the hospital.
- Sherwood's culture and background is largely Scottish.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: Mages can transport ships up to a light year in an instant, but they need to rest between jumps or risk burning themselves out—painfully and fatally. This happened to the original ship's mage on the Blue Jay, who sacrificed himself to allow the rest of the crew to escape from pirates, and setting up the action in the book (the mage who died was a relative of "the McLaughlin," Governor of Sherwood.)
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kenneth McLaughlin for the Blue Jay at the beginning of the first book. Defied by Damien at the end of the first chapter by Taking A Third Option. Played straight with Singh, who dies defending the Blue Jay from a surprise attack.
- The Mafia: They're apparently still around in the distant future and the Falcone family is one of their members.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Damien is arrested for altering a rune and spend either twenty years behind bars or have his magic stripped away. This despite his alterations worked and were the only reason he's still alive.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: It is still practiced on Darkport, where our heroes are forced to seek refuge. They are disgusted.
- The Syndicate: The Blue Star Syndicate is this. It's in the name. It's also a bunch of Space Pirates, though.
- What You Are in the Dark: Explicitly Alaura Stealey's reason for letting Damien and the crew of the Blue Jay flee from Protectorate law. Someone with Damien's Rune Wright ability could do a lot of damage as an independent power, or do a lot of good for the Protectorate. Either she's giving him enough rope to hang himself with, or she can catch up with him and hire him later.
- Wrench Wench: Kelly, the engineer onboard the Blue Jay.
- Wretched Hive: Darkpot is a place where slavery is practiced and ruled by the Falcone family.
