The Hard Switch by Owen D. Pomery. Avery Hill, 2023. 9781910395707. 99pp.
“The Hard Switch is coming.” It’ll happen when alcanite, the mineral that makes jump navigation (think faster-than-light travel) possible, is gone.
Ada is dropped into a hidden wreck. She’s there with Mallic (the engineer) and Hiaka (the pilot) to salvage any alcanite on board. She ends up in a gunfight with hunters out for the same. The squatter she saves gives her an artifact in thanks.
And it’s curiosity about that artifact, and the possibility of some earlier, long-lost faster-than-light technology that leads the crew to their next job — transporting cargo — and eventually to confronting the person out to profit from that lost technology, if it exists.
The interplay between the crew is great; I can’t decide who I like more, Mallic or Ada. She’s very tough! He’s just completely unexpected. And all three seem like good “people.”
I’m hoping this is the first part of a much longer graphic novel series.
