Buried Deep

Buried Deep is the fourth Retrieval Artist book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and I'm still very much enjoying the series. A skeleton discovered on Mars causes an interstellar incident when the Disty, an alien race with highly complex traditions around death, blame the humans for trying to drive them off the planet.

I love the politics and societal structure of the moon, I love the intricacies of the alien laws that the humans often get tripped up by, I love the continued interactions between Flint and DeRicci, even though they don't really work together any more, and I love the ways in which their individual careers are developing in interesting ways over the course of the series.

My only criticism of the books, and this one in particular, is that there are too many POV characters, some of whom get introduced to the story way too late to invest in or keep track of. I'd much prefer it if the narrative could be split solely between Flint and DeRicci - they are the characters I'm attached to and want to spend time with. The way the books are often structured, they don't actually get all that much page time and they don't have a very big active part in the way events play out.

I will definitely carry on with this series, though, as it's eminently readable and highly enjoyable.