In Toronto sci-fi writer Karl Shroeder’s follow-up to Ventus, his highly acclaimed debut novel, young Rue Cassels is on the run from her abusive brother. Fleeing from a colonial outpost of the sunless Halo-Worlds, she lays claim to an abandoned cargo station known as a Cycler. The continued existence of Cycler trading routes is crucial to the survival of the failing Cycler Compact and its struggle against the expanding empire of the Rights Economy. With the help of Max, her rich loner cousin, and a crew of outcasts, Rue eventually discovers that her Cycler is an ancient alien artifact. Rue and her crew of Halo-Worlders and idealists race to claim this extinct alien technology for the good of humanity against a backdrop of political intrigue and rebel attacks.

Rue is an admirable hero for the 21st-century feminist, though her transformation from runaway to adventurer to Cycler Captain and warrior to saviour of the Cycler Compact occurs a little quickly to be believable. Rue’s strength, unwavering energy, and sense of purpose are exhilarating at times, but her ultra-competence eventually robs her of a little of her humanity.

Readers with a more philosophical bent will probably prefer the first half of the novel, as scientific possibility and good old questions about the meaning of life blend seamlessly against the backdrop of a multi-species universe. Questions of community, communication, and appropriate technology are ripe as humanity faces the Big Question: Do we exist for ourselves, or for the future of those to come as well?

Tantalizing as these themes are, philosophy eventually makes way for conventional space combat. Action aficionados will not be disappointed in the ensuing melee, though more reflective readers may get a little lost in the laser haze. Still, Schroeder must be commended for successfully combining intriguing issues of philosophy, religion, archeology, and class struggle with classic high-space action.