Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

This story was a real disappointment just stumbling along even when it should have been exciting.
The characters were poor and did not appear to engage with each other let alone the reader.
Overall it was boring and a real struggle to finish.

Unfortunately unable to finish - just didn't grab me. Usually Reynolds is a good read, so probably picke it up on the wrong day

Shadow Captain (review copy from Gollancz) is the sequel to last year's Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Revenger is a cracking adventure story about teenage sisters who turn to a spot of space piracy in order to enact revenge on the infamous and evil Bosa Sennen.

Shadow Captain picks up the story immediately after the events of Revenger. Arafura ("Fura") and Adrana Ness are now the co-captains of Bosa Sennen's ship, the Nightjammer, which they have renamed the Revenger. Their crew is tiny and they are running low on supplies, but they have a hold full of currency. They will need to make port soon to buy food and extra supplies, but that's harder it could be when Bosa Sennen is the most wanted in the solar system and no-one knows she has been defeated. There is a bounty on their heands, and that of their ship. The sisters and their crew head for a backwater world run by Mister Glimmery, a cruel mob boss, desperately seeking medical treatment for one of the crew who was injured in mysterious circumstances.

Told from the perspective of Adrana Ness, this is a story about conspiracy, paranoia and distrust. Adrana herself is battling to throw off the psychological conditioning she received while she was Bosa Senn's prisoner. And although she's grateful to be rescued, the changes wrought in her sister Fura are hard to come to terms with. This isn't the sister she remembers. Fura has her own agenda, determined to unravel Bosa Sennen's secrets and the mystery of the banking collapse that took place at the end of the previous book.

Shadow Captain is a rollicking good adventure that continues the story from Revenger. Some mysteries are solved. New ones are added, setting up for an intriguing next instalment. Sit back and enjoy the voyage.

Goodreads rating: 3*

I enjoyed this book but not has much has Revenger . But its still good book with a good adventure in space and I like the world building. I think if you like Alastair Reynolds book you will like this one.
I received this book from net galley in exchange for a honest review

The Ness sisters survived Bosa Sennen, but it’s less easy to shake her legacy. Adrana Ness gives us her take on the events that follow Revenger, as the sisters attempt to evade capture (because everyone else believes they're Bosa Sennen) and maintain a fragile trust in the face of paranoia, misdirection and manipulation. Fura may have rescued Adrana, but she trades heavily on the gratitude she feels she should be owed - while her own behaviours grow ever more ominously aloof.

Once again, Reynolds weaves an entertaining tale from familiar ingredients. It's very much a middle book - it sometimes feels like it's treading water as it sets up for last act developments and next book adventure - but the focus on the sisters' faltering relationship kept me hooked. And gosh, that final act - it has me absolutely gasping to read the next book!

Shadow Captain is part two of a trilogy, and I foolishly jumped in here rather than starting with book one. Does it matter? I was able to get into the story pretty easily. From what I can make out, the first book is from the point of view of Fura Ness rescuing her sister Adrana. Book two is from Adrana's perspective and the author has dropped in snippets of info here and there to get you up to speed.

The Ness sisters have taken over a notorious pirate ship previously run by Bosa Sennen but in doing so have been changed inside and out, which leaves their relationship in a tricky, delicate place. They run with a loyal crew, flying across the galaxy in search of fuel and treasure. Fura also has secret plans of her own. Adrana knows something is up but now how best to force out the truth. Things escalate when they realise they're being followed by another ship that will doubtless think Bosa is still on board and try to shoot them down...

I found the sisters fascinating characters and I enjoyed the complicated layers to the plot, working out who was lying about what at any given time. For me the supporting characters weren't entirely fully rounded but that is possibly attributed to missing out on book one. The ship and the worlds they visited felt solid to my mind and I'd like to learn more about their universe.

Warning, it does end on a cliffhanger and I am now super keen to read the next one (and the first one).

The second book in this series and just as engaging as the first one. Adrana Ness and her sister Fura are now captaining the feared Nightjammer, having 'taken' it from the pirate Bosa Sennen. They now have riches more than they ever thought of and adventures even more so.
I like that Mr Reynolds creates really complete characters and let's you get to know them as you would anyone else. The Ness sisters are both much changed by their experiences (both in the book before and in this book) and the reader finds out what and why as the story progresses. Of course Mr Reynolds also creates a universe and its accompanying panoply of individuals to occupy it. And a lot of those have back story too - we just don't know it all, yet.
I enjoyed reading the sisters story, it was extremely exciting and I want to read more. So roll on the next book.

Shadow Captain, the sequel to one of 2018's best science fiction novels, is even more entertaining than Revenger; in fact, it's preposterously good. This futuristic pirate tale from master space-opera writer Alastair Reynolds is a unique and original take on space adventure, and this time revenge and grief are at the forefront of characters minds. It's enjoyable to see the progression and evolution of the characters, the Ness sisters in particular, as they continue their adventures aboard the Nightjammer.

The author dials back some of the horror elements that are present in the first book, but the action remains thrilling and plentiful. Reynolds's worldbuilding is some of the best in the business, and this world is no exception. It's richly-imagined and elaborate with lots of attention to detail that most writers don't give a second thought to. His characters are superbly drawn with real grit and gusto and are easy to cheer for and relate to as the story unfolds.

The narrative shifts from Arafura's in Revenger to sister Adrana in Shadow Captain, but neither of the girls are as innocent and hopeful as they were when this dark journey began. It's on quite a regular basis that the second novel in a trilogy suffers from middle book syndrome, but there's none of that here; this is even more enjoyable than the first book. I love that the author provides food-for-thought about all manner of things, the most fascinating of which is the possibility of alien life, and even after finishing I am still thinking about some of the questions that arise in this beautifully woven tale.

Those who enjoy sci-fi, cyberpunk and young adult adventures will find plenty to revel in here; just be sure to read the preceding book before this, it will make little sense otherwise. I feel it will even appeal to those who read thrillers as it has plenty of thrills, danger and surprises and fantasy fans will enjoy the pirate aspect of the novel, and yes, before some smart arse points it out, I know pirates exist. I am now so, so excited for the next instalment, so don't make us wait too long, Mr Reynolds!

Many this to Gollancz for an ARC.

SciFi books arent really my forte. I've read and loved everything by Pierce Brown, and thats about it. I really enjoyed Revenger last year, so i knew i had to give the second in the series a go. And im really glad i did.

This seemed to take longer than usual for me to read, which i feel took the flow away from the narrative, and probably meant i didnt get as much out of it as i could have done. That being said, its still a hugely enjoyable book. As a follow up to Revenger, its great to see the character growth and progression of the Ness sisters, as they settle into their new roles onboard the Nightjammer. Reynolds builds heavily upon the world he created in Revenger in this book, and we see the scope and depth of the Congregation grow.

The action sequences are great, even if it is hard to get my head around the sheer vastness of space! As someone who reads a lot of battles in historical fiction, being told an enemy ship is a few hundred thousand leagues away is hard to imagine!

The only minor points i have against the book probably stems from my ignorance of the scifi field, and not Reynolds' writing. Terms such as baubles and swallowers are alien to me, and slightly confusing to picture.

However this doesnt take anything really away from a great read!

Revenger was one of my favourite Alastair Reynolds books, and I'm glad it is extending to a series. This follows very much in the same vein, although it does dial back a bit on the horror elements, and the POV character has switched to Adrana, the other Ness sister. What is still there is the sense of swashbuckling adventure in an old ancient galaxy, full of secrets and dangers. The universe building is great, and this could end up rivalling the Revelation Space series as my favourite of Reynolds' fictional worlds.

The book does suffer a bit from middle volume syndrome - the mystery of the quoins revealed at the end of the last book is slightly expanded on, but no more than that, and the most exciting thing in the final third of this one is the set up for where the next book is (I presume) going. But to be fair, it's an awesome idea that pushes all of my buttons. Roll on volume three, I want it NOW!

Following from 2016's Revenger, Shadow Captain picks up the fortunes of the Ness sisters, Arafura and Adrana, now that they have found each other, destroyed the dread pirate captain Bosa Sennen and seized her ship, the Nightjammer.

If Revenger was subtitled The True and Accurate Testimony of Arafura Ness, then Shadow Captain is written from Adrana's. Together the two volumes dramatise the distrusts that has been sown between the sisters - in particular by Bosa's attempts to condition Adrana to be her successor. Boas is a wonderful, monstrous creation, not one women but a whole series pursuing her cruel schemes out there in the darkness on the edge of empty space... Bosa may be dead but the grip of the shadow captain is still tight on this book, with a real doubt as to whether or not Adrana has a bit too much of Bosa in here.

This story is very much a yarn in the best, Stevensonian vein. It may be set millions of years in the future, after the Earth and all the planets have been shattered and reworked into millions of worlds that form a could around the sun. There may have been umpteen 'occupations' - civilisations reaching across the solar system - in all that time. There may be aliens ('crawlies'). But it's a pirate novel, all the same, as 'sun jammers' - spacecraft propelled by vast sails to catch the solar flux - ply their trade, 'privateers' raid cryptic, deadly vaults - 'baubles' - which contain client treasure and technology and above all, in the way that the story is ruled by lust for the clinking 'quoins' which have become humanity's universal store of value. Rumoured to contain human souls, rumoured to... well, there are all sorts of rumours, the quoins have an air of mystery about them, a mystery that Bosa was apparently determined to crack.

Reynolds pays close attention to the mood and language of his book, adopting a distinctive vocabulary (references to 'coves' and 'leagues' abound) that reinforces the nautical atmosphere. Together with the scattering of small ports furnished by his millions of artificial worlds and the fragmented, disparate nature of the society that inhabits them, we have the perfect background for a story of escape (the Ness sisters originally ran away from their safe home to escape boredom and marriage and to seek adventure), treachery, revenge (of course) and battle (of course).

As the story opens, the two sisters are reflecting on their position. Their ship, Revenger, formerly Nightjammer, and her ex captain, have such a grim reputation that they're liable to be engaged on sight by any legitimate vessel (and most that aren't). Nobody is likely to believe the story that Senn is no more - it's just the sort of ruse she'd invent to take in an unwary captain. So how can the sisters and their crew trade for necessities and recruit the new shipmates they need? Will they be driven into a pariah existence, on the edge of the Empty, everyone's hand against them?

Reynolds has great fun with this scenario, with the mistrust between the sisters and with the lingering doubts about Bosa while steering his craft - sorry, the language is catching! - from skirmish to mystery to raid. There's even an extended sequence with a distinctly noirish feel, taking place on a beaten up space station ruled over by a grotesque crime boss and where it actually rains most of the time. Yes, I know that sounds as though it shouldn't work but work it does, creating a real atmosphere of menace and threat.

Behind all this, of course, is the deeper mystery, the story of the Occupations, how they happen and why they end and the nature of the quoins. The successive civilisations - interspersed by ages of barbarity - mean that humanity's history and destiny is shrouded, hidden (and one begins to suspect, there are those who want it to stay that way). Driven by nothing more than sheer curiosity, the Ness sisters are determined to find the truth - if not swallowed up first by pirate ghosts, deadly baubles or some other catastrophe they bring down upon themselves - and I really, really hope that Reynolds writes that resolution to the series.

Excellent space opera-y, pirate-y adventure. Strongly recommended.

