A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 50-51 (Really Chapters 42-43)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

We've finally come to the end of the story - or at least of this novel.  Max is in danger and our antagonist's plans are revealed!  Will the crew find her in time to save the day?  Well, not to spoil anything, but I've been calling this an optimistic novel for a reason.....

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 48-49 (Really Chapters 40-41)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

This is our penultimate installment of the reread, as we hit our final four chapters!  The Boarding Games are over, and the team has been called back to Earth to hunt down the mysterious Gerard and the LifeEx/System Jumper criminals.  Surely nothing bad could happen to the team at this point, now that they're celebrated champions right?  Right?

Oh yeah, things are going to shit real quickly......

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 45-47(Really Chapters 37-39)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

We have reached the last arc of this book: The Boarding Games!  Last week we dealt with the first two days of what is basically an Olympic competition between armed services, except the competitions range from cage fighting to sword-fighting to piloting through an obstacle course to hacking - not the usual Olympic events.  In today's post, we're going for a rare three chapter reread, so we get all the way through the end.

There's a lot of things that happen in these chapters - family confrontations, and several big cage matches!  Six people will enter those cage matches and two will leave them unconscious.  Who will survive?  And will the NeoG be able to defeat Navy for the first time ever?  (Hint: this book isn't following the Navy team....)

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 43-44 (Really Chapters 35-36)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

Finally it's time for the main event of this book, the Boarding Games!  Appropriate I get to this part of the book just as Ameican sports are coming back, honestly, except there's no danger of the spread of any dangerous diseases at these games.....except for the disease of some Navy assholes.

Okay enough prelims, let's get to it - we have our first cage match and lots of family drama this week!  Oy.

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 40-42 (Really Chapters 33-34)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

Last time out, the crew arrived to the main event: The Boarding Games - and we ended with Max running into her older brother, who abandoned her years ago.  This time, we see the games get ready to begin, with a little extracurriculars between the NeoG and the Navy teams at a bar.....because of course.....

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 37-39 (Really Chapters 31-32)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

We're up to what is essentially the final arc of this novel (kinda), with the event we've all been waiting for coming up: The Boarding Games!  Well we're not quite there yet, but this week we get to see the final preparations and the team's arrival, as Max finally figures out her love life - or well, whatever we're calling what she has with Nika, Jenks discovers a new way to create "cover", and everyone has some family complications.....

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 35-36 (Really Chapters 29-30)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

We're in the final third of the novel, as our crew and Max's sister finally are on the same page regarding the urgency of working together to figure out the mystery of the Dupe LifeEx.  Or seem to be on the same page at least.  That said, that doesn't mean the mystery will be easy to solve, and our heroes probably will need to do their favorite thing to blow off steam.....get into a bar fight.

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 32-34 (Really Chapters 26-28)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

When we left off, we were in the middle of this book's second act - the team has gotten together in tight, won the Boarding Game prelims, and is now investigating just what exactly the System Jumper smuggling was about and how it connects to LifeEx.  Unfortunately, while the NeoG's boarding operation of a new smuggling freighter went off more or less without a hitch, a parallel NeoG operation on Trappist-1 to hit the smuggling facility the freighter came from resulted in an explosion that gravely injured Nika.

Now, Jenks, Ma, and Max are onboard a Navy ship carrying Nika - who's being tended to by Max's asshole father - as they attempt to figure out what to do next......

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 29-31 (Really Chapters 24 & 25)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.

Yeah, I didn't think the world could get more depressing when I started this reread, or that we would have such a clear inkling of problems with the modern military and to see it deployed on our own American soil - with the actual Coast Guard being surprisingly among the military deployed by Donald Trump to Washington D.C. according to some reports (it's kind of unclear).  I don't mean to bring these real world issues into these posts - this reread was started for me to read a very positive book in a future I could wish for, and to get any other readers into such a similar book, because god I could use that around now.  But kind of hard to ignore it entirely given the above, sooooo yeah, that's a thing that has to be mentioned.

This Reread Part will cover the next Letters segment, and the next two chapters, which the book labels as Chapters 29-31, but more accurately by my count is Letters 24-25.  Here we have some serious action:  Two NeoG cruisers conduct an actual Boarding Mission and one of our heroes is seriously injured!

