The Chase

Diving Universe #10

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

On the run.

After fleeing pursuers from two different missions, Boss and Coop reconvene at the Lost Souls Corporation headquarters. Both share exciting but troublesome news.

And a whole lot of questions.

But before they begin to even scratch the surface of the new information, they face threats from all quarters.

And when an old adversary of Coop's gets involved, Boss questions who to trust to survive and find some long-awaited answers.

A nonstop new adventure, The Chase provides thrilling new details about Kristine Kathryn Rusch's award-winning Diving series.

Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

550 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2021

About the author

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.

Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.

In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".

She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: this is part of an on-going series and it is highly suggested that you read the previous novels first, or at least "The Boneyards" and "Thieves" because this book is a direct sequel to "Thieves".

Boss, Coop and friends have become endangered by two enemies: one they think is the Fleet and the other is a group they don't know about but use Fleet vessels so they call them the Non-Fleet. They also have roused the ire of the Empire.

The narrative switches POVs between the captains of various ships in these groups as well as Boss and Coop.

Eventually everything comes to a head in the end when everything clashes in an epic battle.

Now, the book is good but I have a quibble. The ship captains we read about are all female, and they all seem to have the same personality: meticulous about detail, gathering info before action. Which makes the first part of the book tedious at times and the only thing that I found interesting was when one group with high tech makes fun of the group with low tech and then the low tech group is trying to figure out the high tech but they have no clue to what it really is. Now the fact that we have 3 different factions and each happen to have a female in charge of a group of ships makes bells ding,ding,ding in my head. This seems like blatant feminism on the part of the author. You mean to tell me that it's just a coincidence that the three factions all have female leaders, there were no men captains available? Oh and when there are men portrayed, with the exception of Coop because he's a good guy, they are portrayed as dunderheads or not quite up to par with the women. Sigh. Now I got nothing against feminism per se, I am female after all and I'm all for "a woman should be able to do the same jobs men do" thing, but when it's this obvious and blatant it just makes me sad. And it takes me out of the narrative and into real life for a moment while I think these thoughts. I read to get out of the read world and into fictional ones, I don't like to be reminded of the real world when I'm reading.

Ah but I digress. Even with that quibble it's still a fine book and one of the best of the Diving Universe books.

[Noodle The Naughty Night Owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10: Fantastic, left me wanting more.

He held out his hand to her. “Some sacrifices are worthwhile,” he said. “Some sacrifices are more than worthwhile.”

I am a huge fan of this series. I mean a HUGE fan. I can't get enough of Coop & Boss, and Boss diving wrecks and Coop trying to find the Fleet, and everything that goes with it.

He was mad at her for a thousand reasons. He was mad at her because she never listened to him, mad at her because she was maddening, never doing what he wanted, mad at her because he cared about her way too much.

This isn't a romance, but I live for the moments where Coop has an epiphany about how he feels about Boss, and Boss avoids admitting what she really feels for Coop (but we all know).

Because I’m an emotional coward and I loathe confrontation, I head out on the opposite side of Lost Souls from the Ivoire.

There was a revelation slipped in on this one (at least I think it was a revelation and we didn't know about it in the last book) that really made my heart ache for Coop. I'm now keener than ever (and more fearful) for Coop to actually meet the modern Fleet face to face.

We get glimpses, and POVs from all parties involved, so I know it's coming. But not yet...

Not yet.

Roll on the next one, hopefully, another one with both Coop and Boss in it. I can't wait. A must-read series for any sci-fi fan.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chickens are finally coming home to roost! I really love to read books in series and what happens in the Chase is something that Ms. Rusch has been building up to for lo these many books now!

The Chase is Diving Universe book 15 and the action is finally really heating up!

Be prepared for keeping tracks of lots of POVs from various ships as they all converge on Coop and Boss!

Very well done and I can't wait for book 16!

I'm so glad that I supported the Kickstarter project to get to read this book early before its Sep. 2021 publication!

Highly recommended for long hard sf series readers, Diving Universe longtime readers, space opera fans, and fans of lots of character-driven action!

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next part in the Diving Universe series. This book continues pretty directly from the last book. There are a lot of consequences that are examined from several viewpoints, from all sides of the multiparty conflict. The separate viewpoints are from The Boss and her friend, Captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper, who has traveled from thousands of years in the past due to an accident involving an “Anacapa” drive which makes instantaneous travel in space possible (pretty dangerous, but mostly possible), from quasi “Star Fleet” - like an organization called the Fleet, from a Fleet splinter group and from a local empire with inspirations for expanse.
The viewpoints alternated and the characters pondered at length about their next actions. Eventually, there is a space fight and things almost reset to normal.

I was irritated by the attitude of “shoot first and ask questions later”. Wouldn’t the logical thing have been to open communications and find out what every party wants and needs? Also, it was a HUGE coincidence that all that was happening at the same time - there was no actual reason for that. Except from the point of view of the plot.
There were also some huge stupidities in the book. Apparently, dimming the lights in a spaceship is important to save energy. Apparently, faster than light space can’t spare a few hundred watts for lighting? It is also stated that the Empire supposedly had found “a lot” of abandoned dignity vessels. Weren’t they supposed to be a legend; in the first book the Boss hardly believes they even exist when she finds the first one. And now, apparently, there are a lot of them lying around.
The book was pretty slow. On the other hand, a fair amount of things happened, but the overall plot seems to move at a glacial pace. There was some fighting, a lot of plotting, and lots and lots of discussions. Perhaps they were not as excessive as in the former book (at least there were no pages wasted on childcare problems), but almost.

