he fourth book from the Ark Royal series (which seemed odd at first, given the ending to the third book). But in this book, we have a recovering Earth launching a colony attempt way, way out into the black (as a fall back in case we come that close to extinction again). Here, Captain John Naiser finds himself in charge of Warspite, an experimental cruiser operating on escort duty. And he’s got his work cut out for him.
It turns out that piracy has been occurring in space; a transport to a beleaguered colony has gone missing (through the wonder of fiction, we as readers know it was taken by human space pirates). Hardly believing this could be true in this day and age, Naiser and his command move into the area, supporting the colony (which has just suffered a catastrophic flood even on top of losing all their supplies and wives). And so into this strange area of frontier space Warspite pushes, looking for pirates, missing humans, and answers.
It’s a good book for Christopher Nuttall, who gained quite a following for his Horatio Hornblower in space series. I enjoyed this one and eagerly look forward to what happens next (and for that, I’ll meed to order the next couple – the bunch I found in a used book store are now expended). You should check this series out!