Anomalous Thrust

Description

A year after their earlier adventures, Captain Lana Fiveworlds and the crew of the Gravity Rose are still sliding void, still chasing cargo, and still discovering that the universe has a malicious sense of humour.

What begins as another contract for Lana, Calder, Zeno, Skrat, Polter and the chief soon turns into the kind of job that should have come with hazard pay, moral warnings and a large printed apology. A demanding client forces the Gravity Rose onto a dangerous course, and an emergency ditch in an unfamiliar star system leaves the crew trapped among deadly secrets, murderous local politics and enemies on every side.

The system is ruled by a brutal government and a slave-owning aristocracy, opposed by rebels who may be no less ruthless than the regime they fight. Above it all hangs a mystery vast enough to dwarf every faction: a moon-sized alien vessel, silent, ancient and waiting.

For Lana and her misfit crew, survival means outwitting tyrants, rebels, clients and whatever horrors are hidden inside the impossible alien craft. Unfortunately, sensible plans are in short supply aboard the Gravity Rose.

Anomalous Thrust is Book 4 in Stephen Hunt’s Sliding Void series, set one year after the first three novellas collected in Void All the Way Down. Blending classic space opera, strange worlds, alien megastructures, starship danger, black humour and fast-moving adventure, it can be read as a standalone novel while continuing the voyages of the Gravity Rose and her magnificently troublesome crew.