Rynn Cameron

I picked up this book based on the description in the catalog my local science fiction/fantasy bookstore produces every quarter:(http://www.deadwrite.com/sfk11.html)

After being exposed to radioactive particles as part of a clean-up gang in the depths of space, Tanyana is told she has developed a hitherto-unseen ability to understand the apparently sentient stuff. Powerless, penniless and scarred, Tanyana must adjust to a new life collecting magical garbage - 'debris' - but starts to realize debris is more important than anyone could guess.

That doesn't quite fit, as it all takes place on the ground, but it did its job and convinced me to try the book. Especially as it's published by AngryRobotBooks.com, which publish interesting reads that are not quite like anyone else's.

It was wonderful.

I was afraid it would be dry and distant, as Horrible Things Are Happening books tend to be, but it wasn't. It made me care about Tanyana, and about her coworkers and those she meets and those incidental characters who may or may not survive the story. It wasn't an intimate tale, but it has a similar feel to "Canticle for Leibowitz" best as I recall, being about someone you could never be but you still admire and care about. Or like "Dune" but with a Paul Atreides that you have sympathy for.

This book could be classed as steampunk, as machinery works in non-normal fashion, but I don't like steampunk. It could be urban fantasy depending on what you're expecting, even though it's not set on Earth. Or science fiction, where magic and science are indistinguishable as Clarke claimed. Or future history, as it seems you could make a case for this world being a lost Russian colony. Regardless, it's a good read.

There's a second book in the works, although it stands alone nicely.

Give it a try.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Debris-Jo-Anderton/9780857661548-item.html?ikwid=anderton&ikwsec=Books

(Great cover.)

A friend recommended this Young Adult book (our heroine is 17), so I read it. Take a Regency story with all the clothes and parties, add in the war (Napoleon has just escaped), Egyptian artifacts and a clever heroine about to make her come out. Great fun, high tension at times, and very real sympathy for all the characters. Definitely recommended for ages 12 and up.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Wrapped-Jennifer-Bradbury/9781416990079-item.html?ikwid=wrapped&ikwsec=Home