So here we go:

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 27 and 28 (Really Chapters 22 & 23)

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe. We're finished the first half of this book and now it's time for a break in the fun (well kind of) for some long term plot ramifications!  So I guess its too late for me to say you can easily catch up, but well, if you want to try it's well worth your time - and these posts aren't exactly going anywhere mind you.

You may note the jump in chapter numbers in the title of this post.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, the book doesn't include the Chapter number at the top of every chapter, titling many chapters with just the timestamp or "Letters."  Given the shortness of the Letters (1-2 pages), I'd have assumed those wouldn't be counted as chapters, but here we are, and our first Chapter # in a while seems to have counted them, jumping us from what I assumed was Chapter 21 to Chapter "27".  For continuity sake I'll be using both chapter numberings from here on out.

Anyhow, last time out, a heroic space rescue nearly went horribly wrong, as Jenks' pack malfunctioned, sending her and an 11 year old girl spiraling out of control in space right in the trajectory of deadly solar radiation....until Max disobeyed orders to save them.  Truly awesome stuff, and someone should make a TV show just of such rescues seriously.

This time around, we get the aftermath, as the crew discovers the malfunction wasn't as innocuous as it seemed......

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 20 and 21

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe. We're just finishing the first half of this book, with the final part of the prelim boarding games and the team's first mission afterwards this week!  So I guess its too late for me to say you can easily catch up, but well, if you want to try it's well worth your time - and these posts aren't exactly going anywhere mind you.

Today's post covers two of my favorite chapters: First: the conclusion of the Prelim Boarding Games and Jenks and Luis come to an emotional accord!  Second, we get a rescue mission in space where something goes disastrously wrong, and Max has to act against orders to save lives!  The rescue mission is a particular highlight of this book, despite being short, and well....okay let me save that for the actual reread.......

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 18 and 19

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're now in the midst of the Prelim Boarding Games, so we're into the 2nd third of the novel now!  But it's not that long a book so catching up won't take that long.....

Sorry for taking a week break, I needed a break from posting these and I was busy on my weekly Saturday scheduling of these.  And well, these are some pretty important chapters!  Jenks faces emotional turmoil and takes out by one punch KOing an opponent!  Max gets KOed off page!  We get to see the really cool piloting competition!  But really these two chapters are about Jenks romantic turmoil....which she does not take very well.

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 16 and 17

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're just starting the Prelim Boarding Games, so we're into the 2nd third of the novel now!  But it's not that long a book so catching up won't take that long.....

Last time out, our team just arrived at the site of the Prelim Boarding Games.  It was the calm before the storm.  Now we're getting to the early rounds of the Games themselves.  How will Rosa do in swordfighting?  Will Max do okay in hand to hand?  We'll see a little of that this time as Rosa gets matched up with perhaps her toughest competition in the NeoG swordfighting in the second round.  Who makes these brackets anyway???

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 14 and 15

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're just about to start the Prelim Boarding Games, so we're into the 2nd third of the novel now!  But it's not that long a book so catching up won't take that long.....

Last week we saw the crew pulling off a harrowing rescue, with Jenks and Max managing to figure out how to defuse the near-critical reactor of a tanker filled with highly volatile fuel near enough to Jupiter Station to cause some serious damage to both people and property.  It was an exciting sequence - more so to read than talk about but still!

This time around, we've reached a calm before the storm, as the crew finally reaches the prelim Boarding Games!  Other than some practice swordfighting, we're all lovey-dovey!  Well, not romantically (yet) but more in a familial way.  Oh and Rosa gets a few pep talks.  She needs a lot of those for a commander - when it comes to Sword fighting at least.

NOTE: As I noted earlier in this reread, I'm reading this on an e-ARC, and not every chapter has a "Chapter #" at on it.  I actually managed to take the book out from my elibrary for a few minutes (and then returned it), and confirmed this seems to be the case in the final book also.  This would not be a problem, except the next time the book lists a Chapter #, it seems to be counting the 1-2 page letters as their own chapters, so the book's own count doesn't match mine.  We'll get to that when we get to it, but uh....you should still be able to follow along easily enough.

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 12 and 13

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're just about done with the book's first part and up to the first part of the Boarding Games.

