Lacie Leigh Collier is a born spacefarer; her parents and their friends are all explorers and archaeologists, jaunting around the galaxy as they hunt out examples of old-style TABOO TECH. The reader is left rather in the dark as to what this is or why it\'s taboo until gradually we understand that either previous generations or alien species have created sentient machines, and these are generally feared. The Interstellar Guard keep a close watch on anyone exhibiting suspicious behaviour or gadgetry, and this means most of the adventures have to be kept under wraps.

After Lacie has been unceremoniously dumped on her uncle Sterling Trimble and college, she grows up with non-humans for friends. Among them is a hidden little tech entity, some kind of a self-aware computer that can grow and attach itself to a spaceship - if it finds one. Fire Seeker, Sterling\'s spaceship, already has its own controlling computer, as do a few houses with automatic everything. A good comparison would be Anne McCaffrey\'s The Ship Who Sang. Embers, Lacie\'s pal, never gets described except that originally it lives in a shoulder bag and gradually starts to outgrow it. We\'d think Lacie would have peeked at Embers now and then. Embers comes across as a young sister which matures during the course of the story.

Other personalities we meet include Larhan, a space energy vampire who had been imprisoned to stop him eating everything\'s power circuits. He gets released, but how far can he be trusted? A sentient plant planet was probably my favourite part of the story. A brother and sister Perris and Mai Kai who are outsiders on a cruise liner are befriended by Lacie, at a time when she and a planetary princess are about to need friends. That\'s one point to note about this book. A country is too small to be relevant; a whole planet gets taken into consideration. Given the distances and speeds involved in travel, I find it surprising that nobody even mentions the aging paradox -- when you leave your home planet and travel faster than light, then come home, everyone has aged many years while you have lived weeks. Nobody knows if you have died and your property is up for grabs. The author leaves us to guess that society may have constructed laws allowing for this behaviour.

I was disappointed that Lacie, who has to think and talk her way out of a lot of strange situations, doesn\'t share with us how she keeps fit on long space journeys, nor does she start a romantic relationship. Maybe that\'s ahead of her yet. Author Joy V Smith has written one of my favourite YA western novels, Detour Trail. If you think of a different kind of frontier and merging of vibrant cultures, you can see why TABOO TECH works. This book is suitable for YA or adult readers who are more interested in intelligent co-operation than space battles. I liked a lot about the story, especially our resourceful (and wealthy) young heroine.

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