Rating: /10

Synopsis

One crew, one loyalty and a single shot at redemption.

Captain Rebekah Khan and her ragtag crew of the repair ship Sunstar finally have a chance to pay off their crushing debts when an automining vessel goes rogue. After preventing the high value cargo from disappearing into the outer system, they uncover sabotage only a crew with their military experience would recognise.

Instead of returning as heroes, they are blackmailed into taking on a new crew member and to hunt for a mysterious, uncertified spacecraft. Deep into the black, they desperately try to hide their murky past, while their loyalties are tested to their limits when they finally come across the marooned ship and its deadly cargo.

Featuring the action of Aliens, the camaraderie of Firefly and the infighting of The Expanse, The Wrecking Squad is the new science fiction novel from Nick Snape, author of the highly rated Weapons of Choice series.

Quick Review

The Wrecking Squad is a fun sci-fi novel, with myriad (sometimes macabre) twists from start to finish. It’s a great pick for anyone who loves space-fairing sci-fi as well as those just curious to try one.

Full Review

With The Wrecking Squad, author Nick Snape appears to be channeling the best of Firefly and The Expanse series, with a few extraterrestrial encounters. What we end up with is a somewhat ragtag crew made up of mostly former marines now in hiding, whose time together has turned them into a kind of found family. Even the bot, ZZ3, feels like a part of this group. 

Together, they’re tasked with a high-risk job, given by a high-ranking and mysterious messenger. The mission to recover some cargo off a wrecked space ship quickly turns into something much more strange and lethal. To deal with it, the crew is forced to fall back on the skills they gained from the military.

Right from the first page, I was invested in this crew and their adventures. Snape wastes no time, and the result is a story that’s past-paced; but it leaves room for some really interesting insight into this setting and the people in it. Everything feels very intentional. Contract negotiations hint at the politics happening in the galaxy, the crew’s interactions are baked in the history they have with each other, and the mission they take on reveals suggests some devious schemes. It’s a finely crafted work of sci-fi that feels extremely accessible and fun.

There’s a bit of grittiness and horror in here as well. I would not necessarily call The Wrecking Squad a gritty or horror book, but there’s moments where the team encounters something truly terrifying—and Snape doesn’t hold back. There’s something about the way he describes the setting and the things that have happened in it which grounds the story in mystery and brutality in a really satisfying way, while managing to keep the banter and lightheartedness of the plot.

Perhaps my only critique is that while Captain Rebekah Khan is our primary point-of-view, Snape writes from whichever perspective is the most exciting at the time. That helps us follow the action, but since I was listening in audio, it sometimes took me a bit longer to understand whose perspective I was in. Despite that, I was never discouraged by this, and by not keeping the story limited to Khan’s perspective Snape was able to incorporate some really cool drama and reveals.

I highly recommend The Wrecking Squad. Even if you’re not a huge fan of sci-fi, I think this is the kind of story that just about anybody could enjoy. The characters are fun and the story is action-packed, with hints of some really interesting schemes happening in the background.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Ryan Pierson, who did a fantastic job balancing all the different characters and points-of-view in this book.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.