Fault Tolerance

I read the first book in the series three years ago and unfortunately forgot most of the backstory of the main antagonists and secondary characters. I think I must have skipped the second book entirely which probably contained some plot points I could have used. There are a lot of characters whose stories did not hit with the right impact with me as a result.

This space opera trilogy about the captain and crew of an interstellar cargo ship tasked with saving all the civilizations in the universe sets the reader on a treadmill early on. It felt like a series of difficulties which eventually all point in the same direction, without confusing branches. There is one excursion along the way in the form of an unforced error, but by that time I was already certain they would find a way out of their jam eventually, with no chance of severe inconvenience. So I never really felt the personal stakes were very high, in contrast to what some other science fiction stories would do.

The strongest part of the book is in the writing of the viewpoint character Eva Innocente whose voice is much stronger than any of the others, whether friend or enemy. She's a fiery but sometimes vulnerable individual with a tendency to shoot off her mouth, always capturing the spotlight even when there might be giant mecha or other colossal spectacles around. She might not be to everyone's taste, but might be just the right thing for a reader who doesn't like to read about any truly dark and depressing situations.