While I waited for my hold to come up on the finale of Rachel Caine’s The Great Library series, I dipped my toe into Honor Among Thieves. I am glad she chose to co-write this with another author because I very quickly saw a lot of similar themes from TGL and was relieved not to be reading an author’s remix of her own books, even if I like those other books. Honor Among Thieves is different enough to keep me interested and is yet another series I will follow.
Much like in The Great Library, Honor Among Thieves features an exciting new technology that solves a lot of problems but also keeps a LOT of secrets. In this case, as humanity was on the brink of collapse a fleet of sentient alien ships arrived with all the answers at a very simple cost – every year, a few dozen of humanity’s best and brightest (two to a ship) would be selected to fly with that ship on a Tour across the galaxy, learning and being learned from. At the end of the year, these humans could be offered the chance to continue with their ship on the Journey which took them beyond the stars and from which no one had yet returned. To be selected was a significant honor.
Our heroine, Zara (I think YA authors have given up on the naming front) is not the usual selection – she’s a criminal, plucked out of what amounts to juvie. Her unique past allows her to bond with her ship in a way not yet seen and changes her adventure through the stars. The book isn’t terribly complex, but it gives me worlds I haven’t seen before and I’m excited to see where Caine and Aguirre take it!