In 2016, master space opera writer writer Alastair Reynolds delivered something decidedly different in Revenger. With all of his usual hallmarks - deep world building, fascinating backstory and engaging characters - Revenger was a futuristic pirate tale complete with buried treasure, dread pirate captains and plenty of swashbuckling. The story was of two sisters who run away to join a privateer and are then separated when the legendary pirate Bosa Sennen attacks, and of the subsequent mission by one, Arafura, to find and rescue the other. For those who have not read Revenger, the rest of this review will contain spoilers.

As the book opens, Fura and Adrana are on the run with their remnant crew on board the ship of the former evil pirate Bosa Sennen. They are low and fuel and the opening scenes have them raiding a “bauble”, one of this universe’s ancient treasure troves, for supplies and encountering traps and dangers. Following this they are forced to find a settlement where they can treat their wounded and buy supplies. Here they run into more trouble and a powerful crime lord while Fura pursues a secret agenda.

In Shadow Captain, Reynolds once again digs deep into the pirate tropes. There are long range battles with cannons blazing, spaceships with sails, a rundown shady port, a zombie chase, dodgy bad guys (one of which is called Sneed), dodgier good guys, bounty hunters, mistaken identity and more hidden treasure. And of course the language straight out of classic pirate – this is just one small example:

‘Hold your nerve coves,’ Fura said. ‘Ain’t no reason for them to think queerly of us just yet. We stick to our yarns. Don’t embroider ‘em more’n we have to and we’ll be golden.’

Shadow Captain does not have the rattling plot of its predecessor. It feels like all style, with a few character beats, but very little substance. The characters move around but with little purpose, the secrets that they end up revealing do not land with any force and do not make the journey to get to the answers feel worthwhile. While readers get a tiny glimpse, this book fails to expand the universe much further than that revealed in Revenger. If anything, Shadow Captain makes this universe feel more mysterious and less well known. And by the end, the whole feels like an overlong setup for a third book in which, if readers still have the patience, some secrets will be revealed.

Books are strange things. Sometimes you can be past the first 100 pages and wonder where things are going and are you even really enjoying it. By the end you are hooked. That was Shadow Captain for me.

Shadow Captain is the sequel to Revenger, and follows the new crew of the newly named Revenger after the evens of the first book. It starts up a few weeks after it and instead of Fura’s point of view we now get her sister’s. This took some getting used to for me. For 400 pages I was in the head of Fura, seeking revenge. Now I was transported to the person who was the reason of her revenge. Her view on Fura is very different from what I experienced in the first book and it took some getting used to. Fura of course has had to do some bad things and that changed her.

Adrana herself also took some getting used to. I think the trouble I had was that she was so influenced by Bosa, enough to put a knife to her sister’s troth. Yet in the first 150-200 pages we rarely notice this. This is a conscious choice by her we discover and once we did start seeing Bosa’s influence on her I felt things fitted more.

In a way this second book is a set up book. An in between book. It deals with the consequences from killing Bosa and taking their ship. Things aren’t as easy. They also have to learn how to crew together despite some of the lying that has happened between them and figure out a chain of command. There is also grief and the aftermath of their traumatic experiences that floats to the surface here and there. This book was necessary for them to be able to really go for what their story is about. The questions they (or rather Fura and Adrana) and I have about their history. About how things work. About what will happen to them in the future.

Also the ending, totally called that before Adrana even thought about it. So when is the next book coming out?

A worthy follow up to Revenger. I enjoyed the fact that it was told from th PoV of Adrana which brought added depth to the characterisations of both sisters. While the first book was essentially a straightforward tale of revenge Shadow Captain both broadens and deepens into a story of the effects revenge has upon those who pursue it and also of the wider physical and social realities of the mileau the sisiters live in. In particular we learn more about quoins - the currency used in the Congregation - and the dangers of meddling with that which is not fully understood.

But just one thing: the mixture of gases inhaled to sustain life is not 'lungstuff', it's 'air'. Mr Reynold's' habit of using the former is irritating in the extreme and he should stop it immediately. He only gets 4 stars because of it.