[Laz the Sailor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere along the way, the Diving series went from linear to multi-threaded. This story attempts to bring several of these threads back together, which is a noble goal, except that some of the threads were from 4 years ago. Top it off that this story is still transitional from Thieves, with a "to be continued" ending.

Throw in too many perspectives and Coop acting irresponsibly, and it's tough to enjoy KKR's quality writing style.

Here's hoping the next story wraps up this arc.

PS: this book is not properly linked on GR, and it certainly isn't #15 in the series.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I feel really sorry for Elissa Trekov. I feel like she's been used horribly by Coop but it's not really his fault, she contacted him first and he had no idea about the explosion but she will get blamed and 1000s of her people were killed. She felt like he had used her and he had but not like she thought. He would have let her have the ships if her people hadn't destroyed them. Anyway, really good book, a little long but I enjoyed it.

[Ed Dragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Space Opera and Mystery story in space that is also an detailed Adventure. Told from the multiple point-of-views that always describe current events. Included are perspectives of bad guys, or enemies of characters we're suppose to cheer for (based on previous books). Serious story that includes death of characters. Every story that is told, when following a particular character, is so detailed that it itself can be considered a Mystery.

[Kavita Favelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just read the Diving Series back to back (the 16 books that exist thus far, including novels and novellas) and have to say that I absolutely love this series.

The Chase brings another set of new characters (but ones we've been foreseeing for a long time) and a huge coming together of various different character sets and storylines. It's a great read!

[Brendan Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the Diving Universe ... good to see Boss and the team back in action. This on (of course) ends on a cliff hanger ... so no surprise there .... I'm going to take a break from the Diving Universe for a while ... maybe in a few months there'll be another book or two to read!

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Events are coming to a head in The Chase. There were a lot of secondary deaths in this book and I'm curious to see what happens next.

[Jeff Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first fiction read of 2022, continuing a series I love.

[Charl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. A four-sided "confrontation" at the end. Excellent!

[Bob Cutler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little drawn out in places (especially the battle scenes) but a good read overall

[Koit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this title—really, I couldn’t put it down—until the very end, where it seems to be the author creates a plot hole. Maybe this was necessary because this book seems to fit into a gap between two older books (I’ve not verified this), but even so it seems that the same objective could have been achieved somehow better.

What was good? The majority of this title was superb: the pace is quick and there is a lot happening from the points of view of a number of characters. The action is generally very interesting and it’s tough to know exactly which way the final confrontation the author is building up to will go. And, again, Ms Rusch has done a splendid job with the minor characters who get their own POV.

What I didn’t like? This will involve spoilers. Firstly, Coop’s behaviour with respect to the final dive by Yash and Boss is wholly out of character for the person we’ve seen in countless novels. But, more importantly, why did he not contact the supposed Fleet vessels? The author says that Coop did not want to tip off the Empire that someone else was there, but the Fleet has been able to monitor all Empire communications throughout. And with regards to the observers, he could have gone to his ready room just like he does to take another four or five calls during the battle sequence. If that wasn’t critical enough when there were four Fleet ships present, it should have been immediately done when one left with the first disabled Not-Fleet/Armada ship.

I couldn’t help but think that this contact would arrive, and it didn’t. It’s a pity because this feels like a big hole for me while I really enjoyed the book overall.

This review was originally posted on my blog.

[Smalltowncat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't read this book thinking that you'll get more of Boss. She appears only briefly in this novel. However, all the events that take place are directly related to Boss's (and Cooper's) actions at the Room of Lost Souls and the Scrapheap. With this book, Ms Rusch has caused me to spend too many nights staying up way too late. This novel is a lot lengthier than usual, but that's with good reason. Space chases, space battles, unlikely alliances, lots of explosions, bodies everywhere, who could ask for more? She's also tying up some loose ends from previous books. We find out what developed in the future from the stranded Fleet personnel in 'The Renagat'. The Enterran Empire has a connection to the past encounter with Ukhanda and the Ivoire. And we hear from the Fleet itself! Don't think it's all wrapped up though. Who knows what will happen between Lost Souls and the Empire now that the alliance has finished with the battle? How will information about the Armada affect Lost Souls and the Fleet? Will the Fleet return to punish those who were stealing ships from the Scrapheap? Aaarrgghhh, now we have to wait for the next book! Curse your addictive plot lines Ms Rusch!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything comes together at the end or is it everything falls apart at the end. This takes a ride with several different groups and several different levels of technology. Boss and Coop have a wild ride and in the end are left with more question than answers. This comes out in Oct but I got it easy by participating in the Kickstarter to finance the story. Now I am waiting for the next part of this saga. The Diving Novels have a lot left to reveal. Hope a new Kickstarter arrives soon.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, man, so close.
Excellent diving series novel, and one that will certainly make you want more when you're done.
I have no doubt there's more coming, the ending almost guarantees it.
Great stuff here folks, and if you haven't read any of the diving universe novels, you might want to start, at least, if you're a scifi fan, and if you aren't, then you might want to become one, just so you can enjoy this most excellent series which just keeps getting better and better with every release.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this pre-publication as part of the Kickstarter. It brings the elements from the last five or six books together. Our heroes, the Empire, the Fleet, and the Armada are all now in conflict. There is much more happening at a faster pace than in the recent Diving Universe books.

[John Devenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a supporter of the Kickstarter campaign as I am a huge fan of KKR and really love this series of novels, novellas and short stories.
The action really heats up in this instalment, plenty is resolved and even more set up for the next book which I hope comes soon.
More Boss please.

[BBFlyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another exciting Diving Series novel. Very exciting. Non-fleet meets Empire meets Fleet and Lost Souls survives a gigantic battle.