Chill by Elizabeth Bear

Science Fiction/Audio Book

Chill is the second book in the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy.  Here is what Goodreads has to say about the book:

Sometimes the greatest sin is survival.

 
The generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has barely survived cataclysms from without and within. Now, riding the shock wave of a nova blast toward an uncertain destiny, the damaged ship—the only world its inhabitants have ever known—remains a war zone. Even as Perceval, the new captain, struggles to come to terms with the traumas of her recent past, the remnants of rebellion aboard the ship still threaten the crew’s survival.

Yet as Perceval’s relatives Tristen and Benedick play a deadly game of cat and mouse in pursuit of a traitor through a vast ship that is renewing itself in strange and dangerous ways, an even more insidious threat is building in a place no one ever thought to look. And this implacable enemy could change the face of the ship forever if a ragtag band of heroes cannot stop it.

There are lots of surprises in Chill but few new characters.  There is less of Perceval and much more of Tristen and Benedick as they journey through the ship is search a traitor.  This middle book is a mix of the past and the present as the ship looks toward the future.  Like Dust this is a beautifully written book full of description and character development.   As a result the story is slow moving and finding the traitor takes the entire book. 

I said I would not have ever finished reading Dust but enjoyed the audio book.  I feel the same about Chill. What moves too slow for me in print is just fine in an audio book.  I checked both out at my public library and was afraid that I would have to read the third book, Grail, if I wanted to finish the series but when I checked the catalog I found that the audio version of Grail had been ordered at the end of February.  As soon as it arrives I will reserve and check out.

Recorded Book produced Chill by Elizabeth Bear in 2011.

Alma Cuervo read Chill.