Passage at Arms

Starfishers #4

by Glen Cook

The Bestselling author of The Black Company Delivers a classic novel of military science fiction

The ongoing war between Humanity and the Ulant is a battle of attrition that Humanity is losing. Humans do, however, have one technological advantage — trans-hyperdrive technology. Using this technology, specially designed and outfitted spaceships — humanity's climber fleet — can, under very narrow and strenuous conditions, pass through space undetected. Passage at Arms tells the intimate, detailed, and harrowing story of a climber crew and its captain during a critical juncture of the war.

Cook combines speculative technology with a canny and realistic portrait of men at war and the stresses they face in combat. First published in 1985, Passage at Arms is one of the classic novels of military science fiction.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Military Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, War

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Glen Cook was born in New York City, lived in southern Indiana as a small child, then grew up in Northern California. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy and attended the University of Missouri. He worked for General Motors for 33 years, retiring some years ago. He started writing short stories in 7th grade, had several published in a high school literary magazine. He began writing with malicious intent to publish in 1968, eventually producing 51 books and a number of short fiction pieces.
He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. series. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook

Reviews

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

☠ This Buddy Read Never Happened Because Glen Cook Doesn't Write 3-Star Books So QED and Stuff Buddy Read (TBRNHBGCDW3SBSQaSBR™) with My Dearest of Wives, The Sometimes Wise Canadian One, The Prodigal Mercenary and The Ex Noob ☠

I really wanted to love read this book. But you know how it goes, you get all caught up in a super fluffy Historical Romance, and you end up not having time for wondrous Science Fiction by Glen Cook. Life sucks. So much trash to read, so little time and all that crap. Anyway, had I read this book, I'm pretty sure I would have fangirled about it like a 13-year-old maniac. Because Glen Cook is a God. Glen Cook is Amazing. Glen Cook NEVER disappoints. Therefore, I highly doubt this book could have been anything less than slightly marvellous. "Why the 3-star rating then," you ask? Oh well, you know me, I love to be fair and stuff, so I thought I'd go for a kinda sorta Average if Slightly Inaccurate Hypothetical Rating (AiSIHR™) and stuff. But had I, you know, loved read the book and stuff, there's a good change I would have gone for a 10-star rating instead. Because this is, you know, Glen Cook and stuff. And he is, you know, a God and stuff.



Okay, so I can't tell you just how obviously scrumptious this book obviously is because, you know, I didn't love read it and stuff BUT I sure can tell you how obviously disheartening it obviously ISN'T because, you know, there are no such silly things as disillusionment and disenchantment in Most Glorious Glen Cook Wonderland (MGCGW™). Sooooo, with that in mind, here is a quick list of all the things that it is impossibly impossible for this book to be:

① This book cannot be boring. Oh no, absolutely not. It most certainly is thrilling, exciting, and absolutely riveting from beginning to end. How could a story about captivating daily life aboard an overcrowded submarine spacecraft not be? It's not like it could be like a big, fat nothing of a story or anything of the sort. Nope nope nope.

② The plot cannot be plotless. Oh no, absolutely not. There must be a plot here. It is probably super plotty. And gripping. And oh so intriguing. And full of devious twists. This cannot just be about captivating daily life aboard an overcrowded submarine spacecraft, can it? Of course not. Don't be silly, my Little Barnacles, this was written by Glen Cook. The Man doesn't write about such trivial, uninteresting stuff as, you know, captivating daily life aboard an overcrowded submarine spacecraft *eyeroll*

③ The characters cannot be sketchy. Oh no, absolutely not. They are probably complex and fascinating. And I am pretty sure you feel an instant, intense connection with every single member of the wonderfully likable cast here. Especially with Fred the cat. He must be the mostest awesomest characters of them all. Because he is, you know, a cat and stuff.



④ This book cannot feel like it is 500-pages long instead of 241. Oh no, absolutely not. I am sure there is so much trepidatious trepidation to be had here that the pages just fly by. Skimming skimming skimming away, begone! This is obviously the type of book you cannot put down, and read in one day flat. Definitely not the kind of book you drag around for 5 days before finally managing to turn the last page in a blaze of relieved glory. Nope nope nope.

