The Ghosts of Trappist
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“A rollicking space adventure” (Locus), military sci-fi meets found family space opera when the crew of Zuma’s Ghost find themselves under attack, shocking truths are about to be exposed, and the NeoG--the Coast Guard in space--is once again called to action!
Ensign Nell “Sapphi” Zika has been working hard to get past her trauma, but the unnerving pleas for help she’s hearing in the Verge and the song she can’t get out of her head are making that increasingly difficult. As Zuma’s Ghost gears up for a final run at the Boarding Games, their expert hacker is feeling anything but confident. Plus, her chief’s robot dog, Doge, is acting weird—a computer problem she can’t find an answer to—and the increasing number of missing freighters is putting everyone living on or stationed around Trappist on edge.
It doesn’t help the NeoG’s mission that Dread Treasure is sidelined from competing in the Boarding Games, and Commander D’Arcy Montaglione is stuck on the front lines of the mystery of the missing ships while also stuck in his own head. Never good at trusting people to begin with, he’s struggling to piece together his new crew in the aftermath of a great betrayal, knowing this may be his final chance at command. The last thing he wants to do is prove his enemies right and end up getting shoved behind a desk and forgotten. The easy answer to missing ships is pirates, but D’Arcy soon realizes the easiest answer is rarely the right one out in the vacuum of space. What’s worse is that the actual pirates are scared of something out beyond the asteroid belt. Something that’s been taking their ships too…
As the unknowns multiply and one of their mysterious enemies escalates by launching an attack on the NeoG itself, the Interceptor crews must brave both cyber and outer space to hunt down their foes, but no one is prepared for the truth that is revealed or the way it will shake the foundations of everything they believe about the universe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sentimental space opera, the third in Wagers's NeoG series (after Hold Fast Through the Fire), revisits the crew of Near-Earth Orbital Guard Interceptor Zuma's Ghost, gleefully mixing business with pleasure. While defending their championship in the Boarding Games and digging into the sudden appearance of "ghost" (uncrewed) ships in the Trappist solar system, the crew also works through a ton of emotional baggage: Lt. Max Carmichael is pressured by her prestigious Naval family to quit the lower status Guard; Chief Petty Officer Altandai "Jenks" Khan worries that her canine robot, Doge, is developing impossible abilities like active learning and human feeling; and Ensign Nell "Sapphi" Zika is confronted by a toxic ex-partner whose work on a classified AI project brings him into unwanted proximity. Meanwhile someone (or something) is sending secret messages and killer spacesuits after the crew. Wagers lavishes a lot of attention on the internal conflicts and interpersonal frictions that accompany the more standard space battles and computer hacking intrigues. Readers who enjoy both the glitz of space opera and the conviviality of family dramas will be rewarded with as many embraces as EMP blaster pulses.
