The Captain’s Daughter is the second instalment in Peter F Hamilton’s Arkship Trilogy, currently released as audio exclusives, and following on directly from A Hole in the Sky (review).
From the publisher:
With the help of a command AI, the hole in the Daedalus has been fixed by Hazel and her friends. But in the process, they have antagonized the Yi, the aliens who are actually controlling the Daedalus. After a daring escape from the Yi, Hazel and her friends now must convince the people of the Daedalus villages and the village leaders that the Yi exist—and that they must fight back in order to survive. This proves tricky, as those in power don’t want their authority challenged.
In order to produce proof of their dire situation, Hazel and her friends have to return to the forward section of the Daedalus to find another surviving command AI so they can find where the Yi are hiding and what their goal is. What Hazel and her friends discover is the terrible secret of the Yi, and what they have been doing on board the Daedalus for the last five hundred years.
The Captain’s Daughter is a thrilling continuation of the story that unfolded in A Hole in the Sky, Peter F. Hamilton’s first YA novel, that will appeal to all his legions of fans.
Hazel, Fraser, and their friends and relatives have successfully repaired the Daedalus, and in doing so have exposed the alien Yi as the true commanders of the ship. With the Yi using the Electric Captain to control the population over the centuries since the mutiny, humanity fell into an agrarian society with a limited lifespan, being cycled once they reach a certain age or they became ill and unable to contribute to the work required to keep things going. Yet now things are different, and with the information given to her by a command AI, and the revelation that she is a direct descendant of the original Captain, Hazel must convince the other inhabitants of this truth. Not only this, but she must once again travel into Yi territory to find another AI that may be able to help them, and to discover more of what happened during the mutiny. What she discovers of the Yi’s history on the Daedalus, their motivation and presence, only reinforces that she must seek a way to regain control of the ship before it’s too late…
I said in my review of A Hole in the Sky that this isn’t your usual Hamilton, being more focused and on a smaller scale, and the same goes for The Captain’s Daughter – to an extent. Now that the revelation of the Yi has been made there are definite changes to the storytelling, giving more detail and looking into aspects of the Daedalus that weren’t necessarily apparent in A Hole in the Sky. Hamilton is definitely allowing his imagination to flex, and it’s nice to see this expansion in more of the detailed side that I enjoy reading. With more revealed of the Daedalus, it raises plenty of questions that aren’t always entirely answered – but hopefully will do in the concluding volume, Queens of an Alien Sun.
With the story told in the first person from Hazel’s point of view, we don’t always get to see everything that is happening. Yet this doesn’t adversely affect the story in any way, and some of the action sequences work very well done like this, conveying a real sense of fear and urgency that genuinely had me wondering which way things would pan out. We also learn a lot through discussion and revelations to her rather than infodumps, with some of these done very nicely, and left me eager to find out more. Suffice to say that there are revelations and events that really raise the game, and the stakes, for Hazel and the rest of humanity.
Narration is by Elizabeth Klett, and she does a great job once again. Admittedly, it took me a while to get into her style for A Hole in the Sky, but no such issues adjusting this time.
All-in-all The Captain’s Daughter picks up the story and runs with it, barely letting up throughout, and building on every aspect of A Hole in the Sky. Some great stuff here, and while there is the YA label attached to it, that’s more to do with the age of the protagonist, Hazel, than the actual nature and content of the story. I’ll very much be looking forward to the final book in the Arkship Trilogy, Queens of an Alien Sun, likely out this time next year in audio format.
Publisher: Tantor Media
Author: Peter F Hamilton
Narrator: Elizabeth Klett
22 February 2022, 9 hours 32 minutes
Audiobook, ASIN: B09P9YLGFS
Review copy received from the publisher
© 2022 Mark Chitty | @chitman13