⑤ This book cannot be the most disappointing non-conclusion to a 4-book trilogy (don’t ask) in the history of most disappointing non-conclusions to 4-book trilogies (I told you not to ask!) Oh no, absolutely not. Remember what I said before? About Glen Cook being a God? So QED and stuff.

Since this book can't be all the disgustingly despicable above-mentioned things, it must be somewhat delicious. Do you now see why I decided to go for an Average if Slightly Inaccurate Hypothetical Rating (AiSIHR™)? I bet you do. Ha.

» And the moral of this Glen Cook What the Bloody Fishing Shrimp is Wrong with You Did Russia Hack You Too or Something Crappy Non Review (GCWtBFSiWwYDRHYToSCNR™) is: my dear Lord and Master of All Things Slightly Awesome (LaMoATSA™),



Obviously. Always. And forever. And stuff. Yeah, that too.

✎ Book 1: Shadowline ★★★★
✎ Book 2: Starfishers ★★★★
✎ Book 3: Stars' End ★★★ ← you never saw this. This never happened.



[Pre-review nonsense]

Are you seeing a 3-star rating up there? I knew it. You've been drinking again. Glen Cook doesn't write 3-star books, my Clueless Barnacles, he wasn't built this way! The man only writes 10-star masterpieces! Ergo, you are drunk. And we all know what happens when you get slightly inebriated and stuff, don't we, my Lovely Decapods? You don't want me to remind you of the nightmarish cat incident, do you now? Thought so.



Oops.

►► Full Please Stop Boozing My Tiny Arthropods Alcohol Addiction is Bad for You Crappy Non Review (PSBMTAAAiBfYCNR™) to come.

[Choko · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** 3.25 ***

A buddy read with my Sci-fi friends @ BB&B...

"It is hard to drain the swamp when you are up to your ass in alligators..."

Hahaha! Good ol' Glen Cook is writing some very relevant truths, as always.... !

I am a bit angry... This was not an ending to a series! An ending to a mission in the middle of a Galaxy war yes, but not an ending to a series!!! Does this mean that we are going to get more action and books in this world, or was this just a teaser? And since GC came back to this series, I was hoping for at least some continuity if not conclusion of the story arc of the first 3 books, which were also unsatisfyingly open ended in my opinion. Glen, I love you man, I love the way you write, the way you bring realism to every story, the way I can feel the textures and smells and sounds of the environment you describe, but I need CLOSURE!!!! If I rate this book on the merit of storytelling, I would always rate it high. But you can't leave us hanging! And no, there are no cliffhangers, there is a conclusion of the given snippet of a battle in a "climber space ship", which feels very much like a submarine in space. We get an ending, but it is not enough! And there was so much time in the beginning not getting anywhere, then the last 3 chapters were so intense, I felt the pace was a bit bottom heavy. Overall, I love, love, love this writing style, but I needed more substance in the end.... The series had so much potential, but alas, it did not come to fruition....

If you have never read Glen Cook before, this is not a good example of his work overall, so I would start with something else... As a random Science Fiction work, if you like it technical and military, this is still good. After all, it is written by a master!!!

I wish you all Happy Reading and many more wonderful books to come!

[Eilonwy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reporter with military training gets embedded in a "Climber" -- a tight-quartered, submarine-like war spaceship -- and writes about the mechanics, logistics, crew, and his experiences during battle.

And ... that's about it.

This book wasn't awful. But nor was it that great, as there really isn't much plot. The descriptions of the ship and its engineering were pretty interesting, but not really 300+ pages worth of interesting. The crew was also okay, but their portrayal was very surface-y. I just didn't care all that much about any of them, because they were all just doing their jobs, rather than having the kind of interpersonal involvement that would keep a reader thinking about any of them once they exit the scene.

All of this would have been okay for me from, say, an author I had never read before. But this is a Glen Cook book, and the lack of both plot and well-developed characters was very disappointing, since those are the things that made his other books so gripping and memorable. I liked this one all right when I was reading it, but I could also have just put it down at any time and not cared one bit. It took me forever to read it, too, because there was nothing to grab me and pull me along. I'm not sure what I'll remember of it down the road.

