Gateway

The Merry Band of Pirates has survived impossible odds before, but nothing quite like this. In Gateway, Craig Alanson puts his ragtag crew in their most desperate position yet — stripped of their greatest advantage and forced to confront whether resourcefulness and stubbornness alone are enough to keep humanity's last hope alive. This is a story about what happens when the safety net finally disappears, and the stakes feel genuinely personal rather than merely galactic.

What long-running fans will recognize — and newcomers will quickly discover — is that Alanson writes ensemble dynamics with rare confidence. Eighteen books in, the characters still surprise, the banter still lands with real wit, and the plotting moves with momentum that makes 444 pages feel purposeful rather than padded. Gateway also demonstrates what this series does better than most military science fiction: it earns its emotional punches by making readers care about the people inside the ships, not just the ships themselves. The result is a book that delivers exactly what the series promises while quietly raising the stakes of everything that follows.