I have particularly enjoyed Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving Universe novels, beginning with Diving Into the Wreck (2009).
The Runabout is book six. The first book was traditionally published (by Pyr). Starting with book two (and various short fiction since), the books have been published by small independent press WMG Publishing.
So, basically, under the radar of most public libraries (and I say that because I recently retired from being a long-time reference librarian at a county public library).
You have to keep checking the author's Web site or sign up for her newsletter to find out when the next Diving Universe book is coming out. I have recently found out that what I was doing was insufficient. I am NOW on the author’s Diving Universe series (per se) newsletter.
The Falls (book five) was the first book in the Diving Universe that didn't have any of the main cast (in particular, Boss the series main protagonist) in it. But it showed a working Sector Base and we had not seen much about back-in-the-day-Fleet operations. I was surprised how much I enjoyed book five anyway.
Book six is better, of course, because we are back to Boss and her diving crew.
"Diving", in this universe, is another word for space salvage. Boss and her crew take their lives in their hands and board derelict ships that may or may NOT be safe to board in search of any salvageable tech and/or if they can salvage the entire ship itself. It would not be so dangerous, of course, if these derelict ships came with operating instructions.
In Book Six, Boss DOES have members of Coop's crew. These are actual Fleet officers who came with him from 5,000 years in the past when their ship's space fold drive malfunctioned and brought them out of the space fold many, many years after they had last entered [usually, ships only spend hours to a few days in the space fold].
Even so, even with an actual Fleet engineer, Boss's crew is still risking their lives. (The Fleet engineer, while an expert on the space fold drive, has never seen the drive installed in a ship as small as the runabout.)
New readers can even start with The Runabout because Ms. Rusch catches up on the story as she goes.
That is, she does not refer to earlier events covered in previous books that the current reader may not have yet read without mentioning the important bits which had been discovered in earlier books in the series.
So, I can (and do) safely recommend The Runabout to all space opera fans, even those who had not read the earlier Diving Universe books!
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More like The Runabout: A Diving Novel (The Diving Series Book 7)
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From the Publisher
“Think of the Diving universe as an exciting mystery saga, pitting the drama of ship salvage against the dangers of space.”
— Astroguyz
“Rusch delivers a page-turning space adventure while contemplating the ethics of scientists and governments working together on future tech.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“Rusch’s handling of the mystery and adventure is stellar, and the whole tale proves quite entertaining.”
—Booklist Online
“By mixing cerebral and investigative elements, emotional character segments, and the adrenaline of action, Rusch tells a complete yet varied tale that will please science fiction readers looking for something different from the usual fare.”
—Publishers Weekly
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D. Pugh
One of the best binge-reading series in the world
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2020