So, sadly, this was a fairly dull final installment in a fairly dull series. :-(

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me while to get into this one, even though I had a very good idea what I was letting myself in for. It's a bleak, claustrophobic account of men at war in space. The emphasis in this novel is on the harrowing circumstances under which these men operate and the subsequent psychological effects. There are one or two nifty action scenes, but the book mostly concerns itself with the building of tension. This is military science fiction, but it is very contained. The depiction of events is limited solely to the inside of a cramped spaceship. As such, it is often a bit bland, compared to other works depicting war on a grand scale. There is no intrigue here, only tension. Lots of tension. I was going to give it 3 stars because of the slow start, but the book redeems itself nicely towards the end.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dated, hardish science, military science fiction story modeled on World War II American Pacific Ocean submarine patrols in which stealthy human spaceships destroy alien spaceship shipping and ordinary men rise above themselves for their crewmates and not for service and country.

MIL-SF is a swamp. I rarely read it any longer. There are too many knuckle-dragging authors out there writing in the space about Crusaders [sic] in powered armor or riffing on sea-going navy tropes of vaguely Millennial humans of both sexes battling BEMs. This trend is a sign of our times. This book is about 35-years old. It was written at a different time—post Viet Nam. It’s a submarine-like spaceship, anti-war story, similar to Das Boot (1981) from which I think the author ‘borrowed’ a lot, although I also see Run Silent, Run Deep (1955) in the story too. Note the first English translation of the novel Das Boot was 1974. Although, somewhat dated now, for the time the physical science, military science and the tech were well thought-out. The end-effect is that book comes out feeling a bit old-fashioned, but in a good way. The story is too derivative of claustrophobic WWII Sub Stories to be a great work. However, it goes against the more common modern trope of confined spaces bringing out the worst in folks and glories Unit cohesion of folks in difficult conditions.

My dead-tree copy was a featherweight 230-page novella size. Original US copyright for the story was 1985.

Glen Cook is an American science fiction and fantasy author. I can recommend his Chronicles of the Black Company Series, which while a bit dated is better than the homo-erotic drivel that passes for contemporary epic fantasy or dark fantasy. Note this book is listed as part of the author’s Starfishers Trilogy, but does not share any plot-lines or characters with that series.

Cook is a proficient author. Prose was good. Dialog was militarily authentic. The crew’s banter was in places particularly amusing. Descriptive prose and tech were good. The analogy between the stealth "Climber" spaceships and WWII diesel submarines gets a bit stretched at points, but holds up. However, the cyber-tech was terribly dated. For example, our hyper-driven spaceships still used ‘tapes’ for media and crewman pounded mechanical keyboards as part of their Holo Tank equipped combat system’s UI . Action sequences, particularly combat were better than good, although you can see their sub story origins. There is a single POV for the story. Oddly, the main character’s name is never given. (I like when that happens.)

There was sex, drugs and violence in the story, although none of it is graphic. Homo and hetro-sex some of it nonnormative was alluded to, and sexual references are made in the dialog. Alcohol abuse occurred in the form of pre-patrol self-medication. Drug abuse was referenced. Violence was physical and not graphic. It was consistent with combat trauma. Body count was in-line with full combat in a war zone. However, crew casualties were moderate considering the circumstances.

The main character is an unnamed embedded journalist chronicling a spaceship’s wartime patrol. Hand waving is invoked with this character. He’s a disabled veteran warship officer turned journo. He’s allowed on the patrol by High Command only if he functions as a supernumerary member of the crew. That means he gets to blow shit up as well as cycle through the members of the crew describing the effects of the physical and mental pressures of the patrol. Note this character/war correspondent role is identical in concept to the main character in Das Boot. The character is barely conflicted by being part of the story, and not an objective observer. There are more than a dozen characters taken from central casting to crew the ship. These range from the veteran The Old Man ("Der Alte" in Das Boot) to the ship’s cook. They generally conform to human arch-types to allow compares and contrasts of their behavior under stress. Oddly, only in the Epilogue, does the name of the antagonist alien enemy (Ulant) get revealed. They are the faceless Existential threat. The author cannily never describes them. However, from the hints, they're not BEMs.

