SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 27th February 2021.

It's a tough corporate world out there. The corporations continually juggle for supremacy sometimes by back-room dealings, sometimes by war. Everyone works for the corporations. If you're born a citizen then you have some rights, but you still work. If you were not born a citizen then you will be a bonded worker, effectively a slave. You work for many years to earn your citizenship, if you ever can. Many people die before they achieve that hallowed state.

Ashlan Jackson comes from the mining colony Bittersweet established by Wellspring corporation. Mining, like mining everywhere, is dangerous with the risk of tunnel collapses or poisoning. Her fiance was killed in the mine and she faces the same fate.

Conditions are even worse now that colony worlds are under attack by the incomprehensible Vai aliens.

Rescued from that disastrous life by Captain Kate Keller of the salvage ship Twenty-Five, she regained hope of one day achieving citizenship. The crew of Len, Natalie and Dr. Sharma are becoming her new family. Above all that, she and Kate are in love.

But it all starts to fall apart and go badly wrong when they attempt to salvage the London, a battle cruiser wrecked in the latest conflict with the Vai.

I quite enjoyed reading this novel. However I thought the final battle was unconvincing and with an unlikely result. It all seemed a bit too blandly easy. Just as I was wishing for a tougher outcome than Ash & Cap living happily together forever, the novel rabbit-punched me with a very surprising, hard ending. Well done, Karen!