I really enjoyed Alastair Reynold’s ‘Revenger’ when it came out last year. A blend of sci-fi buccaneering in the mode of Treasure Island and Indiana Jones style archaeology made for a snappy, compelling read. So I was quite excited to get my hands on the sequel, 'Shadow Captain'

This is a book about monsters. It centres on Adrana Ness, whose sister Fura was the protagonist of the first book in the series. Though Fura carries scars, Adrana has problems of her own. She spent more than a little time in the company of a notorious pirate captain, being conditioned through trauma to become that captain’s eventual replacement. Fura we’ve seen alreadyin the first book, a fierce soul, tortured, compromising with potentially appalling consequences to rescue Adrana and take a ship from Bosa. Adrana is…quieter. More concerned with the effects that the pirate captain may have had on her mind. Perhaps more introspective.

But make no mistake, Adrana is still a Ness, and still a monster Her steely determination is a trait shared with her sister, and one which comes off the page with the force of a freight train, alongside an eloquent, thoughtful internal voice. This is a young woman who is not going to take any crap from anyone, even her sister – unless it quietly serves her goals to do so. She’s always looking at the angles, trying to work out what’s real and what isn’t, to understand where she sits in the scheme of things. This is a rawly shining portrayal of a fiercely intelligent woman on the edge – striving with each breath to achieve her goals, whilst trying to work out exactly what they are – and if they’re her goals, or ones left behind by the ghost of someone else in her head. The dynamic between Adrana and her sister is impressive for sure; both broken, twisted people, trying to do the right thing even if they aren’t sure what the right thing is. They, and their associates and antagonists, are drawn in the gently exaggerated fashion of an R.L. Stevenson story – given traits that make them larger than life, while their actions make them even more so.

This is a story of swashbuckling and adventure beyond the stars. But it’s also a story which wants to look unflinchingly at the price such a life cots. Our heroine (or heroines) are doing what they must to survive. Sometimes they’re not making the right calls. Sometimes their ruthlessness saves their lives, sometimes its an impediment. But they feel like two roughly oriented siblings, trying to rub along in far, far less than ideal circumstances. That’ s what Reynolds has done so well here – given us a seething sibling rivalry, rooted in horror and gross technology; and provided both pints of view over the course of several books. As a result, we’re now seeing each party from their external and internal points of view, and the frisson is delicious.

The short version is – the relationship between the sisters shapes this book, and it’s absolutely pitch perfect; dark, playful, thoughtful, with undercurrents, like ice in a darker sea. You can feel the Ness sisters similarities in their growing inhumanity, even as they tidally creep away and toward each other.

For the crew of the Revenger, you see, victory hasn’t been entirely sweet. They have a ship, and a crew, yes. But nobody else is likely to believe that they aren’t pirates. So begins another adventure, looking for somewhere to buy fuel that won’t ask too many questions.

The universe that Reynolds has created for Adrana and the rest to explore carries his usual grand scope. Thousands of worlds in an intricate dance across the stars. Millions of years of history, much of it a blank space to the inhabitants of this space. The characters are the centrepiece, for sure – but the universe is one of sweeping grandeur. There are baubles – rocks filled with treasure, but also filled with traps, monsters and risk. There are populated worlds with a population in the thousands, rusted soldier-bots without explanations. Stations floating in the depths of the void, avoiding answering too many questions. This is a vivid, detailed world, one with far, far more questions than answers. Fair play to the characters for recognising that, and delving into the mysteries. And fair play to Reynolds, for giving us a playground which is successfully so grand in scope – thousands of worlds backed against a sun – yet so intimate, as we follow characters around the minor eddies of worlds around that sun. What population centres we see fit into the Stevenson aesthetic – pirates, madmen, fools, a grim and gritty universe demanding much and giving, well, nothing. But they’re lavishly described, with not an atom out of place. This is a living, breathing, broken world, but one whose grandeur is undeniable.