The plotting was good, but very similar to Das Boot. Space is an Ocean and numerous spaceship/submarine tropes were in-use, for example Silent Running. First the patrol is tedious, but the characters get their development. Then there is a space battle. They are chased by the enemy. After evading them, there is a critical mission with critical damage. (The Iron Coffin phase (See below).) More chasing by the enemy’s ‘Ace’ sub hunter. (This part is similar to Run Silent, Run Deep.) Finally, there’s getting the banged-up boat home with an exhausted crew. At the end, the protagonist laments at all the good men who perished.

This was a moderately entertaining MIL-SF story. (It derived from an already familiar, good story.) The author used now familiar, but well executed MIL-SF space war tropes. Making allowances for the story being 35-years old, these tropes were wrought more than good enough for my jaded view of the sub-genre. A MIL-SF reader not delving too deeply into the details will find this story, familiar and entertaining.

I continue to recommend the author’s The Black Company as good reading. Readers interested in a good story about WWII diesel submarine service might try Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-boat Battles of World War II.

[Lee]

Sigh!
What an utter disappointment. A Glen Cook book that I really couldn't be arsed to finish. It was just so boring and I cared nothing for the characters or their story.

All in all, a fitting ending to a pretty crappy trilogy; that went to four books. The whole series started with a small flame, fizzled to a spluttering mess and died without raising any interest.

As much as I enjoy Cook's writing, I would go out of my way NOT to recommend this book, or the series.

Sigh!

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passage at Arms is a first person narrative, from the perspective of a journalist embedded with a ship and its crew during a mission of extreme duration and hardship.

The novel reads like the best of memoir or true adventure stories, with only the occasional use of dated technology to throw the reader off. Indeed, Cook creates such a vivid world that one is almost startled to come back out of the book and find themselves in the real world again.

The characters are archetypes, yet subtly written so as to make them seem real; the cliches of military fiction are re-examined and put to fresh use inside the story.

Excellent, both in terms of writing and story. Highly recommended.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early (1985) military-SF novel gets good marks from many readers. I bought a copy of the Night Shade reprint years ago and just got around to reading it. I'm sorry to report that I found the book to be just OK. It's well-written but claustrophobic -- it's something of a submarines-in-space story. It starts out well, and the sfnal rubber-science/engineering is pretty well done. The device is a former Space Navy man turned journalist who hopes to write an exposé of the cruise -- he has an old Naval Academy friend who is the Commander of the Climber, a very small and crowded warship in a long war that isn't going well for humanity. The cruise turns out to be very long and difficult. Casualties are high, and the ship just barely manages to return to its home base. The base itself is under attack by the enemy and on the point of falling. There's an unconvincing epilogue that tries to put a positive spin on the lost battle. The End.

So. A weak 3-star book for me. Not a keeper, and certainly not in the league of his classic space-opera "The Dragon Never Sleeps." But still pretty good. It is what it is . . .

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Boat for the Sci-Fi crowd.

[David Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Run Silent, Run Deep of interstellar warfare. It is a terrific book. I actually would like to give it 4.5 or even 5 stars instead of four for two reasons (1) Chapters One and Two are reversed. It starts with Chapter Two and then goes to Chapter One, then goes the Chapter Three. Recommend you begin the book with Chapter Two, then read Chapter One, then go to Chapter Three. It will make much more sense. (2) it is written in the present tense ("The personnel carrier lurches through the ruins under a wounded sky. The night hangs overhead like a sadist's boot.") instead of in the past tense. Every time I read this book that drives me crazy for the first couple of chapters and then, somehow, I manage to tune it out and enjoy the story. If Glen would just revise this to read: "The personnel carrier lurched through the ruins under a wounded sky. The night hung overhead like a sadist's boot." it would make me very happy.

Still, this is a great, classic, interesting, novel. Highly recommended.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite Glen Cook novel of all time.

It is a masterpiece.

