RogerBW's Blog

The Application of Hope, Kristine Kathryn Rusch 13 November 2022

2014 science fiction novella in the Diving Universe series. When the Ivoire is attacked and disappears, Captain Sabin and the Geneva lead the search mission…

The overt tension here is about the Ivoire, which the regular reader knows isn't going to be resolved (she's been projected far into the future, into the events of the main narrative of the series). But that's not what the piece is about – rather, it's about Sabin, the forces that have made her the captain she is, and her flaws, both the ones she can acknowledge and the ones she can't.

So while it has the outer form of a space adventure, this is really much more a story about an individual. I admit I'd have liked also to read more about the mysterious attackers who triggered the incident in the first place, but given that this is a novella, I don't want to give up any of what's here to make room for it.

After an unpromising start, therefore, I found this rather fine – though beware of booksellers who want you to pay a full novel price for these 20,000 words.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Skirmishes | Series: Diving Universe | Next in series: The Falls

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