Title: The Apothecary: The Beckett Fernsby Adventures Volume One
Publisher: Knotted Road Press
Author: Blaze Ward
Price: $15.00 (paperback) / $6.00 (ebook)

Beckett Fernsby — skilled Apothecary and reluctant draftee into the Olympyra Fleet — just wants to be left alone. He likes Medical. He’s comfortable in Medical. He is safe in Medical. He is neither comfortable nor safe out in the field, raiding warlord’s fortresses with gung-ho Marines or exploring the dead spaceships of giant aliens or being taken captive by a mad robotic spider-woman or being shot down by a dragon on a world of impossible magic — well, you get the idea. Unfortunately, Fernsby is forced into one madcap adventure after another, and each leaves him a little different; a little more than he was before. The universe is changing Beckett Fernsby, and the Gods are laughing ….

Ward is one of my favorite science fiction authors. When I heard about The Apothecary, I was intrigued by the premise. Reluctant heroes are always fun, and I was curious as to why the old-fashioned term “apothecary” would be used for the chief medical officer on a space-hopping starship.

I was not disappointed. Fernsby is a loveably put-upon protagonist. He’s very smart, but also very pragmatic. He fully understands the danger and insanity of blindly jumping through space with no idea of who or what might be on the other side. No one else seems to share his concerns, however, especially not the happy-to-tromp-through-alien-ice-storms Marines. That leaves Fernsby to be the voice of reason, and he absolutely hates being in charge.

Even worse, every adventure leaves him … better. Fair warning: minor spoilers ahead. Fernsby starts out as a regular late twenty-something with a slightly soft middle (handy if he should ever be stranded in an alien wasteland) and a receding hairline. But then he acquires a unique ability to understand any language he encounters. And then he’s genetically modified and suddenly his hair is luxurious and his slightly soft middle is now an impressive six pack. And it just goes on from there. By the end of this first collection, mild-mannered Beckett Fernsby is the epitome of the science fiction action hero — which is precisely the last thing he wants to be.

I had a heck of a lot of fun with The Apothecary. The stories are short and tick along at a brisk clip, making them perfect lunchtime reads. The supporting characters all have their own quirks which makes them (in Fernsby’s mind) either sensible or risk-taking madmen or political players best avoided. By the end of this first collection, his opinions have begun to change as he’s gotten to know the crew better through their shared madcap adventures.

And I can’t wait to see what further madcap adventures await Beckett Fernsby.

Highly recommended to fans of Ward’s other science fiction series, as well as Wayward Saint by JS Morin, The Warded Gunslinger series by Filip Wiltgren, Life Debt by RJ Blain, The Alvin Goodfellow Case Files by Leah Cutter, and On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard.