Reviews

Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

widgets_reading's review against another edition

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4.0

Short book but interesting. It was weird how much the author kept referring to everything as though they were diving into a sunken wreck at the bottom of the ocean rather than a spaceship wreck in space.

thestarman's review against another edition

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3.0

VERDICT: 3 stars; maybe 3.5 if I ignore the issues already noticed by other reviewers.

REVIEW: Unnamed protagonist & crew explore big derelict mystery spaceship; the plot thickens. Slow overall, but some tense moments.

DEMERITS FOR: Handwave tech, including unexplained FTL "jump" capability. And really:
Spoiler these folks have magic FasterThanLight tech, but their spacesuits are limited to 60 minutes of air -- in a future 5,000 years from now?


SPACESHIPS? Yep.
ALIENS?
SpoilerUnlikely, but I'm not telling.

ROMANCE?
SpoilerNo, thank goodness.

EVIL RELATIVES?
SpoilerRead & see for yourself.

garretreece's review against another edition

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2.0

I could see other folks liking this book, but the style was just Not For Me.

scamp1234's review against another edition

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4.0

Three separate novellas combined to form the full novel of this interesting space opera. I've enjoyed later novellas before reading this one and knew that future installments are great. This one introduces many crucial elements to the universe and creates enough intrigue that keeps you wanting more.

awryry's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

vintonole's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a great, well-written story in three parts. I love the main character 'Boss' who leads others on tours diving into abandoned starship wrecks. They live in an interesting universe with lost technology and space and planet based civilizations. I'm looking forward to reading more about these characters and places.

I really like the idea of scary abandoned wrecks in space and wish that were played up a bit more. There aren't too many good space horror stories out there.

cassandrat's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.75

I love space archaeology. If there is a mysterious ancient civilization or tech in space, count me in. I also love scuba. Sure, the diving may be a bit more like scuba than space, but it is fun. This book is split up into three parts which kind of each stand on their own. The first two are explorations and the third is a bit of a heist. The plot follows around the idea that people in this universe have been in space for a while, long enough to have regressed and forgotten some tech.

lushr's review against another edition

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3.0

crew has to solve mysteries of space to save lives. it’s kinda clumsily written in three parts repeating itself as if we hadn’t just read the previous part, and there’s several plot holes. but the characters and ships are interesting, just not the mystery and the antagonists....

raygunznrobots's review against another edition

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4.0

Finally a scifi adventure with a female protagonist and no ridiculous romance thrown in. Fascinating plot and science concepts. I look forward to the next one.

eviljosh's review against another edition

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3.0

This is close to a hard sci-fi book. It is an interesting cross between [a:Alastair Reynolds|51204|Alastair Reynolds|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244781695p2/51204.jpg]' [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1306807253s/89187.jpg|219037] series and [a:Jack McDevitt|73812|Jack McDevitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1225722326p2/73812.jpg]'s Alex Benedict novels. While good, it's more superficial than either of those works, which leaves a bit to be desired.

There are tons of old wrecks of space ships and stations around, and "divers" to exploring them, sometimes for money, sometimes for history, and sometimes just for the thrill. Over the past 5,000 years, humanity has created all manner of dangerous technologies, and then lost or forgotten most of them.

One of these that humanity is eager to get back is true stealth technology, which is thought to rely on multidimensional drives of some sort, taking the ship out of phase with normal space or out of our universe entirely.

Not surprisingly, exploring wrecks that have such tech on board often result in disappearances or strange occurrences. The main character, who we know relatively little about, finds a wreck by chance, where no such ship should be able to be (since it lacked the drive technology to make it that far in the 5,000 years since it was built), and assembles a team to dive it with her.

They rapidly begin to realize that something strange is on board, and a variety of stealth tech adventures ensue. All in all, this is a somewhat dark book, with believable though lightly sketched world building and characters. It's a good, fast read, but not as fulfilling as the reader may like.