Rise of a Burning Star — R.B. Banfield

With only the most persistent pilots making the grade to fly their own mission to the stars, far from home and family, Willie Khan is one of the hopefuls. He has obstructions that he never planned on, from malfunctioning ships to leadership failures to personality clashes. The ambitious Johnny Beggs has a better idea than following endless training orders, but by enlisting Willie into his schemes he risks both their careers, in the hope of making history and discovering a new world. A page-turning thriller set in the early days of galactic colonisation, when the race is on to get out into the universe by any means possible. The eighth of nine novels about the far-reaching influence of people who were only ever looking out for themselves.