Trigor by Tom Merritt

This is some seriously good science fiction entertainment and a fantastic sequel to the original brain busting book.

Pilot X has saved the galaxy but at the cost of his own civilization and everyone and everything he knew and loved except for his time traveling and sentient spaceship Verity.

Left alone and unmotivated and haunted by the memory of his lost love he is a shell of his former self until his ship detects a pulse of energy traveling through the galaxy that bears a striking resemblance to the “Instant’ he triggered to reset the universe. Desperate to do something right he sees the pulse as an opportunity to right his own wrongs by making sure the person using this second machine knows the consequences of their actions. He is also looking for a chance to rediscover the things that truly make life worth living, namely coffee and pie.

Pilot X is a great character. His recent experiences have stripped back many of his defences making him raw and leaving him like a fresh open wound. He has little hubris and even fewer prec conceived notions of who people are and how they will behave, his honesty is what helps him connect with strangers across the galaxy. Sparring with Pilot X is the increasingly human like I Verity who has started telling jokes (though not with any confidence) and employing sarcasm.

In all honesty this reads like an episode of The Mandalorian which I really loved. Pilot X has a mission, a place to go, some assholes to deal with and could really use a rest. Despite being ably supported in certain situations by his ship, aka Baby Yoda, he really is alone and reliant on the help of the people he meets along the way. He sports a level of technology that those around him can barely imagine and is conscious of the effect he has on societies around him simply because of his presence. It's a much simpler book than Pilot X with less focus on the science of time travel and more on its effects and the moral consequences. It all works together brilliantly.

I'd highly recommend this series to those who enjoy intelligent and interesting protagonists, cheeky AI's, mind blowing concepts and most importantly coffee and pie. 9/10

Thank you to Inkshares for sending me a copy of Trigor. This kindness in no way affected my review. A big shout out to Tim Barber for the beautifully luminous cover.