Diving Into The Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Diving Into The Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Boss salvages old spaceships. She searches her part of the galaxy for wrecks. She especially loves finding old historical ships. She makes her living diving into abandoned ships. She hires crews to help her search through these ships. The descriptions of her wreck diving are quite interesting.

Both the strength and the weakness of this novel are in the main character. She is emotionally cold and distant; a very hard woman. Her reactions to some of the deaths of the crew from accidents can be quite cold. This hardness plays into how she interacts with other characters with secrecy, suspicion, and hard business choices. It also is a bit uncomfortable reading at times. It can seem dry.

I liked the use of names in the novel; turtle, squishy, Riya, Karl, Roderick, and others had a very nice ring to them. Also, the names seemed to fit the characters quite well.

Actions have consequences in this novel. All of the characters choices in the beginning of the novel effect how the novel ends. Boss starts out as a wreck driver at the beginning of the novel and ends up an imperial fugitive with a secret at the end of the novel.

This novel is well plotted with an intricate storyline. There is a strong element of suspense in this novel. The author Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won a Hugo award for both editing and writing a novel. This shows in crisp sentences with very clean grammar.

Daily Thoughts 12/16/2009

The Reader, plaster statuette by Jules Dalou, circa 1871- 1879. Petit Palais Museum Collection, Paris. Photographed between 1902 and 1904.

Daily Thoughts 12/16/2009

This morning, I finished reading Diving Into The Wreck. I also read the short story Dirt by Tobias Buckell in the book, Halo Evolutions, Essential Tales of the Halo Universe. Dirt was the one story which I wanted to read in the anthology. Tobias Buckell has excellent writing. I'm not that much of a fan of the Halo video game, but I do like the art work and some of the stories.

I also put two books on hold. Grandville by Bryan Talbot is already going out the door. It is on reserve at another library. The graphic novel art work looks superb. It is a mix of steampunk and talking animals. There is a lot of action. The style of the animal drawings are closer to The Wind in the Willows than anime furries though which makes it even more appealing. I also put This Book Is Overdue, How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All by Marilyn Johnson on hold as well.

Sometimes it is good to realize that a lot of books are not reviewed. It is important to visit bookstores and other libraries because of this. I spend time looking at different book sites, visiting bookstores, and other libraries. This is often the best way to find out what books to purchase. Traditional review sources are often quite limited. Today I was looking at the Strand Bookstore online to see what they had in philosophy and religion. They have a lot of material that is not listed on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'll probably also search the Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library catalogs as well.

An interview Keir Graff a senior editor from Booklist on the folding of Kirkus.
http://www.edrants.com/interview-with-keir-graff/