[Ward Grundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Competency porn at its best. Exciting and excellent prose for military sci fi. Great concepts and a story that will keep you hooked until the end. The main character not being the focus makes you really care about the crew and there struggles. You can feel the claustrophobia, stink, and heat coming off the pages. Time to go scrub some mold and chew on my unlit pipe.

[Anthony O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, is there any genre Cook can't do?

This time around he knocks out a gritty slice of military sci-fi that has been described by many as "Das Boot in space" which, honestly, is about as eloquent a summary as I can think of. Short on characters moments, but long on sustained mood, it's an odd book that remains profoundly gripping even if some of the specifics of action remain vaguely sketched. Atmospheric, claustrophobic and ultimately heartfelt, it's strange that this hasn't been adapted into a movie.

[Noah M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually give this 3.5 stars. Having just finished it moments ago, I can say that I enjoyed the final 1/4th of the book more than all the rest of it combined. Most of the time I felt like you could have replaced "spaceship" with "submarine" and you'd have the same damn novel. Which, I suppose, was sort of the point...but it wasn't all that gripping for me.

When things got desperate towards the end is when it got interesting. I love stories of men deteriorating, starving, becoming ragged and horrible...you know, stories of survival. So all that worked for me quite well. As the weapons started to run out I found the combat more and more engaging.

I could have done with some idea of what the enemy looked like. Again, I suppose that was the point. The enemy was anonymous--just blips on radar. That doesn't stop me from being curious though.

I did enjoy the book for the most part. It made me want to finally watch Das Boot. Claustrophobia is another thing I like in novels, and Passage at Arms had it in spades.

Glen Cook, as a prose stylist...not my cup of tea. I didn't find it unpleasant to read, but it did sort of fluctuate randomly between being overwritten and terse and underwritten. Again, part of the point of the book. The writing changes as the character changes. Shrug.

So, I if you like military sci-fi more than me you'll probably like this book more than me. A good recommendation from Tim. Not something I would have read on my own, so I appreciate the coaxing.

[Josh Bizeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read from the renowned Glen Cook. "Passage at Arms" is a convincingly written narrative about the true strains of heroes under the most oppressive ship-bearing conditions (in this case a space ship rather resembling a submarine in its claustrophic space and madness-inducing solitude amongst the vastness of the star sea) and hopeless war circumstances against an enemy few understand but are willing to fight in the wake of determined high command leadership. What becomes of a particular crew's mental devotion to said cause and in particular their leaders during such strenuous days amongst the cold elements of space is the focus of Cook's gripping tale. Strong characters, great tension, and a moving first-person journalistic narrative make this a definite must-read for not just Cook fans but science fiction readers across the board. A well-told tale full of grimy detail, genuine suspense, convincing depth and inarguable humanity; and all of that in the span of just a couple hundred pages.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A solid entry into Cook's lineup, I was disappointed by this novel compared to The Dragon Never Sleeps despite the fact that I feel like this book takes place in the same universe, if in the very far (relative) past.

It's a book that draws very clear parallels to living and surviving in a submarine from the view of an ex-officer now turned reporter. But, it's very repetitive, and shares one issue with all other of Cook's writing that I have a problem with: he has too many flat characters. There are so many whose names I feel expected to know, but I have heard so little about. The Black Company felt the same way.

I'd only recommend it if you're hardcore about military sci-fi and/or excited to see more of Cook's (seemingly consistent) sci-fi universe.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent sci-fi mash up with submarine warfare. Cook's military fiction tends to be good. The claustrophobic setting for this story is particularly effective, though the broader sense of a clash of nations is lost. There's not much of the political to enrich the action here.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the BEST Military SciFi books I have ever read. This one is a standard for others to meet. Amazing. Everything a Military SciFi should be.

[Kevin Knipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a lot of Glen Cook books this is not typical science fiction/fantasy book and as often as it's included in the Starfishers series it's really only very loosely connected. Unless your a fan of Glen Cook and have read the Starfishers you might make the connection. It's fine as a book by itself.

The story is based around a ship class called Climbers, think submarines in space. I know it doesn't seem to make sense, but the technology involved is thought out and explained in the book. Climbers are able to slip into a side or pocket dimension to attack enemy ships and stations. But they are not without weaknesses.

