unsolicited uncorrected proofcopy, white cover

Kris Longknife should be far enough away from the centers of civilization to keep out of trouble. Assigned to The Wasp and packed with scientists who are exploring the Rim for new planets and new opportunities should keep her out of politics.

However, just because she's far away doesn't mean she's trouble-free. After all, pirates and slavers like to be away from the center of civilization too. She and her crew capture the Compton Maru and find it filled with cargo and slaves. She takes her captures ship to Cuzco in hopes of selling the cargo and ship for prize money and dumping the pirates on Cuzco' legal system. While there she has a chance to connect with a couple of old enemies - Captain Kratz and newly made Ensign Vicky Peterwald.

While stuck on Cuzco where the legal system makes the pirates look good, Kris and her crew meet Andy Fronour of Pandemonium - one of the illegal colonies beyond the Rim - and are convinced to take him and his cargo home on their way to doing the exploration the scientists are agitating for. Upon arrival, they find that the colony has been captured by another set of pirates hired by businessmen to loot the planet for their profits.

Kris and her crew come to the aid of the first group of colonists in retaking their planet with lots of nice maneuvers which make use of Kris's ingenuity. This second group of pirates is commanded by Kris's own first captain who left the Wardhaven Navy just ahead of his own court martial and who blames Kris for his problems.

After solving problems there, Kris and her crew go to Xanadu which has been settled by Abdicators who were agitating for all humanity to return to Earth to get away from alien hordes that they believed were coming. Only they have gone beyond agitation and have sent out a group of young fanatics to start a war between Wardhaven and the Peterwalds. It is up to Kris to find these terrorists and stop them. Since it is well known to her that a war between parties of equal strength doesn't do much beyond creating a lot of devastation and can have no clear winners.

Now Kris has to find a way to save her and her planet's greatest enemy before they can be edged into outright war.

This story was entertaining science fiction with a larger-than-life main character and many other intriguing characters too. ( )

Really enjoyed the ground based battle that comprised the first 2/3rds of the book then the space based battle was meh".

I think I enjoyed this more because Kris wasn't whining every 3 seconds about either her lack of boobs, her "hatred" of all things political or her lack of romance.

This was more action and less emotion. I liked it." ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and alil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and alil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )