To Hold Infinity, by John Meaney, begins in a way I love, thrown into the world, trying to figure out what is happening, there's even "Skein code" thrown into the text. It all makes an intriguing start.
Unfortunately the plot's pace began to drag for me after about a third of the way through. Yes it's a good adventure story, but I felt it was a little bit predictable in the macro scale of things, although some of the little, micro, twists were nice. I think I'd have prefered the novel at half the size.
There are however some great ideas. The Skein code, while maybe not an entirely original idea, is executed (literally) in a very novel sense, with the code embedded in the text. I loved that. I also liked the universe, the world building was great. And most of all I loved the Pilots. You don't get to see too much of the Pilots in this book, making them ever more intriguing. I guess Meaney's other books delve deeper?
All in all, a fun adventure SF novel, with some great ideas, but a bit too long for me.
