Ridgerunners

Fans of stories focused on strategy and schemes will find a lot to like in the nonstop action space thriller from games and comics writer Neilson. Ridgerunners are rebels and pirates battling the joyless, dictatorial Collective following the Inter-Worlds War. The Collective is led by the devious Old Man, aka Pindl Folk. Ridgerunner Captain Tarsigh and his adoptive daughter and second-in-command, Aladhra, serve aboard the command ship of the Pack, one of the remaining collectives of resistance spaceships. A successful confrontation with a Collective ship results in the Pack’s acquisition of significant new technology and a data cube full of the Collective’s dirty secrets. The obnoxious and ambitious Brenn Condon leads the Collective’s efforts to regain the items and suppress the information, hoping this will cement his position as the Old Man’s successor—but the Old Man may have other ideas. Neilson’s creative and occasionally gruesome (but not graphic) use of technology and battle situations compensates for his indifferent character-building, and double-crosses and other intrigue keep the pages turning. This is a fun, fast adventure for space opera fans. (Mar.)