The recollection

This is rather a story of two parts, which may be because (as I understand it) it was created by Powell merging some of his earlier short stories. The starting point is that mysterious gateways open up across present-day Earth, transporting those who enter them to distant worlds - at light speed, so they can't come back again in any reasonable timeframe.

The first half of the story, then, concerns one particular pair of people passing through the gateways, in search of the brother of one of them, who passed through previously. This thread alternates with another, set in the future, in which the owner of an interstellar trade ship tries to restore her reputation. The two threads collide in the second half of the book, when a threat to the survival of humanity pops up, following no more than vague hints in the first half.

This does give a somewhat disjointed feel to the novel, and some elements are dealt with in a more cursory fashion than is, perhaps, truly desirable. It's also the case that one major plot twist is obvious from (I suspect) long before it's supposed to be. Nonetheless, there are some good moments, and decent characterisation, and, if there are really two individual plots that don't fit together as well as they might, they're pretty decent ones taken on their own merits. The set-up of the future society, along with the various bits of alien technology are also generally interesting, with a good hard SF feel.

So, not outstanding, but a solid piece of space opera with both action and character-based elements, and an intriguing set-up.