122923b

Sort of a review

I have been rereading the Linesman series by S. K. Dunstall, and I discovered two things. The first I already suspected. The series is a trilogy and there won't be any more books. The second thing is that the author is actually two women with the same last name. That isn't important, but I had been imagining a single author.

The trilogy then is a story of diplomacy, war, and subterfuge among the stars. The characters are all human, except for the starships, which in some sense are alive. There are biological aliens too, but they are all dead and have been for a long time. The viewpoint character is a young man who grew up poor and with no prospects, until he was discovered to be one of those rare people who has the talent to navigate among the stars. It's sort of a hoary idea, but it works. He is a nice guy, and he gets to work with other nice people, and some who are not, in a situation fraught with danger and deception. If I could stay up all night these days I would read one of these books in a single sitting. The Dunstalls have written two books in another series, but I haven't read those yet. I have borrowed them from the library.

I would give these books four and a half stars out of five. They do need to be read in order and the first one is entitled "Linesman."