We finish book 1 of Gareth L Powell's Embers of War trilogy with the discovery of an ancient fleet of ships, unmanned and linked together by an alien intelligence – the ominous Marble Armada. The sentient ship Trouble Dog and her captain, Sal, and the rest of their mismatched crew, are called from their holiday to answer a distress signal just as an almighty clusterf*** breaks out. Nope, not going to spoil it, but Powell drops us straight into turmoil then turns up the heat. Fleet of Knives is an aptly named title for book 2 in this trilogy.
New faces are the crew from the salvager Lucy's Ghost, who run into a spot of bother while looking for scraps in an ancient generation ship. Nope, not going to say what the spot of bother is, either, but I've watched Alien and the Event Horizon enough times to get the same kind of claustrophobic thrills with what Powell is doing here.
He ramps up the tension in such a way that I cannot conceive of how he's going to get his characters out of their pickle. And don't ever get too comfortable. If you think the characters get a breather, think again. It's only the quiet before the storm. I particularly loved the alien tech and the mystery behind how it works, which I'm sure will come into play again at a later stage – and yes, I've just bought book 3, because I need to know what happens next.
I'm so excited to see that Embers of War is coming to life onscreen – this one's going to be a cracker, and I'm glad to read it before I watch the series. One last word – I love the interplay between the human and non-human characters. Powell writes non-humans in a way that makes me smile. Anyhow, it's difficult to review this novel without spoilers, except to leave these words as encouragement for anyone who's a fan of space opera to go out and lay hands on this trilogy. It's worth every dollar.
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