My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Roc
Summary: Retrieval Artist Miles Flint brought one of the Disappeared out of hiding, believing she would be safe. But then she's murdered, plunging Flint into a mystery involving an enigmatic alien race-and the fate of the entire solar system.
The third installment of this series gives a deeper look at the web of interstellar politics and connectedness going on in the universe and it's all taking place in Armstrong City Dome on the Moon. This one took me a little longer to get into because at the beginning there are points of view from characters unknown & unnamed on planets never heard of and in the past. I felt a bit disconnected and took in the information like one does all info dumps thinking that this is probably important to what's coming but this isn't making it a riveting read by any means. Things improved greatly when Noelle & Miles are back on the scene and it's clear that the story is firmly planted on the Moon. That's kind of what I'm here for. I liked meeting the mayor Arek Soseki and hope he's around for future books (perhaps as the governor-general because he had better foresight than the current one).
There was a detailed conspiracy going on concerning Etae and their bid to become part of Earth Alliance that was so multilayered I'm not exactly sure I've got all the details worked out. Suffice it to say, many threads were related and culminated in multiple murders, rioting and some serious terrorist activity that damaged the Dome and killed a bunch of people. The descriptions of that were unsettling. Also in the unsettling category was the way infotainment media & corporate influence played a pivotal role in social sway and political shifts. It was an all too timely reminder of our modern age.
As always, Miles & Noelle get the job done in the end but this time they ended a lot farther from one another as the line that is the solitary life of a Retrieval Artist, has been underscored. I'm a little sad about that but I do look forward to seeing how their cases intersect in future books. I'd recommend this one, of course.
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