Raising Caine (Gannon)

Raising Caine
by Charels Gannon (2015)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This is the third book in the "Cainverse", which started with Fire With Fire> and Trial By Fire, and in fact follows immediately after the events of Trial By Fire where we meet the representative of the Slaasriithi (a big reveal for book 2). While the Consolidated Terran Republic is near the Arat Kur homeworld, a K’tor ship arrives. We learn more about the K’tor, which takes some of the mystery out of them, and their own representative states the same thing. This causes the Slaasriithi to move up their scheduled trip home because they fear K'tor treachery. As a result, Caine finds himself en route to the current Slaasriithi homeworld.

At the same time, there is a renegade bunch of K'tor who have been, basically, disgraced in the eyes of the familes (to use a Mafia analogy in place of the scientific/genetic one). There are sleeper agents in place that are activated who help take over a Republic ship and try to ambush the Slassriithi ship before Caine can reach their homeworld.

I enjoyed this one a little less because there were spots that it got a little bogged down. For example, it was pretty obvious that the K'tor renegades were going to take over the Republic ship, but it dragged out for several chapters at the beginning of the books, with several POV characters, even though I knew that half of those characters were going to die and their defense would come to naught. The only reason for the protracted struggle, I'm assuming, was so that the ship would have a particular amount of damage and so much of its resources would've been consumed or destroyed. A second contention was the two Slaasriithi planets that the Caine and company set down on. The Slaasriithi don't terraform exactly. They shape their biomes by introducing their own.

The science is over my head, but to its credit, from what I've read outside the book, the science is spot on, making this hard scifi and something that's been hand-waved. One planet is tidal locked to always face its sun, which leaves a habitable ring around the perimeter. Again, there are elements to the story here, and stuff will happen that may make a difference later on, but it seemed to take to long. Ditto for the second planent, until it occurred to me that the book would finish here and that they wouldn't make it to the homeworld before it ended. Caine's previous encounters with the primitive Slaasriithi proved invaluable to his survival as well as defending a water strider on this planet. Even as a saboteur was in their mix.

I did enjoy the book, and Caine and company are still pressed into service, if only because they know that going back to Earth and rejoining civilization is impossible. They'll all wind up in some "retirement community" where they'll be watched over for the remainders of their lives, no matter what anyone promises.

I did try to finish this be the end of 2023, but there were still 100-200 pages remaining, so it became the first of 2024.

Other stuff to read before I move on to "Caine's Mutiny". Gannon has a way with titles.

Disclosure stuff: I've met Gannon on a few occasions at a science fiction convention. We've hit some of the same parties. "Acquaitances", not "friends".

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