What do you think?
Rate this book
Diving Universe #6
The Runabout
A graveyard of spaceships, abandoned by the mysterious Fleet thousands of years earlier. Boss calls it "the Boneyard". She needs the ships inside to expand her work for Lost Souls Corporation. Yash Zarlengo thinks the Boneyard will help her discover if the Fleet still exists.
Boss and Yash, while exploring the Boneyard, discover a small ship with a powerful and dangerous problem: the ship's active anacapa drive.
To escape the Boneyard, Boss must deal with the drive. Which means she'll have to dive the ship on limited time and under extremely dangerous conditions. And she can't go alone.
4 hrs and 56 mins
Boss and Yash, while exploring the Boneyard, discover a small ship with a powerful and dangerous problem: the ship's active anacapa drive.
To escape the Boneyard, Boss must deal with the drive. Which means she'll have to dive the ship on limited time and under extremely dangerous conditions. And she can't go alone.
4 hrs and 56 mins
5 pages, Audible Audio
Published September 22, 2017
49 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1,365 books721 followersKristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
January 16, 2018
I have particularly enjoyed Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving Universe novels, beginning with Diving Into the Wreck (2009).
The Runabout is book six. The first book was traditionally published (by Pyr). Starting with book two (and various short fiction since), the books have been published by small independent press WMG Publishing.
So, basically, under the radar of most public libraries (and I say that because I recently retired from being a long-time reference librarian at a county public library).
You have to keep checking the author's Web site or sign up for her newsletter to find out when the next Diving Universe book is coming out. I have recently found out that what I was doing was insufficient. I am NOW on the author’s Diving Universe series (per se) newsletter.
The Falls (book five) was the first book in the Diving Universe that didn't have any of the main cast (in particular, Boss the series main protagonist) in it. But it showed a working Sector Base and we had not seen much about back-in-the-day-Fleet operations. I was surprised how much I enjoyed book five anyway.
Book six is better, of course, because we are back to Boss and her diving crew.
"Diving", in this universe, is another word for space salvage. Boss and her crew take their lives in their hands and board derelict ships that may or may NOT be safe to board in search of any salvageable tech and/or if they can salvage the entire ship itself. It would not be so dangerous, of course, if these derelict ships came with operating instructions.
In Book Six, Boss DOES have members of Coop's crew. These are actual Fleet officers who came with him from 5,000 years in the past when their ship's space fold drive malfunctioned and brought them out of the space fold many, many years after they had last entered [usually, ships only spend hours to a few days in the space fold].
Even so, even with an actual Fleet engineer, Boss's crew is still risking their lives. (The Fleet engineer, while an expert on the space fold drive, has never seen the drive installed in a ship as small as the runabout.)
New readers can even start with The Runabout because Ms. Rusch catches up on the story as she goes.
That is, she does not refer to earlier events covered in previous books that the current reader may not have yet read without mentioning the important bits which had been discovered in earlier books in the series.
So, I can (and do) safely recommend The Runabout to all space opera fans, even those who had not read the earlier Diving Universe books!
The Runabout is book six. The first book was traditionally published (by Pyr). Starting with book two (and various short fiction since), the books have been published by small independent press WMG Publishing.
So, basically, under the radar of most public libraries (and I say that because I recently retired from being a long-time reference librarian at a county public library).
You have to keep checking the author's Web site or sign up for her newsletter to find out when the next Diving Universe book is coming out. I have recently found out that what I was doing was insufficient. I am NOW on the author’s Diving Universe series (per se) newsletter.
The Falls (book five) was the first book in the Diving Universe that didn't have any of the main cast (in particular, Boss the series main protagonist) in it. But it showed a working Sector Base and we had not seen much about back-in-the-day-Fleet operations. I was surprised how much I enjoyed book five anyway.
Book six is better, of course, because we are back to Boss and her diving crew.
"Diving", in this universe, is another word for space salvage. Boss and her crew take their lives in their hands and board derelict ships that may or may NOT be safe to board in search of any salvageable tech and/or if they can salvage the entire ship itself. It would not be so dangerous, of course, if these derelict ships came with operating instructions.
In Book Six, Boss DOES have members of Coop's crew. These are actual Fleet officers who came with him from 5,000 years in the past when their ship's space fold drive malfunctioned and brought them out of the space fold many, many years after they had last entered [usually, ships only spend hours to a few days in the space fold].
Even so, even with an actual Fleet engineer, Boss's crew is still risking their lives. (The Fleet engineer, while an expert on the space fold drive, has never seen the drive installed in a ship as small as the runabout.)
New readers can even start with The Runabout because Ms. Rusch catches up on the story as she goes.
