The next part in the diving series doesn’t (unfortunately) continue the story which was started in the previous book in the series. This book gives a glimpse into the workings of the Fleet (a space culture which constantly is moving to the new regions of space and abandons its old bases and ships while moving in the new regions of space, vaguely resembling Star Trek’s Federation in idealism). A far away “scrap heap” (a collection of discarded ships) has sent information that someone might be stealing ships from there. What should the Fleet do? The scrap heap in question is so old that there is hardly any information about it. (That is a hole in the plot – the Fleet apparently doesn’t really value history as it always looks forward, but there is no reason why old information should have been destroyed.) The Fleet should do something, but a mission to so distant a place has some very high risks. But why risk valuable personnel? So a crew of misfits and original personalities is drafted; in that way the Fleet doesn’t lose much if the ship, the Renegat, doesn’t return. But it does return a hundred years later and in very poor condition with apparently only the most incompetent crew members manning it. What has happened?
The story is told from several viewpoints which happen at different points in time. The most important are the mission to the scrap heap and the rescue operation of the badly damaged ship that arrives 100 years later. Another is the “origin story” of the main character in the story, who as a new trainee managed to be involved with the destruction of a whole scrap heap with possibly hundreds of ships. He is serving as the first officer under a peculiar captain, who at first seems like someone who was a victim of circumstances. Later it turns out that he most likely managed to create those circumstances himself, and he turns out to be an extremely shortsighted and selfish man. The journey of the Renegat is filled with problems, and after they arrive at their destinations, the real problems start – all mostly due to an incompetent captain and only barely capable crew. And the “anacampa” drives, which enable the very fast FTL travel and are fairly poorly understood by anyone, aren’t always trustworthy and may be very dangerous, even in unforeseen ways.
The book was entertaining and light reading with mostly interesting characters, but the “bad guys” were a bit stereotypical with too delusional motivations to be taken really seriously. Also, the book was a bit too long for content – some of the long conversations between the characters could have been cut or at least shortened. The anacampa drives are a fascinating mystery. I had already thought they might be some sort of biological (transdimensional?) creature, and it certainly is starting to look like that after what we learn in this book.
There was at least one irritating error – the crew was worried that solar systems might have changed too much to be recognized after a few hundred or thousand years, so the Fleet had left them. Well, that kind of time is totally insignificant considering the lifetime of planetary and stellar systems.
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