2012 military SF, tenth of the Kris Longknife books. Exiled to a
significant but powerless position and surrounded by spies, Kris has
to get back to her homeworld and start planning out how to deal with
the alien menace that people aren't being told about.
Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I've been finding these books
a bit of a grind, but this one, perhaps because it gets away from the
Great Big Plot and deals largely with action on a personal level,
worked really rather well for me.
It definitely falls into segments: escape from corporate spy world,
sneaking about on Wardhaven trying to get in contact with a particular
person, a trial, and then a space expedition. Some parts of it don't
work well (how is it that Kris can intuitively work out the plans of
someone she's never met? And why is Space Japan so thoroughly
tradition-bound in a setting which mostly doesn't have that kind of
society? There are obvious possibilities, but they're never
mentioned), while others do (the trial sequence is mostly handled not
by courtroom theatrics but by finding ways to bring in actual evidence
that has mysteriously gone missing from the public record).
It's still not an amazing book, but the action works well, the
psychology approaches the realistic, and altogether I have returned to
some feeling of enthusiasm for the series.
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