Rating: 5 out of 5
The court martial of the Renegat is what made me start exploring the Diving Universe, so some of the big revelations here didn’t really strike me that much—I already knew how the story would unfold. But, some parts of the story of what happened on the vessel don’t get explained quite as well in the legal trial, and actually many things that come up in this book potentially leave the trial in a different light, so I’ve put ‘The Court-Martial…’ back on my reading list (whenever it comes up in the reading order). Overall, I enjoyed every part of this story and also seeing where Amnthra fits into the rest of the universe is good (just need to see what happens there).
Making Gāo and Crowe the arch-protagonists here allows understanding the vessel from a completely different point of view—or at least that was my approach here because at least their names were familiar from the later tale. However, Crowe who in the trial seems to be the arch-enemy comes across very reasonably here, and indeed made me wonder where he would be ending up (are we going to see a meet-up between him and Coop?). And who are these contra-Fleet forces that have come up again?..
Having followed the series, many more questions than answers come up regarding the whole, but for the specific instance of the Renegat, the story is whole. I also appreciated that many of the secondary crew members got a mention in the trial, meaning that their journey from here to there is a more full one than if they had been just secondary characters in either book. And, knowing Ms Rusch’s style, I’m guessing that the Amnthra story will make everything more whole.
Many guesses, many suppositions, but a very good story in a splendid universe!
