Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

This novel is a grand science fiction adventure with a cast of characters who each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Ro and Barre form the main set, though Jem could arguably be in that list as well. Nomi and Micah are in the supporting cast along with many characters whose stories are not the main focus, but I suspect from how they are seeded in this novel will become so in later books.

Of the main five, each has points where they own the point of view, and none of them is left to feel like a rough outline rather than a full person with a complex history. The characters are definitely a strength in the novel, and I enjoyed how they were all simultaneously loyal and connected but equally bad at demonstrating it for their own reasons.

The worse at demonstrating how important her friends are is Ro, the captain of the Halcyone, but she has solid reasons to distrust with her history, and a seriously damaged ship to distract her. Then there is Barre, a talented musician who doesn’t recognize his potential even after doing the impossible by making a musical connection with Halcyone’s damaged AI when nothing else could reach the dangerously rouge ship’s mind.

Jem is the hardest case of all because he’s a talented programmer who, due to a brain injury in the first book, has lost his talent and even his ability to read. This, along with the sense he’s worsening and his parents’ efforts to shield him from the truth, provokes desperation on his part and equal measures of guilt and overprotectiveness on the part of his friends.

Ithaka Rising is the second book in the Halcyone Space series, and though I have not read the first, the beginning provides enough grounding in the events of the previous book to show where the issues were without weighing too heavily on what is now backstory. The only exception to this was Micah, who did not show up enough to get to know him for all he played a critical part in this story. However, the little I saw of him shows the same characteristics that make this a character-rich story with adventure, discovery, and grand conspiracies to boot. Nomi is Ro’s would-be lover and has a smaller part to play, but I suspect that may change. Regardless, she is also critical to the book as having a friend in the official communications network was essential to both bad decisions and good.

All of the above focuses on the characters because they were what drew me into the story, but LJ Cohen does not stint on the plot either with plausible, understandable actions leading to disaster and revealing secrets that were meant to stay hidden. The group of friends, through innovation and desperation, uncover a complicated conspiracy that has roots back even to the heart of the Commonwealth itself and shakes the foundation of everything they’ve been brought up to believe. Besides, I enjoyed the portrayal of advanced programming into the realm of the holographic.

It’s a fun story with interesting people and a rich conspiracy culture.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )

For those of you who have not yet read Derelict, by LJ Cohen, stop whatever you are doing and go do so. Right now! And then, read the next book in what I hope is a long series, Ithaka Rising. Ithaka Rising can stand on its own, but why punish yourself when they are both so very good? And, keep your mind open for an 'easter egg' or two, as Ms. Cohen pays tribute to more than one pioneer in the world of computers, and in ways I am not sure even the author realizes she has done (don't you just love it when characters have a mind of their own?). ( )