That is, she does not refer to earlier events covered in previous books that the current reader may not have yet read without mentioning the important bits which had been discovered in earlier books in the series.
So, I can (and do) safely recommend The Runabout to all space opera fans, even those who had not read the earlier Diving Universe books!
October 11, 2017
Oh I do love Boss an her spooky dives into derelict ships. All the good stuff is here: tension among the crew, unpredictable hardware, and hints at galactic issues that motivate these very risky adventures.
Not as good as some of the others in the series, but a solid addition, with the hint of more to come.
Not as good as some of the others in the series, but a solid addition, with the hint of more to come.
Read
May 18, 2018There's a lot of power and interest in exploring abandoned cities, ruins, spaceships, etc and so that holds true here. In terms of the series as a whole, this advances the plot the tiniest bit (maybe something to track to a lost fleet), while at the same time telling readers of the series as a whole much the same information they've been told in previous volumes.
August 23, 2019
This is an exciting space adventure, set in the Diving Universe. It looks like a simple runabout (shuttle craft), but it is sending off signals that it has a malfunctioning anacapa (FTL) drive. But runabouts are too small to carry an anacapa drive. It should be straightforward to go on board and figure this out... but everything that can go wrong, does.
March 11, 2018
Graveyards of mysterious derelict spacecraft thousands of years old, and presenting scavengers with the prospect of fabulous riches, but at the risk of horrifying death and injury is a trope as old as SF itself. Kristine Katherine Rusch manages to breathe new life into the body with this tight and tense novella telling of a prospecting (diving) expedition to what the narrator and crew of the Sove call 'The Boneyard'.
After a routine 'dive' becomes weird, and is aborted, the crew discovers that tseems to be the source of the strangeness might be that a timewarping and malfunctioning 'anacapa' drive fitted to a small runabout, where it ought not to be. Should the crew risk investigating this anomaly, or flee with their tails between their legs. What makes this story so successful is the real and believable conflicts inherent the deliberations of the narrator, the 'Boss' of Lost Souls Corporation, as she confronts her fears and her concerns for her own safety, and that of her crew in a situation which is fraught with the prospect of a fearful and rapid descent into disaster.
Eligible for the 2018 Hugo awards, and one I will be including in my shortlist
After a routine 'dive' becomes weird, and is aborted, the crew discovers that tseems to be the source of the strangeness might be that a timewarping and malfunctioning 'anacapa' drive fitted to a small runabout, where it ought not to be. Should the crew risk investigating this anomaly, or flee with their tails between their legs. What makes this story so successful is the real and believable conflicts inherent the deliberations of the narrator, the 'Boss' of Lost Souls Corporation, as she confronts her fears and her concerns for her own safety, and that of her crew in a situation which is fraught with the prospect of a fearful and rapid descent into disaster.
Eligible for the 2018 Hugo awards, and one I will be including in my shortlist
October 19, 2018
'Boss' takes on a very difficult dive in the boneyard and really tests herself to the limits.
(This is sort of a companion story to The Falls. The stories are completely separated in time and space but there is a slight connection.)
(This is sort of a companion story to The Falls. The stories are completely separated in time and space but there is a slight connection.)
May 8, 2019
I love the Diving Universe books. I recommend reading them in order. If you like them, you will like this one.
August 4, 2021
This book ties in with The Falls more than I thought and you definitely should read that book before this. More Boneyard, more diving. Loved that. This gives the Ivorie people This is a great series.
April 8, 2019
Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Runabout: A Diving Novel (Diving Series) (Volume 6) is novella or short novel (not sure which it technically fits) in which a group of people from the Lost Souls Corporation go diving for not-too-broken wrecks of spaceships in the Boneyard. One of the folks in charge is from the Ivoire, the ship that came forward in time 5,000 years and still hopes to find the Fleet it came from. The team tries to salvage another vessel, only to encounter the field of a seriously malfunctioning anacapa drive. Even though the divers have the genetic marker that protects them from malfunctioning anacapa drives, safety is hardly guaranteed. They need to figure out where the mysterious readings are coming from, then figure out what to do about them, without losing their lives.
The story is fairly short and straightforward, so I find I don’t have a lot to talk about. The characters and their interactions are interesting. I have only read a couple of bits of Rusch’s Diving universe, not the whole series, and yet I found I could follow along well. Obviously it would still be best if you read the books in order.
The events get quite tense, with plenty at stake. I definitely felt invested in the story and wanted to know what would happen next. Rusch is an excellent writer, and I have yet to be disappointed with anything of hers that I’ve read. The worldbuilding, in particular, is quite detailed and clever.