The plot – well, it’s a farrago of suspense, of revenge, of bad decisions made under pressure. Of conspiracies and half truths. There isn’t the clarity of revenge that the first book gave to us, no, but a web of obfuscation and partial understanding, wrapping a lot of human, understandable, very poor decisions, and an exploration of the way those decisions affect both the immediate parties, and the universe at large. The former…well, this is an exploration of the way people become monsters, each step seeming like the right one in a long chain of self justification. The universe? Well, read and find out. It’s a page turner, I’ll tell you that. A rip-roaring tale which makes you want to know what happens next, between crosses, double-crosses, vengeance, and some incredibly poor choices. The adrenaline is there, the action, the heart-breaking emotional investment.

This is a story to break hearts and make you turn pages. It’s great stuff; pick it up, you’ll want to know what happens next.

I loved the first book in the series and I was delighted to have the sequel and be able to read it in advance, but I do not know what happened, I did not really appreciate my reading.

When I reread my review for Revenger, and I see what I think of this sequel, there is somewhere a bug. The elements I liked in Revenger are still valid, especially the richness of the universe because we learn a little more about it in Shadow Captain and the author leaves us with new questions for the future. The questioning around the waves of civilizations has enormous potential, the author barelly explore it in this sequel and I hope that book 3 will reveal many new stuffs, I would have just wanted to learn more about the other races of aliens because I think this is a major key to the plot.

For the characters, the first volume followed Fura that I adored, this sequel focuses on Adrana, I find her character more dull than Fura. She has been under the thumb of Bosa for months and the consequences of this remain too small in my eyes, yes she has excesses of anger, but that's it. Where is the psychological torture, the brainwashing, I would have liked the author to take the bias to make Adrana darker, especially since she has Fura in front of her who keeps all her secret and who is in my eyes much better built. I am therefore mixed with Adrana, I think that alternating points of view between the two sisters could have been a good idea.

My big flat comes and it's the plot, I'll be sincere apart from fleeing, I found that there was nothing else in terms of action, yes the author distils us in small points some important information, but everything happens mostly in the last quarter of the novel. And then I had this feeling of passivity, apart from Fura, no one makes clear decisions. Frankly, it's a very strange feeling, because I know the potential of the universe and the series and at the same time I am deeply disappointed by Shadow Captain. I am still curious about Volume 3, but it will not be a priority when it will be released.

Ah! I’m beginning to see the familiar Al Reynolds yet again! He doesn’t linger much in the YA field, despite the Ness’ sisters age. The story picks up from the end of the first volume and builds strongly.

However, I’m surprised at myself: how did I miss the fact that Revenger series is going to be a trilogy? The good thing is that this second part doesn’t suffer from middle book syndrome, on the contrary: things are getting hotter, complicated, the mystery of the quoins is somewhat unraveled, Bosa Sennen is still a big influence and the most significant part, in my opinion, is brought into light but not revealed. The worst part (figurately speaking) is that this hugely significant part is to be developed in the next book, which I have no idea when will be published…

That being said, I enjoyed it to the fullest. If the first story is told from Fura’s point of view, here the narrator is Adrana. The sisters complement each other perfectly, they are the yin and yang of the crew. New characters are brought to life, some despicable, others not so much but all equally interesting. We get to meet new baubles and worlds and based on Bosa’s belongings, some really fascinating, albeit scarce and teasing, details about the Occupations.

The more I delved into the story, the more compelling it gets. As usual, Reynolds leaves us with more questions and scenarios than answers, but that’s what makes his stories great and that is what I love about his writing, beside the fascinating worldbuilding, timeframe and scope. He is one among the very few SF writers who manages to surprise me with something in each of his works.

