Read this a few years ago, but that could have been any time in the last 6-8 years. I think the book was published around that time, but am not sure. It's not long, probably no more than 300 or so pages, possibly shorter.
What I remember of the story and setting:
There is an ongoing battle over contested space and the fighting is done by relatively small ships, kind of pill or hockey-puck shaped if I recall correctly. They try to stay hidden in hyperspace/underspace/XYZSpace as long as they can to ambush other ships when they emerge in real space, but in this 'underspace' they can't dump heat, so the heat is stored in large internal heatsinks. This limits how long they can stay in their hunting mode, and the have to come into real space to vent heat, and have to stay for long enough to vent enough to allow them to get back into the 'underspace'. While they to this they're vulnerable and mortality of crews and ships is incredibly high.
The story sticks with a new person on one of these crews and the ship winds up staying out for far longer than is usual and conditions get worse and worse.
There are some scenes on the planet the crews are recruited from and have R&R on, which I remember as being a desolate arid planet that's been largely destroyed by the war.
There is a ship's cat that has survived a lot of missions and is considered by the crew to be good luck.
The overall feel of the story is very claustrophobic.
I know it's not a lot to go on, but does this ring any bells?
Thanks
EDIT:
Passage at Arms by Glen Cook.
Thanks u/livens, u/clodneymuffin, & u/rattlegoregous
Maybe Glen Cook's Passage at Arms? Great book, I should re-read it.
Ah great, I have only read one of his sci-fi stories The Dragon Never Sleeps and I loved it so will give this one a chance.
This sounds similar to Passage at Arms by Glen Cook. Ongoing space war, and the humans have developed something like a space U boat - undetectable while in climb, but also unable to vent heat, which limits their endurance. And pitifully weak when not hidden.
Yep. That term ‘climb’ is what was used in the book.
Thanks
Ok that has so many similarities to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars that it’s not funny, but that’s also clearly not the novel you’re looking for
God that book was awful. This is just more proof it's a bad mishmash of sci-fi tropes and concepts better used elswehere
I enjoyed it as an audiobook, partly because femshep narrated it
Passage at Arms by Glen Cook? The book is from the 80's though.
I just reread this book and OP’s description is spot on
I have both of these books (this and the other suggestion by u/ Ashamed-Subject-8573, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars) in my library, so both make sense.
Traditionally combat starships with cloaking device in scifi approximate World War 2 submarines. Which is why Passage At Arms is described as Das Boot in outer space.
The concept seems to have originated when Star Trek TOS screenwriter Paul Schneider rewrote the WW2 submarine movie The Enemy Below as the Star Trek episode Balance of Terror.
In Das Boot the submarine could only stay submerged for a limited time before the oxygen ran out and the crew was forced to surface.
In Passage At Arms the climber starships could only stay cloaked for a limited time before the heat sinks filled up, and they were forced to leave Null and use the heat radiators or have the crew die from heat prostration.
The heat sink/thermal management trope has become such a cool realistic touch in modern space combat novels - way more intresting than the old "shields at 20% captain!" stuff from earlier scifi.
Agreed.
Instead off the shields at 5%, and exploding with no drama at the next zap; the story has a prolonged dramatic segment as the crew swelter in the rising heat, wondering who is going to snap first.
Oh geez. I've read this, but can't recall the name of the book at the moment. My memory is helpful like that. I'll go back through my lists...
Not the book you are looking for, but a good read with similar concern about heat management - Man of War series (unfinished) by Paul Honsinger.
I’ll take a look at it. Thanks.
Das Boot
Totally tangential, but google's project suncatcher - space based ai data centers - claim that cooling is easier and cheaper in space. I am very much looking Forward to their solution. To my knowledge they will have to radiate as much energi as their solar panels absorb.
Was it the Castle Federation series by Glynn Stewart?
Passage of Arms by Glen Cook.