“Wandering Star” features strong characters, interplanetary conflict

I picked up a copy of “Wandering Star” Vol. 1 at the recent Planet Comicon in Overland Park, Kansas.   The trade paperback collects the first seven issues of Teri Sue Wood’s space adventure “Wandering Star.”  After reading it, I found out that Wood – now Teresa Challender – is serializing the series online.  So you can check out the first four issues at her web site.

In “Wandering Star,” the daughter of Earth’s president is sent to a galactic academy, where humans are seen as warlike and backward.  She tries to deal with the prejudices, and make new friends, but finds herself drawn into a larger conflict with interplanetary ramifications as the series progresses.

The story is told in flashback, as Casandra Andrews reflects on her time in the “Wandering Star” spacecraft.  The story is set in the future, when a still-warlike Earth is needed by an alliance of aliens to defend themselves.  The aliens, being more peaceful, never developed the destructive weapons of the earth.  But even though they need the humans, they don’t necessarily respect them.