2025 SF. Erika Kiora is an exploration corps officer whose last
posting ended in disaster and the loss of her ship. But war is
brewing, and the government needs heroes, so she's given a new ship to
survey for a possible new route past the front lines.
(Disclaimer: I know Questus and read a pre-publication copy of
the book.)
This is only the first part of what might be a two- or three-book
story; it deals with Kiora taking command and the earliest stages of
the mission. But it isn't really about the mission; right from the
start, there's a feeling that something smells about the whole
business, and Kiora's not the only person to notice that her crew has
a remarkably high proportion of politically inconvenient people.
Meanwhile, there's the problem that she isn't Navy, even if the
explorers have been subsumed into the Navy at the outbreak of war, and
she has to try to inspire (and keep discipline in) a mixed naval and
civilian crew.
And then there's the mysterious starship-related invention, and its
equally mysterious fuel source, as well as its dedicated engineering
crew who seem distressingly cult-adjacent. And the pre-collapse ruins
to be found along the way. And…
Well, yes, there's a lot of stuff happening here, and one might feel
the book was too crowded with plot. I didn't, though; the elements
interlinked in a way that I found most enjoyable, with questions being
neither answered nor left to dangle, but built up with layers from
what seem at first as though they might be entirely disparate plot
elements. This isn't what the weak writer would do, plugging together
standard tropes and elements to make a somewhat original shape; it's a
single coherent narrative which starts to draw these plot elements
together, and which I very much hope will complete the process in
future books.
The book is space adventure, sure. But it isn't Generic Space Navy or
Generic Space Marines, or even Generic Space Scouts. It has a
distinctive setting with its own puzzles and challenges.
If I'm going to find fault, I'd have to say that characterisation is on
the weaker side; several important characters are keeping secrets,
indeed I don't think anyone is entirely open, but that does mean we
learn a little less about who they are than I would ideally like.
Again, I hope future volumes will remedy this.
I've enjoyed the two earlier books by Questus that I've read, which
were aspiring to be straightforward adventure and did that job; but
while this is still adventure, with plenty of action and hard
decisions to be made, it reaches towards something that's more
challenging to write and more rewarding to read.