After a job gone wrong, Murdock and her gang of con artists are tithed to a sentient warship that’s styled itself into a punitive god. Escaping the ship would be hard enough – but when the Justice takes a personal interest in Murdock, the stakes only get higher.
I have been slowing dipping my toes into the space opera genre, mostly via the wonderful Becky Chambers, but I am always on the lookout for more. And the premise of this book immediately sold me – a cult surrounding an AI? A prison ship that’s become its own society? A queer rivals-to-lovers romance? Sign me up!
The world-building in this book is incredible. The Justice is a huge ship and is populated by a great many people who have slowly built up their own isolated societies, and over the course of the book Murdock and the reader get to know plenty of them. Murdock may be a brash heroine, but she’s also got a great wellspring of compassion, as well as a great many insecurities, which makes her viewpoint satisfyingly nuanced.
I was also intrigued by the depiction of the ‘found family’ of con artists, which has plenty of internal issues without ultimately giving up on the value of the relationships. Even if I felt like Hark’s depiction was somewhat heavy-handed at times, it was still an interesting approach.
My main quibble with this book was the pacing, which unfortunately detracted a fair bit from my experience. After a leisurely, detailed first half of the book, things sped up unbelievably, rattling us through oodles of character development and important plot points. I wish that the author had slowed down and spaced things out better – another hundred pages or so would have allowed for much needed breathing room. I also wish we got to know Hark, Bea, and the banded faithful better in that time.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
