2021 science fiction, ninth in the Diving Universe series. As "Boss"
explores deeper into the Boneyard, the Fleet of the present day
finally organises a response.
Well, if we learn anything about the Fleet here, it's that
they're kind of incompetent. But this feels mostly like setup that
cuts off just as the important part starts: the Fleet expedition has
turned up and opened fire without even trying to talk.
More interesting to me was the slow exploration into an actively
hostile part of a starship graveyard – even if I found some of the
technological protections (defences that Fleet systems won't display
to their operators, because of security clearances, but which every
Fleet vehicle, even a small probe, will autonomously avoid) somewhat
unconvincing.
Boss herself ruminates on how what she really likes is wreck diving,
and she's been distracted by other things – and as a reader of the
series so far I can't help but agree, because that's what I came for
and while I've enjoyed the other stuff I'd really like to read more
about this core idea of wreck diving in space.
There are lots of dangling questions in the series as a while, and
this does little to answer them. I still enhoyed it, mind…
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