All in all, this book makes me want to go back and read the rest of the series in order!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/04/s...
The story is fairly short and straightforward, so I find I don’t have a lot to talk about. The characters and their interactions are interesting. I have only read a couple of bits of Rusch’s Diving universe, not the whole series, and yet I found I could follow along well. Obviously it would still be best if you read the books in order.
The events get quite tense, with plenty at stake. I definitely felt invested in the story and wanted to know what would happen next. Rusch is an excellent writer, and I have yet to be disappointed with anything of hers that I’ve read. The worldbuilding, in particular, is quite detailed and clever.
All in all, this book makes me want to go back and read the rest of the series in order!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/04/s...
March 7, 2021
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. The Runabout: A Diving Universe Novel. Diving Universe No. 6. WMG, 2017.
In this sixth installment of the Diving Universe series, we are back with Boss and her team in the Boneyard of derelict ships. Be warned, this is a close sequel to The Falls, but it is fair to say that each novel contains spoilers for the other. I like both novels, but I am not sure in which order I would have preferred to read them. They are set in different timelines and don’t exactly share major characters. But let’s just say with a wink and a nudge that if you have read The Falls, you will have a pretty good idea of what Boss and her fellow wreck divers will find in the runabout. Likewise, if you read The Runabout first, you will have an important key to the mystery in The Falls. In both novels, character issues outweigh interest in their well-made plots. Both novels pit highly professional characters with competing agendas against one another. They are highly strung, self-controlled, jealous of their prerogatives, yet always careful of stepping on others’ emotional toes and damaging the team. Anyone who has attended a lot of professional meetings will understand the dynamic. Recommended.
In this sixth installment of the Diving Universe series, we are back with Boss and her team in the Boneyard of derelict ships. Be warned, this is a close sequel to The Falls, but it is fair to say that each novel contains spoilers for the other. I like both novels, but I am not sure in which order I would have preferred to read them. They are set in different timelines and don’t exactly share major characters. But let’s just say with a wink and a nudge that if you have read The Falls, you will have a pretty good idea of what Boss and her fellow wreck divers will find in the runabout. Likewise, if you read The Runabout first, you will have an important key to the mystery in The Falls. In both novels, character issues outweigh interest in their well-made plots. Both novels pit highly professional characters with competing agendas against one another. They are highly strung, self-controlled, jealous of their prerogatives, yet always careful of stepping on others’ emotional toes and damaging the team. Anyone who has attended a lot of professional meetings will understand the dynamic. Recommended.
April 21, 2020
8/10: Excellent read, well written, fell right into the fictional world created.
“You know, Boss,” she says, “you present yourself as one tough woman with a hard interior. But you’re quite nice when you want to be. You didn’t have to smooth things over for me.”
Boss was in this one. But no Coop. We also get to know Yash a little better, and I'm warming to her.
I would like more of Boss and Coop together, though, but this isn't a romance, so I'll suck it up, Buttercup, and enjoy them when I get them.
There is diving this time, in particular, the runabout from the previous (Universe) book. I thought reading the previous book before this one would spoil the mystery, but maybe it just adds a layer of knowledge to it that the reader has and the characters don't, making for a different type of story.
There is an edge-of-your-seat drama and the characters, as always, were well portrayed. But I'm looking forward to maybe a little more action in the next one. We'll have to wait and see.
Still, an excellent series that I can't get enough of, no matter what form or path it takes.
“You know, Boss,” she says, “you present yourself as one tough woman with a hard interior. But you’re quite nice when you want to be. You didn’t have to smooth things over for me.”
Boss was in this one. But no Coop. We also get to know Yash a little better, and I'm warming to her.
I would like more of Boss and Coop together, though, but this isn't a romance, so I'll suck it up, Buttercup, and enjoy them when I get them.
There is diving this time, in particular, the runabout from the previous (Universe) book. I thought reading the previous book before this one would spoil the mystery, but maybe it just adds a layer of knowledge to it that the reader has and the characters don't, making for a different type of story.
There is an edge-of-your-seat drama and the characters, as always, were well portrayed. But I'm looking forward to maybe a little more action in the next one. We'll have to wait and see.
Still, an excellent series that I can't get enough of, no matter what form or path it takes.
December 22, 2020
Far less satisfying than the other Diving stories I've read. All the usual concerns, and knowing they're dealing with Fleet vessels and anacapa drives, but not much actually happened.
Okay, yes, the hero almost dies, but that's actually kind of normal for these. They didn't learn anything about the ships or the drives, only
And that's it.
