Deep Black (2024, Canada) is the second book in the Arcana Imperii trilogy, following directly on from Artifact Space (2021, Canada; see my review here). In the first book, Marca Nbaro, orphaned daughter of a patrician family, faked her credentials to get a position as a “midder” on the Great Ship Athens. Great Ships are the main trading fleet of the DHC, Directorate of Human Corporations, which rules twenty or thirty worlds, and is instrumental in the trade for “xenoglass” with the Starfish, the only alien race so far encountered by humanity. Living alien race, that is, as there’s evidence of a long-dead alien race on some of the worlds colonised by humans. Nbaro foils an attempt to sabotage Athens, proves to be talented at pretty much everything ship-related, catches the eye of the Master of the ship, and is deemed “lucky” and so a good person to have onboard. The book ends with Athens in a space battle, defending the Starfish against a mysterious alien race in “bubble” ships. Nbaro, natch, manages to capture one of the aliens.

Deep Black opens as Athens cleans up after the battle and sets about trading gold and heavy metals for xenoglass with the Starfish. Nbaro’s boyfriend, the super-brainy dork Dorcas, tries to translate the Starfish language. Meanwhile, from the alien Nbaro captured, they learn the Bubble-ship aliens are called the Hin, are sort of furry octopuses, and are much more like humanity than the Starfish. They have also been enemies for millennia of the Starfish, who they accuse of genocide.

Meanwhile, there is a conspiracy within the DHC which needs to be dealt with. Athens’s AI, Morosini, has determined a cabal, possibly led by an AI, is determined to turn the DHC into a tyranny in order to enrich themselves. They have allied with some independent worlds, and even some Hin. Athens jumps to the next planetary system. There is a big space battle. A missing-presumed-destroyed Great Ship, Dubai, reveals itself – it had been hiding in order to team up with Athens. There’s another big space battle.

And so on…

Deep Black is basically about an aircraft carrier in space. It’s all about living on the Great Ship, launching and flying fighters and pinnaces, training to defend the ship from boarders. And because Nbaro is such an over-powered protagonist, she gets to do everything – and thanks to the handy “neural lace” installed in her head by Morosini, she gets to know everything too.

The level of invention in these two books is amazingly low for a space-based science fiction. Worlds are called New London and New Texas and New India. All the fancy futuristic tech is straight off the shelves at Tropes R Us. Nbaro is every mil sf hero rolled into one, with added extra special self-annotating humility and a mild dose of impostor syndrome. I wrote in my review of the first book that its only redeeming feature was its plotting. Not its plot, which is pretty straightforward and has been much used. Cameron keeps his story flowing by revealing new worldbuilding insights and dramatic scenes at regular intervals. The same is true of Deep Black – but where Artifact Space did some heavy lifting to outline the universe, Deep Black spends all its time on the routine and minutiae of life aboard a Great Ship. And space battles. Lots of space battles.

There’s a third book, which is odd as Deep Black seems to wrap up its story: conspiracy defeated, Nbaro married, Nbaro and husband voted onto the DHC council, friendly relations with both the Hin and the Starfish… I have Whalesong (2025, Canada), so I guess at some point I’ll find out where the story goes next. Can’t say I have especially high hopes, however.