Search - Dust (Jacob's Ladder, Bk 1)

This was ... intense. I'd describe it as space opera gothic, sort of like what I'd imagine life is like aboard Alastair Reynolds lighthuggers, especially if one broke down.

The setting is Jacob's Ladder, a generation ship that is in orbit around a binary star, one a red giant the other a white dwarf. A white dwarf that is stealing mass from its companion and is about to go nova. The ship has been in orbit long enough that things have broken down aboard and factions have coalesced around Command and Engineering. This is a more up to date version of a generation ship with AIs (angels), uploads and nanotech. Also, the crew is split between the Exalted (nanotech enhanced and literally blue blooded thanks to a dye), and the Mean, the unenhanced.

Our viewpoint characters are Rien, a Mean serving woman in the Command faction, and Perceval, an angel (human modified for flight - no feathers though) knight defeated and mutilated by Ariane (the leader of the Command faction). From there our two characters discover they are half-sisters, escape from Command and begin to adventure - very aptly defined as being in deep trouble far from home. And oh yes, the world is about to end in a nova.

Some of those troubles include three angels - Samael (life support), Jacob Dust (ship libraries) and the Angel of Blades (name of which escapes me). A necromancer. And family.

Its interesting, its neat and I think I'll read it again soon. My only gripe is that its the first of a series.

OK, it's another tale of a generation ship---So? But this isn't just another tale of a generation ship. Elizabeth Bear has added some filips of the finest kind. Would you like wings so you could fly like a bird? Would you like to be impervious to radiation, with phenomenal healing powers? Would you like to be able to see around corners or be able to manage machines by thinking at them? Would you like to be able to acquire knowledge by eating an apricot instead of slaving over books for decades?
See what Bear has in store for the travelers on the good ship Jacob's Ladder.

First in a planned trilogy called, "Jacob's Ladder," "Dust" introduces
us to a decaying generation ship, stuck in orbit around an unstable
star. Originally the project of a religious cult, both the people and
the AIs of the ship have devolved strangely as the years have gone by.
Now, a last few bastions of people live feudally, at war with one
another, and splintered artificial intelligences believe they are gods
or angels - and are also in bitter rivalry.
In a feudal dungeon, the servant girl Rien is assigned to care for a
mutilated angel - the warrior Ser Perceval. But Perceval tells Rien
that they are truly sisters, and the two girls set out on a quest to
escape and prevent a disastrous war.
Meanwhile, the AIs of the ship begin to realize that they must somehow get the derelict running and away from the star, or all will expire in a fiery inferno....

I kept putting this book down, thinking "That's just too odd" and then picking it up again. About halfway through, I skipped to the end. And then I went back to the middle and finished it. It's definitely worth a try, and you might really like it. Ms Bear is a talented writer, her characters are vivid, and the plot is a definite twist on a standard story line.