Kestrel leaves the Cairn unfinished. A converted survey hull, a new field crew, more repairs than anyone has time for, and her first long-range job is already in trouble. A distress call has pulled another working ship into Threap, a failing system beyond the last dependable boundary, and the road home won't range. There are people down there who've been living beyond the useful map longer than anyone back home understands. Kestrel can reach them. Getting them out is the problem: every flight costs margin, every load changes what can come off next.
New series, new crew, nothing else required. Expeditionary and hands-on.
- Amazon (Kindle, free on Kindle Unlimited, and paperback)
- Read the opening and see every other store: https://fracturedcosmology.xyz/books/the-way-out-closes/
- Free audiobook on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJE3pkzWwp4
- The crew's a working crew, not a bridge crew. Who stood out first?
- The loading arithmetic. Did it read as tension or as spreadsheet?
- "Nobody gets to make the arithmetic easier by pretending the people are cargo." Where did that bite for you?
Spoilers for this book are fine below. It's the book's own thread. Anything from a later book or another series, wrap it in [spoiler] tags so nobody gets ambushed.