The Ambit is an older ship, and only well known because its captain is the AI named Eoan. Not many people are willing to take a chance on an AI captain, so there are only two crew members, Saint and Nash, who are basically outcasts themselves. They work for the Guild, that neutral entity that keeps the peace between the big corporations and their settlements on the Fringe of human space. Guild Rangers are known for their fierce loyalty to their missions, so Saint is willing to greet his old friend Jalsen with a bullet in the back when he is wanted for desertion.  It isn't looking to be a pleasant ride back to the Core Spiral to turn Jalsen over to the Council of Captains when the AI captain, Eoan, picks up a distress beacon. It comes from a failed terraform planet and investigating it results in finding a whole lot of dead bodies before finding the dying programmer who sent the signal. Anke was here to gather information about the failed terraform because she suspects it was a viral code used to kill the colony by the corporation who owned it. If she's right, this is at least the third time the Deadworld Code has been used, and she begs the crew of the Ambit to help test the code fix she's working on. It really shouldn't take long and then they can take Jalsen in, but would there really be a whole book if everything went that smoothly?

This book certainly follows in the footsteps of Firefly, with an older ship and its quirky crew, as well as being on the Fringe of the galaxy and dead planets. Each of the five characters has a story, but the focus is on the old Saint/Jalsen story as well as the just met Nash/Anke story. Eoan's personal story is rather predictable and focuses on what it means to be "human" and the idea of mortality. The fun parts of the book have the crew members exploring deadly worlds and more than a few dead bodies. They also have to infiltrate the headquarters of a galaxy spanning corporation, which of course doesn't go according to plan. At all. Overall, I liked it, but it felt like it could have been more. That might just be due to the obvious comparison to Firefly. This is apparently the first book of a series and although the end suggests that Jalsen and Anke won't be returning to the Ambit, I think they will.

There are no reviews yet on Audible for the narration, but Tarian Brackett got excellent reviews for narrating the very popular Fourth Wing.