Codrescu Station
Eylot Nearspace

In which Theo sees a ghost.

There are limits to how far a person can proceed even when intending to read a series in its internal chronological order, if only because there’s going to be chapters like this one which is in itself not in chronological order. It starts with Theo and yos’Senchul in orbit, and then there’s a flashback as Theo reflects on the events that occurred between the end of last chapter and the beginning of this. So should a person committed to internal chronological order consider rearranging the scenes of the chapter? I would say no. It’s all very well to want to read the stories in chronological order, but it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that it’s about reading the stories. The authors’ choice to tell the events in this order means something; the order is part of the story.

That the “ghost ship” which appears on Theo’s ship scan is not just a scanner glitch of no future significance will be no surprise to anyone who knows the title of this novel’s sequel. (I can’t remember now whether I knew that thing when I first read this novel, but anyway I knew it wasn’t just a scanner glitch of no future significance.)