I’ve heard a lot about this book. It was highly recommended and for me this book checked all the boxes. A new crew member joins a starship to take over record keeping but she has a complicated and secret past. The captain is a good man, trying to keep everyone happy with a firm but gentle hand, and yet he too has a secret… his girlfriend must be kept secret because the xenophobic race she belongs to forbids their love. The two techs banter as the continually fix the broken down ship; this is Star Wars not Star Trek. And the reptilian pilot is always at odds with the human algae-fuel grower while the sub space navigator, a twinned plural alien form stays away from everyone. Meanwhile, the ships doctor and cook is one of only about 300 remaining from a dying race that chose to die out rather than continue their centuries long war. And the sentient AI tries to keep the ship running smoothly.
The worlds are vast and deep. The characters are real and complex. The relationships grow and change. Everyone has a secret, it seems, and everyone is also flawed. It is so realistic.
The crew takes a high risk job to the galactic core which will take a year of travel, but the chance to earn a huge paycheck and build their ship into a better one will allow them to take on even more lucrative jobs in the future. But the alien race they are approaching has splintered into factions and no one really understands them. Will there be peace? Will there be problems dealing with only one of the factions?
This book gripped me from the beginning and I could barely put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can not wait to read the other 3 in this series. It has aliens, spaceships, a galaxy spanning cast of characters and adventure. This is the style of book I want to write.
I just feel so close to these characters, and so interested in them. I didn’t even mind the more fantastical aspects of the story, like artificial gravity, which sometimes put me off from the more fantasy oriented space opera as opposed to the harder stuff which I normally prefer. I think because the story and characters had such depth I was able to let some of that go. The aliens are rich and complex, not just Star Trek aliens with different forehead wrinkles. And the love stories that blossom and grow and change throughout the story seem so realistic and make me as a reader so happy. So, yeah. 5 stars. This is now the second book by Chambers I’ve read, the former being “To be read if fortunate,” which was also excellent. I guess I’ll be purchasing more of her books soon!