Reviews

This was a short, quick Science Fiction read. While the plot and characters were interesting, the story never broke any new ground for me, an avid Sci-Fi reader. Some of the plot points and characters reminded me of the streaming series The Expanse (I haven't read the books). The four main characters are Saga, Michel, Wei and Gregor. Wei (the corporate connection) and her pilot Gregor (a belter) have hired hacker husband and wife team Michel and Saga to go with them on their ship, the Sigurd, to the abandoned huge luxury space-liner, the Martian Queen, on an illegal salvage mission. The ship floats in the space lanes somewhere around the outer planets in the solar system and Michel and Saga consider it will be a big score if they can carry off the mission. But nothing seems to go right once Michel and Saga have entered and breached the ship's systems. Saga receives the heartbreaking news that her mother has died out of her reach back on Earth and being able to afford new treatments for her mother's illness was the main reason she had agreed to do the mission. Following this tragic news, Saga's grief and guilt puts a strain on her relationship with Michel. Saga and Michel soon learn that Wei has been keeping secrets about the Martian Queen mission from them while at the same time Wei becomes ever more paranoid and controlling. Gregor is a melancholy alcoholic who wanders the corridors of the ship and stays in a state of inebriation once he comes across some leftover liquor in the ship's bar. Weird things begin to accelerate aboard the supposedly abandoned ship with its creepy reanimated server bots and when Gregor is found dead and then appears to be resurrected for a deadly purpose, tensions mount. Finally, as the danger continues to spiral out of control Saga will be forced to make a life-changing decision in order to save the lives of her husband and Wei and stop a threat that could endanger the lives of everyone in the solar system.