Fortunately, I've read several other stories already, and am enthralled with the overall story, so this won't stop me from reading more. But this was very light on action, leaving me dissatisfied overall. Kind of like getting a chocolate chip cookie with only one chocolate chip in it.
Okay, yes, the hero almost dies, but that's actually kind of normal for these. They didn't learn anything about the ships or the drives, only
And that's it.
Fortunately, I've read several other stories already, and am enthralled with the overall story, so this won't stop me from reading more. But this was very light on action, leaving me dissatisfied overall. Kind of like getting a chocolate chip cookie with only one chocolate chip in it.
December 10, 2019
Sweet story
Kris Ruch is a master at keeping me awake, reading, when I should be sleeping. It’s been six decades since I did anything like this. One thing I noted in this story was how close it felt to a film script. Each chapter was framed as a complete scene, some short & some long. I’m not sure of the origin of the anacapa drive, but I did discover the word itself is from the Native American Chumash word for mirage or mirage island; it is the name of one of the islands in the Catalina’s, off the coast of California. Mirage is one of those magical words, suggesting vague, mysterious possibilities.
Kris Ruch is a master at keeping me awake, reading, when I should be sleeping. It’s been six decades since I did anything like this. One thing I noted in this story was how close it felt to a film script. Each chapter was framed as a complete scene, some short & some long. I’m not sure of the origin of the anacapa drive, but I did discover the word itself is from the Native American Chumash word for mirage or mirage island; it is the name of one of the islands in the Catalina’s, off the coast of California. Mirage is one of those magical words, suggesting vague, mysterious possibilities.
March 18, 2021
Another installment in the Diving Universe series. The book (or, rather, a longish novella which is marketed as a book) tells the other half of the story from where the previous book left it. In this book, the Boss and her crew find a strange runabout with a severely damaged Anacapa drive. The drive is so damaged, that it might endanger the whole area. They are working on retrieving old, partly damaged spaceships, and diving into the runabout turns out to be very dangerous. A short book that feels a bit like a filler installment. It was a nice and good read nevertheless, well written, as is everything by Rusch.
May 12, 2017
A narrow focused science fiction adventure about a eam that dives into abandoned space ships. It is a part of a series I know nothing about, but the author did a decent job letting me know what the hell is going on. This focuses on the team during three dives where they are dealing with a ship that is malfunctioning. The characters were good and the prose was vibrant. I didn't care for the open ended nature of the ending, but this is book six in a series that is still chugging along, so I shouldn't have been surprised by that.
November 22, 2017
Disappointed. Again.
What pulls me into these stories are the mysteries of the lost Fleet, the lost technology, and of Boss. This novella does nothing to advance these plot lines. Instead, there is a constant rehash of things already known from previous stories. Rather than moving the story forward, there's lots of pointless internal dialogue, little revelational insights, and tedious " should we or shouldn't we " interactions. I feel the author isn't interested or motivated to really explore this universe she's created.
What pulls me into these stories are the mysteries of the lost Fleet, the lost technology, and of Boss. This novella does nothing to advance these plot lines. Instead, there is a constant rehash of things already known from previous stories. Rather than moving the story forward, there's lots of pointless internal dialogue, little revelational insights, and tedious " should we or shouldn't we " interactions. I feel the author isn't interested or motivated to really explore this universe she's created.
July 30, 2019
i feel like i read the last two books out of order, the run about first, then the falls... that would have made more sense maybe? anyway The Runabout is a return to form for the series.theres a fair bit of repetition and stalling in the first quarter of the book, for example the protagonist speculating on what others in the crew think about this or that.... less tell, more DO. and then suddenly the book does just that. then the story gets going and it all flies by.
this is a solid series with mystery and skill and space world/universe building, and it’s a safe read. i enjoy it.
this is a solid series with mystery and skill and space world/universe building, and it’s a safe read. i enjoy it.
October 12, 2019
Wow! 6th book in the series (along with a few novellas). These books are a comfort to me. Once I finish #7, I think I will go back and restart with #1. I have been enjoying this series on audio books and I find that I can't wait to get into my car and resume listening.
The "diving" is really going out in space suits to explore ancient spaceships. I find the idea interesting and unique. This book, while enjoyable, was way too short and ended without a satisfying conclusion. I hope book #7 wraps it up, but meanwhile, I get to enjoy the storytelling and the characters.
The "diving" is really going out in space suits to explore ancient spaceships. I find the idea interesting and unique. This book, while enjoyable, was way too short and ended without a satisfying conclusion. I hope book #7 wraps it up, but meanwhile, I get to enjoy the storytelling and the characters.
