Darkship Renegades By: Sarah A. Hoyt
Darkship Renegades is the Sequel to Darkship Thieves, and It continues the story of Athena and Kit from the first book. The book is a bit slow to start, but picks up speed after the first couple of chapters. The tone of this book is a bit less nonstop action adventure, and a bit more political and technological exploration oriented than the first book was. The social structure of both the future Earth and Eden are explored much more in depth in this book than they were in the first one. I really got the feeling that the author was trying to emphasize the extreme freedom of Eden vs the tyranny of earth in this book.
I found a few issues with this book as opposed to the first one. For me the first part of the book was really slogging, and Athena does some things that would be out of character for her in the first book. My impression from the story is that the author is trying to show that she is exploring the softer side of her emotions, but in my opinion she goes a bit too far with it. The narrative in this book is also much more political than the first book and the author is a bit heavy handed with it. Since the author does a good job of contrasting the two very different worlds the story takes place on some political discussion is required, but the story would be better if there were less time spent on political philosophy. Despite this I do recommend this book because after the first few chapters the action speeds up, and between that and the dramatic tension in the book it becomes difficult to put down.
Darkship Thieves leaves us with Athena and Kit returning to Eden after their adventure on earth. This book picks up as they attempt to gain entry to Eden and are met with blatant hostility. When they do talk their way down Kit is "Arrested" (read abducted by men with guns since Eden has no official laws which someone can be arrested for.) While they were away the energy crisis caused by powerpod collector ships being shot down has allowed the Energy board to seize power. The board's head wants Kit out of the way becuase it turns out that Kit is a clone of man named Jarl, the biolord who developed most of the technology that both Eden and Earth use. Nobody understands Jarl's technology well enough to replicate it, but the board fears that with time Kit might be able to. In a bid to save Kits life, and possibly restore Eden to its free state, Kit's family manipulates the citizens of Eden to back sending Kit and Athena back to earth for Jarl's notes on how to transplant the powertrees he developed. In the preparations Kit is shot in the head by assassins, and Doc Bartolomeu uses nanomachines and a brain map from Jarl to fix him. This has the unfortunate side effect of awakening long dormant machines in Kit that were intended to transform him into Jarl. Unfortunately Eden is not safe for Kit, and the trip must go on, so Kit, Athena, Doc and Kits Friend Zen set off for earth with Jarl's Ghost slowly replacing Kit. To top this off the ship they came on is literally falling apart due to bio-technological sabotage. Once they finally make it to earth they must find Jarls notes on powertrees, and find a way to fix Kit. The problem is that Jarl's Ghost likes Kit's body just fine, and doesn't want to go. In the end Athena convinces Jarl to leave things to the new generation and the crew cobbles up a return craft, and makes their way back, with a powertree cutting, to shake the boot of tyranny from Eden.
This book will appeal to people who love a good adventure if they can get past the first bit, and are willing to deal with a lot of libertarian political philosophy thrown in with it. Fans of John Ringo or Tom Kratman will feel right at home, and the author even has a shout out to John Ringo in one of the scenes at the end of the book.
This book is available at www.amazon.com as an e-book or in print.
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