Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second Revenger book continues on with a pretty traditional Space Opera tale.

Where the first began with revenge on the mind, the second focuses much more on financial survival, salvage, and after a particularly awesome Reynolds-homage-to-Reynolds sentient skull candy partnership with suits becoming a shambling hoard of zombies, a desperate need to find SOMEPLACE to hide from shadow ships and recuperate.

That's where the real story picks up. Intrigue, lies, torture, cat-and-mouse antics, and even picking up a rather interesting new crew member.

As a regular Space Opera, it's fun. It's more than competent. It's full of bickering sisters and an attempt to turn a mutiny into something much more respectable. :)


So why did I knock off a star?

Because I'm a huge fan of Reynold's more adult fare and this isn't at THAT particular level. The high science and deeply intricate worldbuilding and ideas I usually get are watered down here. That's not to say it's poor for the sub-genre or even the full SF genre. It's right there with the most solid entries. But Reynolds is usually a full head above the rest.

I judge this a lesser example of his works. Not bad at all and actually rather fun, but not fantastic.

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