Diving Into the Wreck Book Review

Title: Diving Into The Wreck
Author: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Publisher: Pyr Publishing
Pages: 375
ISBN: 9781591027867

Boss is a diver, active historian and loner, who only works with others when the situation calls for it. Drifting through space on her own aboard Nobody's Business, she looks for rare, unmarked and unclaimed vessels that have been wrecked, to make a living on by searching for treasure, selling what's salvageable, and claiming what would make for a good dive with inexperienced tourist-divers who are willing to pay good money for such a rich experience.

Diving Into The Wreck is an intensely written story that was way more than what I thought it would be. In places its as dark as the space that surrounds Nobody's Business, but the darkness is gritty, familiar and all too realistic, while carrying surrealism through scenes that seem almost too fantastical.

The story itself is split into three conjoining stories, which act as individual parts, with the first two building up to the final part. Although it's a typical format for many stories, it works remarkably well for this story; their each easy to follow, and all three would would rather well as stand alone novellas if a person wanted to read just one.

Rusch has a knack for introducing characters. Whether you grow to love them or hate them while reading this book, it's guaranteed that they'll stay drifting through your brain for many, many days after putting the book down.

I really enjoyed reading Diving Into the Wreck. Okay, that's an understatement; I overly enjoyed reading it. The voice that it's written in is refreshing, and Boss is a character that I found myself instantly becoming attached too. She's more human than many characters that I've read in the past, and her story instantly sucked me in. And out of the many science fiction novels I've read in my lifetime, I think this is one of the only ones that actually had an authentic sci-fi feel to it, -- almost classical in many regards -- unlike many titles that seem to be churned out at breakneck speeds, the science within the pages of Diving Into The Wreck is simple to follow and feels anything but forced into the story; Rush pulls this classical feel off extremely well.

With all the trademarks of an all-around amazing storyteller, I'm going to keep an eager eye out for more of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's stuff. I'm hoping that there will be a sequel to this book, heck, an entire series revolving around Boss and her diving adventures would be alright with me.

With an original story line, interesting characters, simple science and a knack for story telling, Rusch's understanding for the science fiction genre shines throughout Diving Into the Wreck. That's why I'm giving it 8.5 Tardis's out of 10. To anyone who's looking for a remarkable sci-fi novel that's easy on the science, I'd highly recommend stopping by your nearest bookstore and picking up a copy of this book, or ordering a copy online from these fine booksellers: Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

~ Rodney