I loved the realism within the sci-fi here. Many of her conclusions come from analysis of enormous piles of data – for instance, looking for patterns within ship docking and wormhole transit records.

She gets a hotel room via a script that searches for a room that meets her requirements every ninety seconds. Different things are possible when she has a physical, spliced-in computer link and wireless access. Maybe it’s the author’s computer science credentials, but for once, a hacker character reads like an actual hacker with Kee spending hours trying to gain access to networks. I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS TALK HONESTLY!). (Oh, and don’t worry a Big Mis based around ‘He doesn’t like me’ is avoided by a spectacularly satisfying direct confession from Kee. When she decides to leave the ship and spend some time on the space station Bastion, it’s as much to put some distance between herself and Varro as it is to hunt for data related to the villain of Hunt the Stars To Kee’s surprise (and good fortune) Varro turns up – and isn’t perhaps as indifferent as she presumed. Kee Ildez, the human hacker of Starlight’s crew, has an unrequited crush on Varro Runkow, a Valoff who works for General Torran Fletcher (the hero of the previous book, who is now in a relationship with Kee’s captain Tavi Zarola). This sequel, Eclipse the Moon, has not let me down.

I gave a DIK to the first book in Jessie Mihalik’s Starlight’s Shadow series, Hunt the Stars, when it came out earlier this year.

Eclipse the Moon by Jessie Mihalik