“Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.

The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five’s legendary ship—and the Five’s famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.

But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake…”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook through my library.

Thoughts: I ended up thoroughly enjoying this sci-fi story about time travel and its inevitability. The characters are very well done, and the story is cleverly woven together. The mystery really pulls the reader along, and there are fun twists throughout the story, even up until the very end. This is action packed and hard to put down.

Jereth Keevan’s freighter breaks down in a strange rift in deep space during the final days of a war with the Felen. The Gallion (a research ship) finds themselves trapped in the same strange rift. When the two ships discover each other in the rift, they find out that their timelines seem to be 152 years apart. Keevan’s crew should be from the past, and the Gallion crew should know that past well, however nothing is matching up. Both crews are forced to put aside this mystery to escape this rift alive.

This book jumps back and forth between current time (in the rift) and each of the characters’ pasts. This was very well done and really allows us to get to know the individual characters and the reasons behind their actions better. The jumps back in time relate to something happening in present time, so the switches in POV and time worked really well together and didn’t seem jarring or hard to follow.

I found this book incredibly engaging, fast-paced, and surprising. I enjoyed every second of reading this and looked forward to picking it up to read. Between this book, “God’s Junk Drawer”, and “Light from Uncommon Stars”, I have been on a bit of a sci-fi kick, I guess. I have read some excellent sci-fi reads this month.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I loved the unique way the story was put together, the characters, the fast-pace, and the constant surprises. This book kept me very engaged and was hard to put down. I loved the way everything came together in the end and enjoyed the twists and turns that were thrown at the reader. I definitely plan on checking out Hutchings’ other novels.