Adventures in Space

Eric and his brother John Crichton come from a spacefaring family. Their parents built a major interstellar shipping line before disappearing in space. The boys, in their early teens, could stay safely on Earth, living off their trust fund. Instead, they bought two elderly starships and combined them into a single functional freighter. They convinced older sister, Maryam, their legal guardian, to accompany them as the ship’s doctor.

Crash Landing, by Christopher G. Nuttall, the second book in the "Boy's Own Starship" series, follows the trio as they continue their adventures.

Having succeeded in making a profit, almost despite themselves, they and their ship, Max Jones, are on Winchester’s World, discharging cargo and seeking another shipment. While there, they take on another crew member, Vanessa Carmichael. The daughter of a rich businessman, she has her basic spacer’s certification and wants experience on a ship not owned by her father. The Crichtons take her, determining that an extra hand would be useful.

They soon find a charter. They are told plague has broken out on a planet called Epirus and are hired at a high rate to express the cure to Epirus. The charter proves dodgy, and they are ambushed by pirates upon arriving in the star system. The attack forces them to crash land on Epirus. When Eric walks to the nearest settlement for help, he discovers there is no plague.

The charter was a way to lure a small single-operator starship to a remote star system to seize its cargo. While Max Jones got away from the pirates, Eric believes the pirates will try to land and take the cargo from the wrecked starship. He must enlist help from the locals to keep that from happening and to get Max Jones spaceworthy again.

Crash Landing and the “Boy’s Own Starship” series borrow heavily from 1950s science fiction, especially the traditions of Robert Heinlein’s SF juveniles. It features teenage protagonists operating largely independent of adult guidance. It also borrows heavily from the morality of those stories: stand on your own feet, don’t make excuses, there is no easy road to success, learn from your mistakes, and take your medicine when you make mistakes. The Crichton brothers make mistakes in these books – and learn from them.

If you enjoy this kind of science fiction and miss it, you will do well to treat yourself to Crash Landing or the rest of this series.

“Crash Landing,” by Christopher G. Nuttall, Raconteur Press, January 2026, 144 pages, $14.99 (Paperback), $4.99 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.