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A review by coffeequills
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I'm not a big hard sci-fi fan, and so this is probably one of the few books where the cover wasn't a draw (thought I don't dislike it. I'm just ambivalent). However, the plot of a "not even a C-team on the best of days" on a salvage run that goes wrong certainly interested me. And Fallout has primed me to expect some shenanigans when it comes to overseers. 😉 The book was bought and added to the towering TBR.
The characters we get to know over the story are amazing. Every chapter or so Milo, Simon, and Anna revel more of their inner nature, and OC (the AI-overseer) creates beautiful poetry. These people (and AI) show great character growth, in some cases even proving that "growth" doesn't have to be a progressive or good growth.
The conclusion was extremely satisfying, there were several twists that I 100% didn't see coming, and the details were delicious little bits that added up to an wonderful dish. This was a cleverly crafted idea, including the parts written by machine (read the forward, it's amazing how much of the world was constructed via software; a great way to put the science into the sci-fi).
There was a good use of cliffhangers and information was let out slowly so that the reader could keep learning about the characters, setting, and situation. The pacing of the story was a little off, and it felt to me as if the driver was continually hitting the brake and gas at the same time, and a few times while reading it became a bit of a slog to get to the next section that made me not want to keep reading.
Throughout the book I went through the ups and downs the characters did; my face winced along with them and there were even a few parts that made me exclaim aloud. I will recommend this book to readers of sci-fi, but instead of most recommendations (which are me saying "You'll love this!"), my feelings about The Salvage Crew are more... you'll either love it or you'll hate it.
The characters we get to know over the story are amazing. Every chapter or so Milo, Simon, and Anna revel more of their inner nature, and OC (the AI-overseer) creates beautiful poetry. These people (and AI) show great character growth, in some cases even proving that "growth" doesn't have to be a progressive or good growth.
The conclusion was extremely satisfying, there were several twists that I 100% didn't see coming, and the details were delicious little bits that added up to an wonderful dish. This was a cleverly crafted idea, including the parts written by machine (read the forward, it's amazing how much of the world was constructed via software; a great way to put the science into the sci-fi).
There was a good use of cliffhangers and information was let out slowly so that the reader could keep learning about the characters, setting, and situation. The pacing of the story was a little off, and it felt to me as if the driver was continually hitting the brake and gas at the same time, and a few times while reading it became a bit of a slog to get to the next section that made me not want to keep reading.
Throughout the book I went through the ups and downs the characters did; my face winced along with them and there were even a few parts that made me exclaim aloud. I will recommend this book to readers of sci-fi, but instead of most recommendations (which are me saying "You'll love this!"), my feelings about The Salvage Crew are more... you'll either love it or you'll hate it.