One ship, one loyalty and a single shot at redemptionCaptain Rebekah Khan and her ragtag crew of the repair ship Sunstar finally have a chance to pay off their crushing debts when an automining vessel goes rogue. After preventing the high value cargo from disappearing into the outer system, they uncover sabotage only a crew with their military experience would recognise.Instead of returning as heroes, they are blackmailed into taking on a new crew member and to hunt for a mysterious, uncertified spacecraft. Deep into the black, they desperately try to hide their murky past, while their loyalties are tested to their limits when they finally come across the marooned ship and its deadly cargo.Featuring the action of Aliens, the camaraderie of Firefly and the infighting of The Expanse, The Wrecking Squad is the new science fiction novel from Nick Snape, author of the highly rated Weapons of Choice series.
A solid sci-fi adventure.
Experienced science-fiction readers will recognize a lot of the elements present in "The Wrecking Squad," with its ragtag, ex-military, mining-asteroid salvage crew protagonists, gallivanting around the fringes of civilized space as they hide from their sordid past while attempting to rebuild their lives, and protect some precious cargo they acquired during their final mission in uniform. That familiarity isn't necessarily a bad thing as the concept is largely well executed, ensuring that fans of such tales will find a lot to enjoy in it.
I have a few nitpicks, such as some inconsistencies that most casual readers likely won't notice, a few somewhat awkward descriptions of items and actions, and enough instances of "plot armor" sparing characters from death or serious injury to be noteworthy, but overall, the story is fun, well-paced, and worked for me in all the ways it needed to to make up for those quibbles.
"The Wrecking Squad" is the first in a fairly long series of books, but does a good job of establishing the foundation for that series while still providing an ending I think most readers would find satisfying enough to not feel cheated if they decided to delay or not continue the adventure, which I always appreciate in a "book one."