January 6, 2018
I was reviewing The Falls the other day, lamenting the stand alone nature of that book, wishing Rusch would crank out another in the actual series. I failed to realize this book had been released a few months ago. Excellent surprise.
It was a short book, but it hit the spot.
Where is Coop?
Great narrator as usual.
It was a short book, but it hit the spot.
Where is Coop?
Great narrator as usual.
September 24, 2017
This is a partner to the previous story in the Diving Universe. This time we see the Runabout in the boneyard of ships where the Boss and company are diving another ship. Seems that the drive on the runabout is effecting the divers and not in a good way. I loved seeing the other side of the story. Even though I realized what was going to happen there was enough tension and danger to keep me reading. A bonus - This was proof that the Fleet was still around somewhere.
October 3, 2017
Doesn't really add much to the series. The Diving Universe is really interesting and I hope Rusch will continue to write stories in it, but it needs a new approach. This was not it. We know anacapa drives are scary, unpredictable and dangerous. No need to mention it every five minutes. The story is decent for what it is, but even though it is short, it felt longer than necessary.
August 30, 2018
The Runabout was an intriguing installment in the Diving Universe series, but I did wish it was a full novel. Happily, at the end of the novella, there was an announcement for a full novel coming soon.
November 9, 2018
This short novel in the Diving Universe Series is something of a companion volume to The Falls. It tells the story of the missing runabout from the viewpoint of Boss and her crew exploring the Boneyard. In addition it hints at further stories to come.
October 2, 2017
I love this series. The only problem with this story was that it was too short.
June 8, 2021
Another interesting adventure diving in the boneyard.
February 15, 2022
The Diving Universe Reviewed.
I am not doing separate reviews, just some general remarks--this review will appear on all the Diving books starting with Stealth. I read from Stealth forward in the series through Squishy's Teams--still waiting for (and looking forward to) Chase.
So, these are very pleasant engaging reads. The Diving universe is coherent, well-imagined, and intriguing. For serious fans (what I used to call 'fan-boys', but that's too gendered) of Rusch, I recommend reading them all. For less committed readers, it is probably enough to just read the full-length novels and skip the novellas. There is some overlap between the novels and the novellas, but it is often fascinating, as when one gets to see the same incident from two different directions. But the novellas are often short and padded out to printable (sellable) length with previews or other stuff. The novels carry the whole narrative and major characters forward on their own. The novellas can be outtakes of the novels, or fun original stuff.
This is not my usual space opera. The orbital mechanics sometimes don't make sense and so on, but the writing and editing are very good.
Enjoy!
I am not doing separate reviews, just some general remarks--this review will appear on all the Diving books starting with Stealth. I read from Stealth forward in the series through Squishy's Teams--still waiting for (and looking forward to) Chase.
So, these are very pleasant engaging reads. The Diving universe is coherent, well-imagined, and intriguing. For serious fans (what I used to call 'fan-boys', but that's too gendered) of Rusch, I recommend reading them all. For less committed readers, it is probably enough to just read the full-length novels and skip the novellas. There is some overlap between the novels and the novellas, but it is often fascinating, as when one gets to see the same incident from two different directions. But the novellas are often short and padded out to printable (sellable) length with previews or other stuff. The novels carry the whole narrative and major characters forward on their own. The novellas can be outtakes of the novels, or fun original stuff.
This is not my usual space opera. The orbital mechanics sometimes don't make sense and so on, but the writing and editing are very good.
Enjoy!
March 4, 2022
I have just read the Diving Series back to back (the 16 books that exist thus far, including novels and novellas) and have to say that I absolutely love this series.
The Runabout continues the Boneyard arc, and stays pretty solidly within that for the entirety of this novel. I don't find it quite as engaging as the preceding novels, there's a bit too much on the angsty pre-dive periods.
The Runabout continues the Boneyard arc, and stays pretty solidly within that for the entirety of this novel. I don't find it quite as engaging as the preceding novels, there's a bit too much on the angsty pre-dive periods.
September 9, 2023
New possibilities
Caution: nail biting ahead!
This is a great adventure into the mysteries of the boneyard and the anacapa drives. Many surprises in store for characters and readers alike. More questions are raised than answered.
Caution: nail biting ahead!
This is a great adventure into the mysteries of the boneyard and the anacapa drives. Many surprises in store for characters and readers alike. More questions are raised than answered.
May 31, 2024
This book continues the diving universe story a little with some hints about the possible continued existence of the fleet, but I wanted to see more progress.
November 9, 2024
Okay ... good to see us getting back to the regular cast of characters. This book (Novella? Felt like it should be 5.5 or 4.5) ties back a bit to the previous book "The Falls".
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews