I picked this up book up and put it down about three times when I was at Powell's in Portland. I'd managed to squeak in an extra 3/4 of an hour for myself in the bookstore while everyone else was occupied, and I spent most of that time in the SFF section torn between the books that seemed like great comps and the books that I most wanted to read -- with the added complication of the question "will I ever find this again elsewhere?"
In the end, Loki's Ring is one of the books that made it home with me (on the 'I may never see this again' principle), while the K.B. Wagers books were at the top of the 'I guess I can't buy ALL THE BOOKS' pile. But I made a careful note of the name and titles and managed to find the first book of Wagers' NeoG series at the public library recently.
If you want a brief summary of A Pale Light, you could do worse than the pull quote on the front cover "If The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet had more kickboxing matches and death-defying space rescues, this would be the book. -- Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever". To whit:
- Protagonist is the rebel daughter of a powerful family who is following her own path -- CHECK
- Narrative centres a 'found family' of loveable misfits -- CHECK
- Female, NB, and queer characters are central -- CHECK
- Spaceships and adventure -- CHECK
But of course A Pale Light in the Black is its own book. Our loveable band of misfits are members of the interplanetary Coast Guard (the NeoGs, or Near-Earth Orbital Guards), making this book a kind of modern Military SF. In sharp contrast to most space operas, the team's immediate goal is not saving humanity or fighting aliens or protecting Earth. The crew of Zuma's Ghost really wants to do well in the Boarding Games, an inter-Service Olympics that features events like computer hacking, cage fighting, and simulated 'take over the occupied space station' competitions. Of course that's not the only plot -- the main drama involves the prodigal daughter finding her confidence as she becomes a fully integrated member of her NeoG team, while simultaneously uncovering a nefarious plot that OF COURSE involves her family and its business interests.
What did I think of the book? Unlike some of the SFF I've reviewed lately, this is not a debut novel. Wagers published five books before this one, and their experience shows. Characters are all three-dimensional, dialog is seamless, description is well-chosen, and the action moves along. You care about Jenks (the tough, orphaned Petty Officer who would much rather get in a bar fight than admit that she might have Feelings for someone), and for Max, our low-confidence high competence protagonist. Overall the book is very competently done, entertaining, and I enjoyed it a lot.
My only criticism is a tiny pet peeve -- in real life of course people have full, multi-part names, they have titles ('Commander'), they have nicknames (and sometimes more than one ('Jenks', 'Dai')). And of course in real life these names and titles and nicknames might bear no obvious relationship to one another. But in fiction...oy. Introducing multiple people in the first few pages while referring to each person in multiple different ways? Realistic? Sure. Effective? I dunno. I'm a person who has trouble enough keeping single names of the real folk that I meet straight. But take this criticism for whatever you think it's worth -- I'm also not a huge fan of the style of high fantasy that throws you into an unfamiliar situation without explanation and expects you to be satisfied by finally figuring out what was happening on page 1 by reading page 452.
