REVIEW: Stranded, Starship of the Ancients-Book One

By A.K. Duboff

Published: February 7, 2025

Introduction

Nothing says “fresh start” like a flaming orbital explosion and a jungle full of things that want to eat you.

In Stranded, A.K. DuBoff kicks off her Starship of the Ancients series with a good old-fashioned crash-landing, an ex-soldier with baggage, and the kind of alien world that turns every walk into a near-death experience.

It's survival sci-fi that smashes together Lost, Stargate, and Halo, with conspiracies, ancient tech, and just enough character trauma to keep things spicy. The plot? Simple: don't die, uncover secrets, and maybe—just maybe—fly that alien spaceship parked in the dirt.

And yes, it ends on a cliffhanger. Of course it does.

The Gist

Evan Taylor, retired spec-ops and professional guilt carrier, signs up for a colony mission to get some peace and quiet.

Instead, the ship explodes, survivors are scattered, and he wakes up in a jungle that looks like Jurassic Park's murder cousin.

Teaming up with a plucky scientist named Anya, Evan tries to keep everyone alive while avoiding poisonous plants, hungry wildlife, and the growing suspicion that someone wanted this crash to happen.

Oh, and there's an ancient alien starship buried nearby. You know, normal camping trip stuff.

So now it's fix the camp, dodge assassins, and maybe overthrow a shadow government on the side.

The Big Ideas

• Survival sucks when the jungle hates you.
• The truth gets buried—under vines, lies, and very large teeth.
• Sometimes being the guy with a gun and a conscience is a problem.

Trust breaks. Secrets rot. And somewhere in the trees, a relic is humming.

Rule of Cool

• Aethos, the planet, is basically “Australia in space” but meaner.
• Powered alien artifacts, glowing tech spheres, and an ancient starship just chilling underground like a buried Ferrari.
• Jungle beasts that don't just want to kill you. They want to do it creatively.
• Downed military ships, makeshift arsenals, and just enough gunfire to make you feel safe for five minutes at a time.
• A lead duo that feels like if Nathan Drake and Ellie Sattler crash-landed together and accidentally uncovered a galactic cover-up.

This isn't just “castaway with a plasma rifle”.

It's Indiana Jones by way of Mass Effect.

The POV Character

Evan Taylor came for retirement and got a front-row seat to interstellar sabotage.

He's your usual sci-fi soldier boy: competent, jaded, and painfully aware that being good at violence doesn't make you a good person. He doesn't want to be in charge, but he keeps saving people, and that's apparently leadership.

Haunted by past missions and allergic to bullshit, Evan's arc is about reclaiming purpose, even when everything is trying to kill him.

Watching him go from "reluctant babysitter" to “actually the guy who saves the day” was pretty satisfying.

Also, he might be the only adult in the entire jungle.

What DuBoff Gets Right

• Alien jungle survival that feels real: dehydration, wounds, mud. You can feel every miserable minute.
• Tension that actually works: there's always a new threat, twist, or creature around the corner.
• The slow-burn mystery: breadcrumbs of conspiracy dropped with precision until everything clicks.
• Characters that breathe: Even the side ones have depth, quirks, and reasons to matter.

Also: the pacing slaps. No filler, all killer.

What You Might Not Like

• Cliffhanger ending, full send: you'll scream “What?!” and immediately check for book two (review coming soon).
• Classic tropes used earnestly: crash, survival, secret tech played straight, not subverted (I loved this).
• Aethos has no chill: if you like cozy sci-fi, keep walking.

Also, some might say “we've seen this setup before,” to which I say: yeah, and it still rules.

What This Book Means to Me

Hope doesn't always arrive on a spaceship. It sometimes crawls through mud with a busted rifle and one working medkit.

Evan's struggle hit home: trying to do right when every system is broken, when help isn't coming, when survival means compromising, but you do it anyway. This isn't some clean, idealistic space-faring utopia.

It's dirty, bloody, and exhausting. And that's what makes the little triumphs hit hard. It's about finding something worth fighting for in the ashes of what went wrong.

Also, I didn't know I needed jungle sci-fi until this book punched me in the eyeballs with it.

Who is Stranded for?

If you like survival thrillers, alien mysteries, or characters who roll their eyes at danger but charge in anyway, this one's for you.

Think: The Expanse without the politics, Avatar without the sermon, and Stargate SG-1 if the wormhole dropped you in hell. DuBoff is clearly here to remind us that space isn't safe, leadership sucks, and jungle monsters never attack just once.

It's popcorn sci-fi that doesn't insult your intelligence.

The Final Word

Stranded is fun, fast, and smarter than it pretends to be.

It'll suck you in with survival tension, hook you with alien relics, and keep you flipping pages like your escape pod depends on it. It's the perfect storm of crash, conspiracy, and character. And by the last chapter, you'll be screaming for book two—and checking your surroundings for venomous vines.

Buy it!

Solis Supra Omnia!