I put off reading this installment of the series for longer than I should have, because my husband mentioned in an offhand comment that a lot of time had passed since the previous book. I didn’t want to read about new characters and new situations. Instead, what I got was a Rocinante crew who are closer than ever and an amazing continuation of this series’s overarching plot.
Many changes do occur in the beginning of this story, and I’m not going to lie: Some of them are kind of sad. But I promise that it’s a good, satisfying kind of sad.
And then, as usual, everything escalates. I’d use a different phrase, but Amazon doesn’t like expletives in their reviews, as much as it’s warranted here. Corey is amazing at pulling out seeds of story that were planted in previous books, and the status quo tilts once again.
The antagonist point-of-view in this story is not the actual “Big Bad,” which I think serves the narrative well. As usual, despite all of the amazing alien technology they now have access to, humans are still just idiots with fancy toys.
(Avasarala is not an idiot. She might be aging, but she’s definitely still the smartest person in the room, and I continue to adore her.)
Despite their years of working together, the tensest moments in this story were the interpersonal sparks between the Roci‘s crew. I don’t like the idea of them in conflict, especially not Holden and Bobbie. But it’s handled deftly, and never exists for the purpose of conflict for conflict’s sake.
It looks like the next book in the series is going to pick up almost where things left off, and I can’t wait to dive in and find out what happens next.
Rating: 5 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.