Norwescon discussion

Have you read Revenger? What did you think? Let us know!

Space pirates, hidden treasure, scheming and swashbuckling — and while I didn't dislike reading it, it never entirely grabbed me, either. I think for me, it's just that while I recognize the conceit of "adventure on the high seas IN SPACE" as an attractive one for many, it's simply never particularly caught my interest. I'm not sure if that's because I'm not much into "adventure on the high seas IN WATER" tales and the switch to "…IN SPACE" isn't enough to make it work for me, or if I just find the conceit itself a little…well, silly. Not that solar sails and the like aren't scientifically sound, but the overly-literal application of the idea always feels a bit far-fetched. Anyway — the book isn't bad, it just isn't for me.

Millions of years in the future, humanity is no longer confined to just one planet. Not even thousands. Millions of planets (and planet-like ships, and artificial constructs, and things I couldn't even parse) surround the sun. Set in the 13th (IIRC) "occupation" alien tech is a given, and space scavengers are tasked with hunting down caches of these artifacts, even if no one remembers which occupation they're from, who left them or what they are. History is so vast, and the occupations so distant, that no one rememebers much beyond the here and now, and what they can discover down in the baubles, the alien constructs that are sealed off but for brief and sporatic openings.

An entire system of scavenging has developed around these baubles. Fura Ness, a young woman from one of the many planets, finds that she, along with her sister, has an aptutiude for "reading the bones," a system of communication based on ancient alien skulls. Set for an adventure, she and her sister sign on with a scavenger ship for excitement and adventure. And of course, that's exactly what she gets, only no where near what they expect.

One of the 2018 Philip K Dick nominees, I enjoyed this one and found it an easy read (though not too easy), even with all the masses of back history and vast ideas that weren't totally answered or explained. It wasn't until later I heard it was meant to be a YA novel, which totally makes sense in hindsight.

I wonder if the vagueness of the history and technology was part of what didn't work for me. It wasn't until fairly far in that I was sure that it was set around _our_ sun, and apparently some cataclysm fragmented the existing solar system into this "cloud" of objects, many of which have micro-singularities at the core for gravity? I understand that it's set far enough in the future that even the characters don't really know, but I think that was one of the aspects that didn't really work for me. A little hand-wavey in the setup.

I can see that, I'm still not 100% sure I am correct in my synopsis. It was quite vague at times. There were some pretty deep concepts in there, so I don't buy that he was dumbing it down for a YA audience ... or was he? I am assuming there will be more answers in the next volume.