There is a gritty tension of being onboard a small, very fragile ship knowing the enemy is out there. Cook does an incredible job of bringing that tension out, letting the reader feel it and experience a type of warfare reserved to the something akin to submarine service. Similar to the film Das Boot.

If you want something a little different to sink your teeth into without laser swords, mechs, super powered ships, something a little more gritty real, where the characters are flawed humans this might be an excellent choice for you.

[Nikola Tasev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read. A military sci-fi, with a twist. It's about submarines, but they are in space, and they don't dive, but climb in another dimension... get it, they climb...
Apart from that obvious on-the-nose comparison, the book has some nice ideas, like the different modes of movement for the ships.
Which are all nice ideas, but the feel of the book still remains too close to the original submarine atmosphere for my taste. And it is not well explained why they have such a large crew for such a small ship. The book was published in 1985, automation and AI weren't what they are now, so it is excusable, just haven't aged well.
It's not all about the military - it is thought provoking, with interesting characters (far too many, thought, I could barely make apart most of the secondary crew members). Give it a try.

[Edward Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting one. Told in the classic Glen Cook style of a limited first person narration, our protagonist serves on the science fiction equivalent of a submarine running a convoy blockade mission. With unsympathetic characters and a plodding plot, the first half of this book felt like Cook had lost his touch with what made the Black Company special.
Then, as the characters continued to degrade, I found, while becoming more unsympathetic, the cast became much more interesting. The plot also began to pick up as well. While a slightly abrupt ending, it fills a space opera niche better than I thought it would.

[Deniz Gulari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book's setting, the feeling of madness and exhaustion driven on by the pursuit of the other 'firm' in this re-imagined submarine warfare in space, but the story was ultimately disappointing. Glen does an excellent job of roping you into how it feels to hunt and be hunted, but ultimately does a poor job at making you feel any emotion for the characters other than annoyance and disdain.

For all intents and purposes there is no plot, merely a mission, and a telling of how that mission went.

[Jim Kratzok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely intense!

It took me quite awhile to get into this story. It was so dark and grim and depressing that I contemplated putting it down and leaving it. But I'm glad I stuck with it. It was a well written depiction of war as hell in space. Few of the characters were likeable other than the ship's cat. But this story was intense! So it was worth reading, but not much fun.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Glen Cook, but this book was a tough read. I accidentally jumped into the series at book four, but it doesn't sound like this book had much to do with the earlier stories anyway. Passage at Arms is a classic submarine story, full of tension and claustrophobia, but set in space. It did make me interested in trying the earlier books.

[Adam Hardin · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I am not one for Sci-fi of any sort, Glen Cook managed to pull me into one of the most thrilling of scenarios. This book is really just one long drawn out battle and I was completely fine with that.

This book had me eager to turn the page at every point and the culmination of all the characters efforts was quite the sight to behold.

A marvelous read. To put it simply. Cook does it again!

[Jim Westcott]

I finished the Starfishers trilogy and hit this like a six foot deep pothole on a unicycle. I tried to get rolling on it but it felt like anything but a part of the trilogy, and after a few attempts I burned out and moved on.

[Joe H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my book of the year. It is not actually part of a series.

A journalist joins a submarine mission to see what life is like for the troops. Except it’s in space, and is actually about how humans deal with crisis and what it means to be a leader.

[Al Onia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture a claustrophobic submarine story like Run Silent, Run Deep and translate it to interstellar cat and mouse war. Cook builds his foundation layer by layer, technically and psychologically, with precision. There's much to be revealed to the reader as the protagonist learns more and more about the situation he has put himself in, aboard a 'climber' ship, crewed by damaged men (all male crews are mandatory after mixed crew disasters) and captained by a: hero, madman, traitor?
All great fun. A standalone as its relation to the Starfishers trilogy is tenuous.

[Pat Cooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally go for military/war scifi, but Das Boot is one of my favorite movies, and this novel being recommended as "Space Das Boot" was about as accurate as possible. Claustrophobic, nightmarish, and unrelenting.

[Zachary Waltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "submarine" aspect of the author's universe was interesting.