The Never Wars

July 3, 2023
For this well-crafted space adventure, Pedreira (Gunpowder Moon) masterfully meshes far-flung military sci-fi with sharp analysis of human personalities trapped in a century-spanning political maelstrom. In the far future, a new special forces unit comprising disgraced ex-troopers recruited from jails and exile and promised redemption is tasked with the potentially suicidal mission of orbiting a fearsome black hole 90 light-years from Earth, thus slowing down time and enabling them to fight in future wars against hostile alien empires. They must hit their targets—often with weapons and tactics that have become obsolete—and then disappear. The crew—among them canny former woodsman Owen Quarry, tracker Anaya Pretorius, and their defrocked commander Thaddeus Crooks—face one bloody battle after another, supported by their ship’s AI, Cog, who can appear in human form. The firefights and relationship dynamics ring equally true, and the clash of political orders and military discipline with individual moral conviction resounds with heartbreaking intensity. SF fans will find Pedreira’s mind-bender impossible to put down. Agent: David Fugate, Launch Books Literary.

August 1, 2023

A squad of elite but disgraced special-ops forces take a mission they can't refuse, crewing a spaceship at the edge of a black hole in order to skip through time and work off their prison sentences in a future they'll either protect or destroy each time their ship returns to "real time." Real time becomes increasingly unreal to the crew as their origins slip into the distant past, and all they have left is each other on a mission that will kill them whether they succeed or fail--unless they find an unexpected exit from this wheel of time into a future where they can finally be free. Fans of Interstellar and The Expanse will be captivated by this near-future, pre- and postapocalyptic space opera mixed with political skullduggery, while military SF readers will be caught up in the ragtag crew as their journey takes them from being in it for their own selfish reasons to sticking with it for each other. VERDICT Pedreira's (Gunpowder Moon) newest is recommended for lovers of thoughtful military science fiction and space operas that root hard for the underdog.--Marlene Harris

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