I only learned of this author this past summer as I began more deeply (broadly) exploring the world of speculative fiction after attending the virtual con. Actually, I first discovered Gareth because someone I followed on Twitter shared his space art and I really loved it. Then his name started popping up more and more frequently on lists of space opera authors and I figured I had to give this book a try. I was not disappointed. This book had everything I liked: a galaxy spanning civilization (or two) at war with each other, aliens but not too many, a collection of characters (but not a Russian novel laundry list), sentient capital ships, planets that hid things, the unknown. There are two more book in this trilogy and then 6-7 more that he has written but I think I am going to stop after reading those three as I really am trying to read broadly and my TBR pile is getting out of control.
My spoiler free details are here. The story starts with a ship on a rescue mission. We later learn that this ship is part of the Reclamation: an organization like the Red Cross or a UN team that crosses borders to help ships in need across the galaxy. We also learn of a passenger liner that is shot down far away, and we soon find out there is a lot more to the story. The characters meet in various ways, and all the seemingly dead ends of plot and history start moving back together in the climactic ending… or is it?
Craft. The book is written in first person with multiple POV characters, one per chapter, including a very interesting alien species who not only is fascinating biologically, but also verbally. The ship, “Trouble Dog” (thought the interesting alien calls her “Hound of Difficulty”) is one of the POV characters and it is done well. The chapters for the most part of short, and I found myself really trying to piece together how or why he chose which character as the focus, and how to divide the action. Some back-to-back chapters were different POV but continuous in time, which was quite interesting. I am not normally a fan of first person; its fallen flat when I’ve tried it, but it didn’t mind it in this story for some reason.
I have been following Gareth on his blog and on Twitter for a few months now and he seems like a genuinely good person, offering tips to new writers. I hope to someday share a stage with him or at least be considered along with him as a SF author.