Rob Boffard - Adrift

This novel puts an science fiction twist on the age old story of the sailors trapped on a lifeboat after their ship is sunk. Set in a universe where two factions of humanity are on the edge of war, we begin the book as Sigma Station, a luxury space hotel on the edge of the Horsehead nebula, is blown up by an unknown ship. The ship also destroys the wormhole back and the only survivors from Sigma are a handful of people in a decrepit old tourist shuttle. The shuttle has no food and limited water, the bare minimum of essential medical supplies and systems that date back decades. Hannah Elliot is the guide, this is her first day on the job, she's got know experience, knows no-one and little in her education has prepared her for this. The pilot is a grouchy war veteran who drinks vodka and the passengers range from a couple of annoying adolescents and their pampered parents to a retired former space miner and a alcoholic travel journalist.

The novel works quite well. There are some decent backstories that get exposed, and various secrets are outed. The adolescents are relatively know-it-all, like most teenagers, but that proves useful and Bob Boffard manages to neatly shift the focus of the story away from Hannah and on to others, so we get quite a claustrophobic sense as we bounce from character to character.

Unfortunately it doesn't all work very well. In places the characters get themselves out of fixes in ways that are a unbelievable, or rely on chance too much. The finale is entertaining and ties up all the lose ends rather well, but just doesn't work from a in-universe point of view. The book works because of the characters and scenario, not the plot.