THE ONLY WAY OUT

Rapidly worsening conditions in their makeshift camp and a fraying truce with the hostile state that surrounds it plunge the eco-refugees of the wrecked ocean liner Arcadia into desperate straits in this duology closer.

Months after the climactic events of The Stranded (2023), things are only looking worse for the Arcadia survivors as cholera has broken out in the camp and neither medical supplies nor progress in negotiating a general release is forthcoming from the autocratic Federated States. Once again, it’s up to fiery, impatient Esther Crossland to force some action. Daniels has loaded up the cast with so many secretive, treacherous, double-dealing, or outright evil characters, not to mention continual switches in narrative point of view, that even attentive readers will have trouble telling Esther’s friends from her foes at times. Esther and her allies must jump through myriad hoops to pull off the whirl of rescues and escapes, some requiring serious suspension of disbelief. What with all the betrayals, flying bullets, exploding bombs, cold-blooded murder, and gruesomely invasive high tech, the goings-on are so grim, in fact, that the personal drama whenever Esther’s rival beaus, Nikhil Lall and Pat Huang, find themselves in the same scene comes as something of a relief (“What are you, twelve?” Esther justifiably snarls after one round of posturing). Names cue some diversity in the cast.

Convoluted but nonstop action: will appeal to readers who like their fictional futures on the dark and gritty side.