A good read from an author new to me, although Wexler has published several novels.
He sets up an interesting scenario : humanity has broken into two factions, destroyed the Earth, and pretty much each other. The remnants of this conflict live in large habitats out in the solar system, and the final stages in their war see them each sending vessels out to hulks of military spaceships to claim them and to return with them to salvage them.
It’s a quite civilised affair, with protocols around it, and as a salvage hunter from each side goes to work, each builds up their capacity to control the ruined vessel in a manner similar to resource building in games like Warcraft and Spacecraft – starting small, mining resources, and building every bigger and more sophisticated machines to destroy the enemy salvage operation.
It’s a bit different to the usual military SF as it’s on a micro level, but it is enjoyable (at least I found it fun – I did play Warcraft I and Warcraft II back in the day!) as it brings together the tech side with the perspective of one of the salvagers as she goes through a couple of missions, leading to a big finale.
More from this issue here.