When we last left off, Max had gone on her first on-page mission, was growing into Rosa's confidant, and was exchanging very cordial letters with Nika.  Oh and we got see Jenks' sex game - both casual and long-term.  Good times for all and no small amount of confusing feelings here, no sir.

Today we'll be rereading Chapters 12 and 13 (and a letter column in between them).  This time around, someone gets a bloody nose, Rosa (!) almost gets into another bar fight, and the team finds themselves in an emergency situation with hundreds or more lives on the line.  Oh and the System Jumper case starts getting more and more sketchy.....

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 10 and 11

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We've finished our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  Now we're getting to see them in action.  Still, it's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

In this post, we're covering Chapters 10 and 11 and the two letter columns that come after each chapter in my copy.  We're moving forward a bit in time here - Chapter 10 is a week after our last chapter but Chapter 11 is 2 weeks later, and we'll see more time jumps in a bit.

Moreover, we're getting to see the team more in action now, as we have this time around our first seen mission featuring Max and we get to see oh so much about Jenks as she both seduces a young repair tech and a chapter later calls her main lover (and real significant other) for a little chit chat.  And Max begins acting as a proper lieutenant to his Commander.   (Oh and everyone loves Pluto!)

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 8 and 9

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We're just finished our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  Still, it's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

When we left off, Max Carmichael met the rest of Zuma's Ghost - our NeoG interceptor crew - from easily excitable and outgoing Jenks to hacker Sapphi, to everyone's favorite, the robotic dog DOGE!  (I promise I'll stop going on about Doge soon).

This time, we get our first intro to the Boarding Games, Max demonstrates her skills and gets onto her first mission, and almost gets into an interservice bar fight.  Surely Max would never get into any actual bar fights?  Right?  Well, we're getting ahead of ourselves (but she totally will).

Note: We're going to be covering here Chapters 8 and 9 and the letter section after Chapter 9, so technically a little more than these two chapters (not sure how the letter is divided up in the actual book instead of my eARC). A lot more things are discussed in these chapters too, incidentally, so this will be a longer recap.

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 6 and 7

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We're just about finishing our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

When we left off, we met Max Carmichael, nervous new Lieutenant, who has broken all of the expectations of her overbearing family and is desperate for acceptance.....and is joining the crew of Zuma's Ghost in Nika's place as their new Lieutenant.  Oh and Nika thinks she's got pretty eyes.  I'm sure that won't lead to anything.....(spoiler: yeah, it will).

This time, Max meets the rest of the crew, and therefore, so do we!  Needless to say, not everyone will have the best reaction to having a surprise replacement officer dropped on them, nevertheless an utter newbie......

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 4 and 5

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For the last time since I started this reread, let me once again make the case that if you haven't already, you should pick up this book for reading since we're in the middle of a pandemic keeping everyone home.  It features an optimistic world, recovered from a dim global catastrophe, as well as a group of people come together as family (with people of all genders and sexual orientations totally welcome), and - as might be important for many of you who follow me - features at its heart what's really a sporting competition - and I know I'm missing those a ton already.  It's a hell of a lot of fun, so I think many of you would enjoy following along with me for the ride.

Last time, we saw the crew of Zuma's Ghost in action, with Nika and Jenks leading a boarding action of a mysterious "system jumper", a hundred years out of date, hanging where it was not supposed to be, and took down 5 sketchy characters they found onboard - one of whom even tried to bribe Jenks.  It did not turn out well for him.

This time, we meet the last of our main characters, Lieutenant Maxine "Max" Carmichael.  She's fantastic.....

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 2 and 3

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  Again, since we're just getting started, let me once again make the case that if you haven't already, you should pick up this book for reading now that we're in the middle of a pandemic keeping everyone home.  It features an optimistic world, recovered from a dim global catastrophe, as well as a group of people come together as family (with people of all genders and sexual orientations totally welcome), and - as might be important for many of you who follow me - features at its heart what's really a sporting competition.  It's a hell of a lot of fun, so I think many of you would enjoy following along with me for the ride.

Anyhow, when we last left off, the NeoG Interceptor team of Zuma's Ghost had just barely lost the last edition of the Boarding Games to the navy team, and heartbroken they left the area to go back to their normal jobs of protecting the space around Earth and beyond.  This time around, we fast forward a few months to see them doing just that!