The Elfor Drop (book 2 of The Code series) by R. R. Haywood

Another great book. This is book 2 in a three-book series. All our usual characters and a couple of new characters. 

In this installment, Jas and Sam work for Abdul alongside Penny. Sam focuses on creating adverts that speak to the crowds (cartoon Beaky steals the show) and Jas follows Penny as she visits customers on the Beijing ship. Abdul is also a trader. His customers complain of a lack of stock and getting old medicine and even stuff they don't sell. 

Penny doesn't seem all that interested but Jas decides to find out why. 

Detective Zhang is fighting his sex addiction. He is following Jas as she has the code and he goes to the Beijing ship, a ship he should not return to. There is a great back story there that needs to be explored more (like Kreese in Cobra Kai). 

There's a lot happening in this book. I'm not exactly sure why Janie hates Jas as much as she does, must have missed something. I know that in book one she wasn't happy that Abdul overtook the closing-down party and made the event about him, Jas, and Sam. Sven didn't seem to mind. 

This book suffers like all second books in a series. It seems like a lead-in to book three. Sure it was enjoyable, the story and characters were fun (at times very childish Sun and Po interaction with Jassy and Zhang), and the last 15% was unputdownable. 

I thought this series was about The Code that Jas stole. No one seems interested in that anymore. It is only mentioned once. 

Another thing, our heroes Sam and Jas are barely in the book. Popping up now and then, so we don't forget about them.  

I have the third book in the series and will start that soon. 

The Worldship Humility (The Code series book 1) by R. R. Haywood

 As a fan of his Extracted series and A Town Called Discovery, I didn't pause to pick this up. 

Earth was destroyed by a massive event-ending asteroid. Even nukes from all countries couldn't move it off course. So, they built massive starships that can hold millions of people. They were all named after their country or capital city. The Starship Beijing for example. All but the fucking British, whom gave their ship a different name (sorry, forgot the name at time of review). 

Yassy is a master thief.

Sam is a nerd with hacking skills.

Yassy is from the lower floors of his spacecraft, a floor populated by people not booked onto the flight. Over a hundred and fifty years have passed. The Elfors (lover level people) are looked down upon and mostly they stay down below where they have built a city unto themselves. They even have rain, though it stinks and stings as it's not actually water. 

Yassy hates the Elfor and needs a masterplan to get out forever. One day on the upper level, a guy grabs her arm believing her to be someone else. She is the splitting image of his girlfriend, whom he spots and Yassy sees the perfect plan start to come together. The other person who looks like her works for the financial services department. 

A plan starts to form.

While this is happening, the captains of 4 country starships meet up to review an explorer ship. It's never found a planet, so they are shocked when they get positive results. They need to turn the fleet and slow down. They have a code for this. That code gets stolen and hidden. 

This is a great book. They are characters that seem a bit off (misfits??), and the classic cop gone bad but with a heart, a politician with big dreams, a Russian gangster, and private security. They all make this story sparkle, so much so that I have already got the next two books in the series to dive into. 

If you are looking for an easy to digest sci-fi, more thriller than sci-fi, then this is the book for you.