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Torchship #1

Torchship

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A captain who’ll take any job if there’s enough money in it. A pilot with an agenda of her own. And a mechanic with an eye on the pilot. The crew of the Fives Full are just trying to make enough money to keep themselves in the black while avoiding the attention of a government so paranoid it’s repealed Moore’s Law. They’re not looking for adventure in the stars . . . but they’re not going to back down just because something got in their way.

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 9, 2015

91 people are currently reading
318 people want to read

About the author

Karl K. Gallagher

23 books65 followers
Karl K. Gallagher is a systems engineer, currently performing data analysis for a major aerospace company. In the past he calculated trajectories for a commercial launch rocket start-up, operated satellites as a US Air Force officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. Karl lives in Minnesota with his family.

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5 stars
112 (30%)
4 stars
143 (39%)
3 stars
69 (19%)
2 stars
28 (7%)
1 star
10 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
Profile Image for Jeff Greason.
290 reviews12 followers
March 11, 2016
An astoundingly good first novel. Space opera and hard science fiction at the same time. The story is organized in episodes that give insight in to the world and the characters; that makes it easy to put down, as the thread of the narrative is broken. Stick with it! At some point the narrative gathers steam, the Chekhov's Guns start going off, and I found the last half a page turner. I would love to see more stories in this universe, and best of all, it has the positive, heroic flavor too rare in modern SF. Read it in time for Hugo nominations!
Profile Image for Clyde.
952 reviews52 followers
February 3, 2017
Torchship is good science fiction -- a solid four stars.
I find it difficult to talk about this book without giving spoilers. It takes place in a future in which something has apparently gone very wrong. The main protagonist, "Mitchie" Long, is the pilot of the torchship Fives Full, a tramp freighter spaceship. She navigates and pilots using analog methods -- really nothing much advanced over the methods used on WW2 warships. Why such methods are necessary in a far future situation is a mystery at first. One of the nice things about the story is the slow reveal of the cultural, technological, and military situation as the story unfolds. (There is a distinct lack of data dumps; it just isn't that kind of story.) The future depicted is very dangerous. Life is cheap and there is plenty of action.
I can say no more. It was a fun story, and a quite well done first book.
Profile Image for Kirsten .
1,737 reviews294 followers
July 5, 2016
Wow. This was someone's debut? Incredible!

I want to take issue with my fellow reviewers. This is NOT "hard" science fiction. This is smart science fiction. This is fun science fiction. This is science fiction with romance and adventure. This is science fiction with characters and plot that does not insult your intelligence. This is science fiction that you cannot put down. This is science fiction where you are rooting for the characters. And, finally, this is science fiction that, if it is trying to teach me something, it's that I can enjoy science fiction!
Profile Image for Matt Hart.
Author 4 books21 followers
February 24, 2016
A bit disjointed, but an okay read

The writing got me hooked pretty quickly. The character of Mitchie was well done. Billy and the Captain were good as well. However, I kept backtracking to figure out who the others were - cardboard cutouts and forgettable. I couldn't even remember who was male and who was female. Sometimes I didn't remember the character's first appearance -- it was like suddenly there was this other person eating in the galley. The story of Pete seemed totally out of place. I still don't know the point of it.

There's no real plot, more like a collection of short stories about the torchship. But for all that I still completed it - the book had just enough to keep me going. If you can get it for free or on Kindle Unlimited, go for it, but I'll probably skip any sequels.
Profile Image for Mary Catelli.
Author 57 books201 followers
June 10, 2017
A few centuries in the future, the adventures of a tramp spaceship from the Disconnect. . . .

The background of the two human cultures, and the history (including a major disaster that affected all of mankind, even those who escaped it), and their interaction with AIs comes out slowly in the course of the events. It started with Michigian "Mitchie" Long getting Pete Smith to a spaceship, where he can escape to the Disconnect from charges of conducting AI research. She can't come -- she goes to another ship, to get a job as a pilot, and we catch her lying there. Most it follows her and the ship; there are some interludes about Pete.

