What We're Reading:
Sophie, ABC The Hague and ABC Leidschendam staff, March 2021.
"3 chapters in and loving it!" - Sophie, ABC The Hague staff, May 2019.
The lines. No ship can traverse the void without them. Only linesmen can work with them. But only Ean Lambert hears their song. And everyone thinks he?s crazy?
Most slum kids never go far, certainly not becoming a level-ten linesman like Ean. Even if he?s part of a small, and unethical, cartel, and the other linesmen disdain his self-taught methods, he?s certified and working.
Then a mysterious alien ship is discovered at the edges of the galaxy. Each of the major galactic powers is desperate to be the first to uncover the ship?s secrets, but all they?ve learned is that it has the familiar lines of energy?and a defense system that, once triggered, annihilates everything in a 200 kilometer radius.
The vessel threatens any linesman who dares to approach it, except Ean. His unique talents may be the key to understanding this alarming new force?and reconfiguring the relationship between humans and the ships that serve them, forever.
Staff Choice: Sophie, Lília
What an absolute joy this whole trilogy (Linesman, Alliance & Confluence) turned out to be! Ean is one of the kindest, gentlest heroes I've come across, and the whole cast surrounding him is just as wonderful. And the lines! 😍 They were given such vivid characteristics; through Ean they became this chorus of excitement.
For me this series has the same feeling of family and belonging that I get from Becky Chambers's Wayfarers books. And besides that there is also a long political arc that takes all three books and will require re-reading (hooray! I get to be with the lines again!).
At the end of book 3 many plot lines are tied up but there's also enough left open-ended that I can't help but hope this Australian sisterly writers duo has another Linesman trilogy up their sleeves...
(2020)
read more Staff Choice: Sophie, Lília, Lília, Sophie
Space travel depends on lines to go to the void and travel distances no one would be able to without them.
Ean is a linesman like no other. All the other linesmen "think" to the lines, but since he was a kid Ean "hears" the lines and sings to them. Everybody thinks he's crazy, but he gets results working his way. When an alien spaceship is discovered and Ean is the only one who can communicate with it, everybody's song changes.
Fast-paced, funny and a bit quirky, this story grabbed me from the beginning and I simply could not put the book down. This is no high-brow science fiction, but a pleasurable well-written story that deserves the time to be read and enjoyed.
I did enjoy it immensely.
- Lilia
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