The Cold Between written by Elizabeth Bonesteel is a sci-fi novel. I picked this up at the Beaverton City branch of the Washington County Library. It has been recently released and is apparently the first novel by Bonesteel. The cover was a bit deceiving as it was subtitled "A Central Corps Novel" which led me to believe that this was one of a series of books. Although searching now I find that the library does have a second novel by Ms. Bonesteel listed in the catalog.
I would give the book 3 out of 5. Certainly the story was interesting, although it seemed to take about 50 pages for it to develop any kind of a hook to it. Once it got going, it was nicely paced action steadily to the end. The universe that the story is set in seems well thought out and relatively rich in detail. The characters are relatively believable. Although here, we have a lot of inner thoughts bandied about in a way that I certainly did not really enjoy. There was a flavor of trashy romance novel in the first part of the book which does eventually subdue towards the end.
Speculative technical science fiction this is not. It uses technology at the level of what you would see in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But, while TNG often did episodes around philosophical questions, there is not really any of that done here. There is a wormhole, and it leads somewhere, but the location of the end point in time and/or space is never revealed despite the hints that it's not where you would expect.
I am doubtful I will read any further work by Ms. Bonesteel. However, if you like a mix of nerdy and romantic, this book will likely please.
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