Booklog 44/26: Gareth Powell: Jitterbug – Jitterbug #1 – Kindle

[jacey]

In a universe where our gas giants have been repurposed by an alien intelligence to make disjointed habitable segments of a dyson sphere around our sun and its third planet, Copernicus Brown (and his bounty hunting crew on the sentient ship Jitterbug) make a big mistake in intervening to rescue a space ship from pirates. They rescue the sole survivor, Amber Roth, who is definitely not a damsel in distress. Roth is carrying a data chip with vital information about an impending invason force, and various political factions want to be the first to get hold of it. Expect political intrigue, fratching factions, space battles, and a twist when something turns out to be not at all what was expected. There might even be a bit of twisty time travel involved. This is obviously a lead into mre books featuring the Jitterbug and her crew, but it does have a good stopping point (no cliffhangers) with the crew boldly going... etc.  got a bit lot in some of the time travel explanations, but the characterisation was excellent and the pace kept me turning pages.