Very good fourth entry in the Virga series, exploring the history of Virga in more depth, and setting up a new story arc. Full review here. ( )

We return to the world of Virga, this time in the sunless nation of Abyss, far from the fusion-powered lights. Abyss is in the dark, but has plenty of history, and Leal Maspeth is a teacher of history under a regime that is (in a commentary on some of the crazier politics of our time?) trying to put facts up to a vote. Just when the Abyssal government is trying to deny history, ancient history shows up in the form of the ancient struggles for power in the Vega system, on whose outskirts Virga orbits, and Leal is the only person in position to figure out the right move for the small outpost of humanity that is Virga. We manage to find out more about the world outside Virga, expanding on the hints in earlier volumes.

Schroeder keeps up the swashbuckling action of the Virga books (and brings back Hayden Griffin from the earlier tales) while outlining sobering possibilities that should serve as caution to gung-ho transhumanists and extropians. I was a bit disappointed that one of the important revelatory sequences was done as telling rather than showing, but I can see that doing proper showing would have interrupted the pace of the book. ( )