A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (The Salvagers, #1)

by Alex White

2018, book 1 of The Salvagers trilogy. Bought for $7.41 minus $1.09 in reward points on 6/3/2025 to read for Geeks Read on July 1, 2025. Alex White b. 1981, from Mississippi Review: https://www.bossybookworm.com/post/review-of-a-big-ship-at-the-edge-of-the-universe-the-salvagers-1-by-alex-white Salvagers book 2: A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy (2019) $10 Salvagers book 3: The Worst of All Possible Worlds (2020) $10 Six great stories set in space: https://www.bossybookworm.com/post/six-fascinating-stories-set-in-space Protagonist Nilah Brio, rich, talented, pampered, self-absorbed. Will her racing skills be useful in space? “I know I did everything people expected of me… It’s just that I make my living on perfection.” Ch. 15 p. 284. Nijah has the Mechanist mark and Magic tattoos. Two marks? Is her magic common, or special? Why and how? Common magic? Who has it, how much, and whence? Protagonist Elizabeth “Boots” Elsworth, treasure hunter, no mark. Protagonist Cordell Lamar, captain of the Capricious “Some captains inspired their cadets to valor. Cordell just made them fear the consequences of failure.” Shieldmaster mark Henchmen (crew): Orna Sokol, Quartermaster of the Capricious, a Rosa Klebb figure p. 76, but a good guy w/ mechanist mark Ranger, Orna’s mechanized warrior Kinnard, Boots’s AI, Didier Thomasi, cook, an outsider, botany mark? Armin Vandevere, first mate, datamancer, mean so the captain isn’t hated Malik, ship’s doctor, kindest to Nilah, sleep mark, healer’s mark ? Aisha Jan, pilot, Malik’s wife Referred to as “the quartermaster, the racer, the cook, the duke, the pilot, the captain.” Silly and pointless. Parties (or races?): all human? What is their origin? Their distinctiveness? Arcans, Arcan, Arca Fallen Taitutian Kandamili Too much magic, too many new words, too arbitrary and too handy from within, or from tools, both without a coherent system around it. E.g., Nilah’s at the race p. 24, then Boots’s to escape Cordell Lamar with a ‘descender’ whose ‘gooey magic enfolded her in a gelatinous cocoon’ and ‘a mage who could sense her specific life force’ p. 33, and ‘a marksman mage’ p. 35. And Nilah taking over the ship in ch. 6. Contrast the ease of context in Becky Chambers space opera, and the serious gut-wrenching tension of The Expanse. This one starts to come together when Nilah actually talks with Boots, then Orna. It’s nice to watch a privileged and talented but selfish and egotistical young protagonist with resources and skills (Nilah) interact with scrappy and competent dull-fingered veteran (Boots). And even (or especially?) with Orna, the much abused and calloused quartermaster. These relationships may be the best parts of the novel. The developing relationships among the 3 protagonists is good, especially the candid talk in ch. 7 pp. 126 ff. All 3 grow and change in response to their proximity and exigencies. Nilah grows the most, and the best, I think. The battle scenes are good, both on the ground and in space; a particular strength of White’s. Better without the ridiculous magic. E.g., “molten magic.” Mother’s magic is ridiculous too. “The old fear gnawed at her, the one that haunted her every single crash: what if she never felt the arcane ever again?” Ch. 13 p. 262 that’s ok. The clever parts of the system: ’marks’ evince different narrow powers of magic; tech that boosts (or provides) magic and magic that boosts (or controls) tech. Unique in my recollection. Violates Sanderson’s 3 laws of magic: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Sanderson's_Laws_of_Magic The rules here: Rule number one: magic must always be the point. Rule number two: every legend is a fluffy story wrapped around a piece of hard evidence. Magic comes from “marks” and most people have one of them; constructive marks: scribe, mechanist, sleep, healer, barrister, marksman, shield master, inveigler (mind control), falcon (flight), datamancer, usurer’s (can transfer life from one vessel to another ch. 5 p. 82; that exchanges life for power ch. 20 p. 375) destructive marks: arson, conductors, zephyrs, corruptors, grenadier’s, Poorly done hard boiled argot and Britishisms (heater, loo, ), ‘smirked’ 28 times , Race car motifs and metaphors; cf. the sailing motifs in KSR’s Aurora (2015). Mother’s spell: Arbitrarily broken, ch. 12 p. 224 Arbitrarily strong ch. 12 p. 224 THEMES: In the whole of the galaxy, there were precious few people she trusted to have her back. ch. 12 p. 228 Opera Aubade BOOTS: The prophecy that directly mentioned her as the downfall of Jean Prejean , ch. 10 p. 192, was nothing more than a frightful mystery at this point: ch. 12 p. 217; Harrow’s location ch. 19 p. 352; Ships and ships’ components are all masculine. Nilah, concerned when Kin tells her if the first fly-by doesn’t work, they’ll burn up in descent before the Capricious can make another shot. “Well, that’s cheery.” “A painless death is more than most humans can hope to get,” said Kin. “Okay, Kin. Thank you for that, uh, perspective.” Ch. 19 p. 356. This whole treasure hunt had been one weird thing after another—gods and prophets, culture arks and secret bases, mutineers and secret branches of the Taitutian military. And, of course, there were the racetrack glyphs, too. VOCABULARY: D.N.F. sigil circuits, eidolon core, eidolon dust, eidolon crystal, Arclight Booster PGRF stonking flaw chicane git the Link Metachroic mechanist, mechanist’s mark dispersers descender, descenders quick chute an armored exoskeleton encrusted with servomotors and glowing sigils glyph jump gate, jump portal the phantoplasm caking Nilah’s body melted into the magic-numbing indolence gasses magic-numbing indolence gasses scroll tubes argents (specie) arcane arcana dystocia, dull-fingered, no cardioid cardioid organ, the source of magic in humans slinger, an ancient Carrington 23 a healer’s mark mnemonimancer Clarkesfall Famine War Arcans, Arcan, Arca Fallen Taitu, Taitutian Kandamili > The above are just from the first two chapters. dermalux tattoos a Fixer chip Flicker marauder-class ship Battle of Laconte sleepers, trip sticks, knock rounds for her slinger, waspspikes, and three blinders shouty Atheron Capstone sparklamps planetary sigil Discus warheads that could slice a ship in half tuner, PGRF tuner Ship dispersers the gargantuan brass rune disc spellship datamancer computer sphere actuators dampers, inertial dampers Carré custom barrister’s mark culture ark Midnight Runner echo, camber, carom amps Marshanda Fosser Erantis System The Gray the Galactic Common Semiotic Set ganpho nduwayo Flamekeepers fire scribe perimah birds Prokarthic baths - anodyne, serenity, well-being, homing fléchettes, coated in a deadly neurotoxin duraplex weaving, duraplex graft, duraplex cast nurse bot oxygenated blood substitute orichalcum wire grenadier’s mark satellite collective glyph launchers springflies visible light gun cam spell disc descender discs, descender canister fibron biobatteries network crawlers gabbar confit, with a Norlan crema sauce and sprinkled smoked sugar Herschelite sherry