Roy Adams reviewed Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell
Good characters and story
4 stars
Towards the end the plot got a little too much "deus ex machina" to get a convenient resolution but it did at least fit in the overall story arc.
EPUB, 336 pages
English language
Published March 3, 2026 by Titan Books.
"On Earth, they depicted justice as blindfolded and impartial, but out here on the frontier, she was red in tooth and claw."
Jupiter and Saturn are gone, and a mysterious force has built a huge habitable sphere from their ashes. When criminals try to lose themselves on this new frontier, bounty hunters like Copernicus Brown and the crew of his sentient ship Jitterbug get paid to hunt them down. But when Brown rescues Amber Roth, sole survivor of a pirate attack, the Jitterbug and her crew find themselves the target of powerful political factions who want control of the data chip hidden in Roth's stomach.
And all the while, something vast and ancient creeps towards them from the depths of space…
Towards the end the plot got a little too much "deus ex machina" to get a convenient resolution but it did at least fit in the overall story arc.