Finders

War, and its disastrous aftermath, is a recurring theme in Scott’s standalone space opera. Desperate for a job, salvagers Cassilde Sam and Dai Winter accept help from Summerlad Ashe, their former partner and lover, who betrayed them during a war between the worlds of the Entente and the Verge. Ingenious adaptations of the technologically advanced relics of humanity’s Ancestor and Successor predecessors form the foundation of civilization, and Ashe’s theories about a particular section of the Ancestor sky palace being open for salvage leads the trio to a Gift, a legendary Ancestor healing device. Space travel and faster-than-light drives blend with world mythology as Sam, Winter, and Ashe race to stay ahead of an underground group that hunts for Gifts across the settled worlds. Though the delivery sometimes falls flat, this is a fun story with convincing worldbuilding and a delightful triad romance at its heart. (Dec.)