2013 SF, fifth in its series. Ishmael Horatio Wang graduates from
First Mate on the ship he put right last book to Captain of
yet.another worst ship in the fleet.
And there's been another narrative gap: at least seven years,
during which Ishmael has got married; but they haven't worked out the
basic problems of being together for at most one weekend in two
months. It's now twenty years of in-universe time since the series
started, and the tone has shifted from the young hopeful spacer of the
first three books to the man who's got far up the ladder but has
perhaps forgotten why he wanted to climb it in the first place. (Not
helped of course by all his superiors constantly encouraging him to
get more qualifications, go for promotions, and so on.)
This time the new ship is a small one, with a minimal watchstanding
crew of six (one on the bridge, one in engineering), and we get the
usual troublemakers. Some of them have problems to be solved, but some
are just bored, one at least in a way which seems not entirely
consistent with an owning company that wants to make money; but
everyone's happy when the new broom brings in large amounts of cash
along with the strange new ways of doing things (like saying "sir", or
rather "sar", to a superior officer).
There's a side plot of a high priority cargo that needs some hazardous
navigation to get it delivered on time, and alas I found myself
stumbling over the phrase "used the thrusters to turn the ship":
inoffensive on its own, but it becomes clear from context that Lowell
thinks turning a spaceship (just rotating, without using the main
engines) means altering its course. Oh dear. There's only so far you
can carry the Romance of the Sea into space, and while I might not
have minded if I'd been more engaged, and I do actually like the
resolution of this whole situation, it did rather throw me out of my
involvement with the narrative.
Definitely better than the fourth book, but to my mind not up there
with the first three.