I was surprised to find that not everyone took to Alastair Reynolds' YA-oriented space pirate adventure Revenger, although it was admittedly a little bit of a departure for the author. Personally, I found that it suited Reynolds' tendency towards pulp SF much better and, despite its teenage female narrator voice, Revenger told a very dark tale indeed in Arafura Ness's search for her missing sister Adrana, who had been abducted by the notorious pirate Bosa Sennen and was being tortured and reconfigured to become her successor. Yes the spaceships with sails, the nautical terms and the piracy references might have all been a little laboured, but Reynolds nonetheless was imaginative in his creation of how this world operated in terms of physics, but - more importantly - in how it established a place for great space adventure.

There was clearly room for further development of these ideas and they are extended, with a couple of new twists and turns, in Shadow Captain, the follow-up to Revenger. The year is 1800, which means it's eighteen hundred years since the foundation of the Thirteenth Occupation of the Congregation, an expansive grouping of planets, habitats and 'baubles' that make up the system. It's the baubles that were of particular interest in Revenger, of interest to the crews of many enterprises in the system since they hold treasures and technology from previous occupations. With a skilled crew and a talented conjurer, a scavenger ship can determine when a bauble is likely to temporarily drop its shield defences and give the crew a limited time to get in and try to unearth supplies, quoins (coins), lungstuff (oxygen) and other valuable objects for trade - as long as someone hasn't already been in and emptied the bauble.

It's a world that operates very much like a video game with the same kind of thrills, danger and adventure, one made even more dangerous due to the presence of ruthless pirates ready to pounce out of dark cloaking on any unwary ships who have recently successfully opened a bauble. The space adventure nature of such operations is present at the opening of Shadow Captain, when the surviving crew of the Revenger run a mission to stock up on fuel levels that are running dangerously low. Aside from the normal pitfalls of exploring a dead place far from civilisation that is filled with hazards and traps and only has a limited window of opportunity, the Ness sisters and Adrana and their team find they have to contend with an unusual danger in the form of zombie-like 'twinkle-heads'.

It's a good opening to reacquaint readers of the earlier Revenger to the nature of life in the Congregation, but it's also a good way to introduce any new readers to this strange world. Having got his pulp SF fix out of the way - quite thrillingly - Reynolds returns to the bigger matters that were hinted at in the earlier book. The matter of quoins is more than just the usual piratey hoarding of riches - although they do have a peculiar means of driving people to obsessively gather them - but as has already been hinted, there is something else mysterious in their origin and nature that leads an alien civilisation known as the Crawlies to become sort of unofficial bankers or speculators, eagerly building up their stocks for some curious and as yet unexplained reason.

There are two interests at play in the book however, each holding a different interest to the two sisters. While Fura is anxious to follow leads to Bosa Sennen's legendary 'buried treasure', Adrana is more interested in a new mystery into the nature of the Congregation that Arafura has discovered in some of the books recovered from Captain Rackamore, that there is a suggestion that there were other 'shadow occupations' in between the thirteen main occupations of the system that have been historically documented. Before they can follow either or both paths, the Revenger needs to restock supplies and deal with some injuries and that takes them to a little-known wheelworld, where the occupants and authorities don't seem to be terribly friendly and having heard rumours of Bosa Sennen like everyone else, are just a bit suspicious about this ship looking to dock there,

Reynolds evidently is not content to rest on repeating situations found in Revenger and successfully extends on the potential offered in Shadow Captain, and nor is he interested in just sticking to established characterisation. What is interesting about the second book in the series is that the narrative viewpoint has switched from Arafura to Adrana and inevitably after what they have been through, neither of the Ness sisters are the same as when they started out as two teenagers on Mazarile dreaming of a life of adventure on the high seas, or rather on the margins of the Empty. There is a darker side now residing in each of them that is threatening to take control, and that means there is some tension between them, each of them keeping secrets and suspicions to themselves. As expected, after Revenger, Reynolds plays this out beautifully and just increases anticipation for the next book in the series.