Fleet of Knives is the second book in the Embers of War trilogy, and the sequel to Embers of War. This series is clearly space opera; it features an interesting cast of characters: first is a sentient space ship called Trouble Dog with a misfit crew. The Trouble Dog's captain is Sal Konstanz, with crewmembers Alva Clay (a seasoned war veteran), Preston Menderes (the very young ship medical officer who dropped out of medical school and was assigned to the ship due to his admiral father) and Nod (an alien with faces in the palms of its six hands).
The other important character in this book is Ona Sudak, which is the alternate identity for Captain Annelida Deal who was introduced in the first book right before she began carrying out a genocidal order to incinerate a planet-straddling sentient forest in order to bring an intergalactic war to a sudden end.
In the beginning of the second book, Sudak is moments away from being executed when she is suddenly rescued because the Marble Armada wants to work with her. The Marble Armada is a fleet of one million alien ships (which resemble white knives) that were discovered at the end of Embers of War.
In Fleet of Knives the Marble Armada uses Ona Sudak to help them implement their overarching mission, which they repeatedly say is to prevent humans from engaging in interstellar war again. However, this means that the fleet of knives ends up destroying lots of ships and structures that directly results in many collateral human casualties. The reason for their actions, the Fleet says, is that they are trying to prevent humanity from getting the attention of even more vicious aliens who exist in hyperspace and whom the Fleet seems afraid of.
We get introduced to a new cast of characters in Fleet of Knives after a ship called Lucy's Ghost is attacked by a curious hyperspatial creature and crash onto a huge dormant alien artifact. Unfortunately there are viciously murderous aliens that resemble crawfish that attack (and kill) multiple members of the survivors of Lucy's Ghost.
Trouble Dog is the strongest character in both books and eventually she comes face-to-face with the fleet of knives whom for some reason seem particularly interested in making sure that she is either destroyed or has her weapons deactivated.
I think I actually liked Fleet of Knives more than Embers of War even though it ends with a pretty substantial cliffhanger. The tension between the fleet of knives and Trouble Dog is also not resolved. However, I feel more invested in reading Book 3 (the still unnamed sequel to Fleet of Knives) when it comes out next year than I felt invested in reading Book 2 after finishing Book 1. Embers of War won the 2018 British Science Fiction Award for best novel, so it will be interesting to see the overall critical reception for Fleet of Knives, which is arguably a better book.
Title: Fleet of Knives.
Author: Gareth L. Powell.
Paperback: 416 pages.
Publisher: Titan Books.
Date Published: February 19, 2019.
Date Read: May 9, 2019.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: A (3.83/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.
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