The incidents tend to the episodic, though there is some cause and effect between them -- well, a tramp spaceship can't be too fussy about cargo. And consequences of that include, at different times, landing on a comet; dealing with pirates; contracting to take Pilgrims of various stripes, who are willing to risk the AIs; cooking up different recipes of algae crackers; facing a renegade hunter who maintains there is no law on an unsettled planet, and much more. Several large issues are resolved at the end -- though there is clearly room for the sequel that's coming.
Profile Image for Gregoire.
1,089 reviews45 followers
June 5, 2016
Lisible mais je n'ai pas accroché au point d'avoir envie de sauter des pages mais ATTENTION : ce n'est que mon avis !
Certains apprécieront certainement les aventures du Fives Full et de son équipage avec un univers profondément marqué par une guerre contre les AI Le côté technique est certes bien rendu Par contre, les membres de l'équipage ne sont pas assez développés pour qu'ils deviennent attachants (le fait de sauter du nom propre au prénom sans raison particulière m'a aussi gêné)
Personnellement, j'ai plus eu l'impression de lire 4 bd (il y a quatre récits principaux) versions scénario qu'un véritable roman
Profile Image for Margaret.
697 reviews19 followers
October 13, 2018
Wow! What glorious space opera! I knew 20% into this book that I wanted to not only finish this book but read any and all sequels!

Our protagonist is from the Disconnected Worlds. They have starships but it is all analog. Yes, that means manually calculating position by sextant, pencil & paper, and printed almanacs. The pilot takes star sightings, writes out the mathematical calculations by hand and, for serious maneuvering or long journeys, the pilot has the captain check her math (and vice versa if the captain done the calculations).

They spend some time in Fusion space. (No, this has nothing to do with the engines.) Fusion space is equivalent to our current 21st century digital "real life". You check out someone's digital presence before deciding to actually meet them in person. You are always connected. You are always under 24/7 digital surveillance.

The third portion of this universe is Hostile AI worlds. These are the worlds lost to self-aware artificial intelligences that want to wipe out humanity. (Yes, there was a bitter war. For the most part, current times is more like Cold War.)

Our protagonist is on a merchant freighter ship. The captain takes on cargo he hopes to sell at the next port or he contracts with a temporary employer to take that person and his/her cargo wherever.

I like military sf but I also especially like merchant freighter sf. The latter is like the current ship on the Expanse. Crew have equal shares in the ship. Taking on cargo pays the food/fuel/repairs, etc. bills. And there might be pirates!

I've already downloaded the next two books in this Torchship space opera series and I only hope that the author is writing more! According to Amazon.com, this book is a Finalist for the 2018 Prometheus Award for best libertarian SF novel!
Profile Image for Thomas.
2,652 reviews
September 11, 2021
Gallagher, Karl K. Torchship. Torchship No. 1. Kelt Haven Press, 2017.
Karl Gallagher, an M.I.T. alum, is a systems engineer in the aerospace industry who splits his fiction-writing time between space opera and fantasy. Torchship is space opera with some nice touches. It is cool that planet names include their gravity in meters per second squared, not in fractions of a g. I like that one of them is named Kitty Chow. You cannot really run an interstellar economy without AIs, but they don’t like being a permanent underclass in society. They are not warm and cuddly. On some worlds, even researching artificial intelligence is a criminal offense. I like the catch-as-catch can crew of the Fives Full, acquired the same way John D. McDonald’s Travis McGhee acquired the Busted Flush houseboat. They carry passengers who can’t afford better, run intelligence missions, search for treasure, and try to work off their debt and stay out of trouble. It is a tight group, a la Firefly and the Expanse. Like the crewmembers of the Rocinante, the crew of the Fives Full have secret agendas of their own. The story is uncomfortably episodic and does not have the stylistic flourish of a Becky Chambers novel. But readable space opera with some originality is hard enough to find that Torchship gets 4 stars from me.
Profile Image for Russell.
278 reviews33 followers
August 29, 2018
It's good scifi. This is not a space opera, but more of a near-future sort of just-hard-enough scifi. World building starts solid and keeps getting better, the main characters are likable and engaging, but it takes a bit before some of the not-so-main characters become distinct. The main plot is simple: keep the ship and crew working. Because of that, it allows the author to explore is world in a way that makes sense. The subplots weave in and out, occasionally I wasn't sure about the timeline, but Mr. Gallagher always brought things back together.

Mr. Gallagher also paces the back story of his main protagonist throughout the book, avoiding the info dump. As Mitchie's past is revealed to the reader, she is forced to make decisions that change her. She's not the same at the end as she was when she started.

One of the best things about the novel is the general can-do attitude of the characters. I like reading stories where when the chips are down, the characters roll up their sleeves and get to work. The working crew of 'Fives Full' are a fun lot to knock around the Universe with.
Profile Image for Jeffrey.
205 reviews2 followers
January 8, 2017
Some parts of the book are very enjoyable. The world building for example is pretty solid.

Other parts of the book aren't. Some of the minor plots just disappear. And the characters take a while to become distinct in the mind. "Which one is that one again?"

The episodic nature worked for me, it was like a back story telling the history of the crew/ship as it 'levels up.'

The physics (hard sci-fi) part worked for me when it was consistent.

Having said all that, I'll probably read the second book at some time. Because this is a debut novel. And the world is pretty awesome, even if I'm tired of the AIs are evil or uncaring-universe trope already.
9 reviews1 follower
November 24, 2018
I don't usually put a book down before finishing it, but in this case I made an exception.

The characterization was poor, with characters that feel like cardboard cutouts who get moved around at the whim of some inscrutable higher power. There isn't anything more I can add to this point, the characters were just forgettable.

I may have finished the book if the overbuilding had been good, however (presumable in an effort to reduce infodumps) the author leaves me confused and uncertain about why this world is set up this way, who the various factions are, and what the heck happened. An element of mystery and suspense is acceptable as a means to keep the reader hooked, but in this case the lack of information crossed over into being frustrating rather than tantalizing.
35 reviews
June 7, 2019
Rated at 4.7/5

Pros
1) Nice wolrd-building done by the author. This colorful universe is also unique.
2) Consistent well fleshed characters. No stupid choices to further a stagnant plot or deus ex machina twists to save the ship.
3) The action sequences are well depicted and pretty suspenseful for an unarmed ship with a civilian crew.
4) The technology is probable, no light sabers in this book.
Especially the fact each human alliance has a different approach makes this book more interesting.

Cons
I wanted to get to know the crew better. Both pilot and captain are better fleshed out than the rest but they are all interesting.
We just have to know more ! ;P

Great first book. Looking forward to how things move on since both story arcs are unresolved.
Profile Image for Noodle The Naughty Night Owl.
2,313 reviews37 followers
May 23, 2021
9/10: Fantastic, left me wanting more.

She decided she was fine with the guy maintaining her life support system being a detail-obsessed control freak.

Really got into this one. I enjoyed the main characters and the world-building. The series held my attention to the end.

“I can’t keep that pair from running off and murdering people. How am I supposed to make them keep their zippers up?”

It had some funny moments.

“Pilot Long, why are you on this ship?”

And an interesting backstory.

A+ read.
Profile Image for David.
489 reviews8 followers
May 18, 2024
First book of the Torchship Trilogy, very entertaining hard sci-fi story reminiscent of the Expanse or Frontlines novels, though more lighthearted. The protagonist is Mitchie, female pilot on a small spaceship for hire. They have a series of adventures and are pulled into an overarching conflict between various forces. For a first novels was surprised to find no editing errors, always a plus. On to book two to see where the story goes.
Profile Image for Ryan.
1,367 reviews194 followers
April 29, 2018
Good sci-fi novel (a mix of space opera and hard sci-fi); starts with a few shorter episodes on board a ship, then a longer one. Some of the characters are great. Probably 4.5 stars; lack of anything really new keeps it from 5, although it's one of the best executed versions of the starship/space opera I've ever read. From what I've heard, the sequels are even better.
Profile Image for Cindy.
411 reviews
September 23, 2025
2.5- it did improve as it went, and originally I bumped it to a 3. However, then I looked at other 3 ratings I gave, and I felt like I had to drop it down. While this had some exciting moments during action scenes, the characters were extremely flat and generic - the only character whose personality stood out was an incredibly annoying dude-bro who flirts with underage girls multiple times over the course of the book. The POV jumps randomly from character to character without much warning, so several times I was thrown that we were abruptly getting a different character's POV. It just doesn't feel like a very polished story, more like something that was self-published, without the benefit of an editing team.

