Upstream Reviews - Torchship, by Karl Gallagher
By Declan Finn
From the review by Declan Finn:
The crew of the Fives Full are making their way in the universe. After AI went full Cylon and took over Earth, technology has needed to fall back a little.
We cover five missions / stories, but they all build on each other. The opening deals with a bunch of tourists ... which turns into a cat and mouse chase among asteroids, a shoot out, and some additional SCIENCE!
Events that take place during #1 lead to the next mission with Terraformers ... called “Kitty Chow.” Yes, really. Trust me, you won’t see this coming.
“Kitty Chow” leads to several bits of business in the next arc of stories, with Pilgrims, the Treasure of the Sierra Madre .... IN SPACE ... and then Hitchhikers. How do you have hitchhikers in space? Heh heh heh.
There are several interludes that take place in between the missions of the torch ship in question, and they both add to the narrative, and provides some exposition. This is important, since there is little in the way of exposition here. There is just enough data here to get you through the story, but nothing else. “The Fusion worlds” are paranoid about technology, because the AIs revolted. Why did the AI revolt? No idea. We don’t need to know. We just need to know that they dislike humans.
But dang, this was fun. Granted, we don’t have the scene-chewing, over the top characters from Firefly, but we also don’t have some of their angsty BS. The crew of the Fives Full are ... generally well-adjusted individuals. The story doesn’t leave you wanting, but it does leave you with a desire to know more about the world, and what happens next to our heroes.
