Faith

Some hundreds of years in the future, humankind and several alien races have formed the galaxy-spanning Commonwealth. After a mysterious spaceship called Faith destroys the Sakhran Empire, the Commonwealth eagerly fills the power vacuum. Then Faith begins harassing Commonwealth colonies, killing off armed resistance and showering cities in sewage before disappearing. The Commonwealth’s best weapons against it are the Outsider ships, a Dirty Dozen–like fleet of brutal and expendable soldiers. When Faith and its mysterious crew threaten a Commonwealth world, the Outsider ship Charles Manson is called on duty, and Cmdr. Aaron Foord decides to destroy Faith even if that means demolishing Commonwealth ships that get in his way. While the story eventually devolves into murky faux-profound allegory and Love’s decision to make two of his three protagonists former rapists feels gratuitous and jarring, Love’s deft touch with complex characters and ethical quandaries make his work worth reading. Agent: Paradigm. (Jan.)