The author clearly knows his science and tech. There is a LOT of technical jargon about how the engines and tech work, but I tended to glaze past those parts because what pulls me into a story is characters, not tech. Each "chapter" had an interesting story; this really reads more like 5 short stories about the same crew, but the concepts and ideas are better than the actual story execution.

If you are more invested in the science and tech behind how spaceships could work, and you don't care about character development, this might be for you.
Profile Image for SAnderson.
58 reviews
March 30, 2018
Not a bad little story

But kinda derivative and nerdy combined with too much young and not enough adult. The characters are likeable but not very well developed and there are lots of unexplained and unanswered questions.
7 reviews
February 9, 2019
Now that's how I like my hard SF! The adventures of the Fives Full crew are quite interesting and the characters pretty likeable... also a good trade-off between technical details / explanations and the actual story telling. Impressive debut!
205 reviews1 follower
October 7, 2018
AI’s at work

This book about an intrepid pilot who has some back story to tell as do most of her crew on a torchship. The intertwining of warp gates, overbearing government and money all create an interesting imbroglio for the crew. Interesting read.
266 reviews2 followers
September 26, 2017
Excellent new author!

I would not have seen this book if it hadn't gone up for free. Now I'm addicted and hunting down the next in this series. Great new author!
Profile Image for Michael Wallis.
17 reviews
September 26, 2017
Pilot for hire

Michigan Long was a good pilot, looking for a commercial ship to serve on. What she got, and where that ship takes her, form great science fiction.
Profile Image for Jon.
Author 80 books442 followers
November 26, 2017
Solid Sci-Fi. A bit episodic throughout the book as the crew goes on a few adventures. Charming characters, lots of witty banter. It felt a lot like Firefly in book form.
Profile Image for Jay.
88 reviews1 follower
November 26, 2017
Very solid novel all around, interesting world building. Easily some of the best science fiction I've read in the last few years.
Profile Image for Lyn.
21 reviews
June 6, 2018
Pretty good space yarn!

Great start to what should be an interesting world and story. I enjoyed the authors way of slowly peeling back the onion on this galaxy and its backstory
3 reviews
October 30, 2018
Great Sci-Fi storytelling and believable space physics written by an MIT-trained engineer/former Air Force Space Operations Officer. Two thumbs up for Karl Gallagher.
184 reviews1 follower
January 9, 2023
Good yarn

When I read books like this I think of them as alternatives to tv, ava ppb that count this was a success. Interesting also in light of contemporary debate about AI
645 reviews10 followers
June 9, 2019
Karl Gallagher's Torchship was the runner-up for the Libertarian Futurist Society's 2018 Prometheus Award, and is represents the not uncommon occurrence of a runner-up that could just as easily have been the winner. Even though this first novel of the "Torchship Trilogy" is constructed as a series of connnected vignettes about the Fives Full tramp freighter and sometime passenger ship, it keeps its coherence quite well.

Michigan "Mitchie" Long hires onto the Fives Full as a pilot after demonstrating her math abilities. Humanity's explored worlds are roughly grouped into three categories: those that allow limited networked computers, those that don't and those that have been taken over by artificial intelligence. The interstellar "torchships" need to be able to navigate on the mathematical calculations of their human pilots as well as computers, depending on which planetary system they're in. The Fives' small crew is a colorful group of characters so Mitchie fits in, even though she's concealing her primary role as a spy. She fits in well enough to develop a rapport and then relationship with the ship's mechanic over the course of the three novels, as Gallagher describes humanity's conflicted response to the menace of the artificial intelligence and its own infighting.

But aside from Mitchie's spy work the crew of the Fives Full are just folks trying to keep flying and find a job to enable that -- a clear homage to Joss Whedon's Firefly. Gallagher writes engaging and likeable characters, and has created an interesting world in which they work. He's set up circumstances to make sliderule-style calculations and wrench-and-spanner ship repairs plausible in a world of faster-than-light travel.

Although Gallagher doesn't entirely stick the landing in the third novel of the trilogy, the world of Torchship is a fun place to visit. It would seem as though he's ended the story as the third novel draws to a close, but there may be room for more stories in this universe -- and they'd certainly be welcome.

Original available here.
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