2025 SF, seventeenth of its series. With Chimera still occupied, and
relief having to wait for a massive ship-building programme, a
diplomatic mission is sent to the other reezh worlds to see whether
any of them can be persuaded to become allies.
And if that doesn't make much sense out of context, well, it
would certainly be an error to begin the series here. The early
stories may have been stand-alone incidents, but the background
information about universe has been gradually building up to this, and
several of the Big Questions that have been mysterious since the
beginning are answered here.
There are shortcomings; some things familiar to any series reader are
explained again, and a new reader shouldn't be starting here anyway. A
character in a plural marriage spends all his spare time thinking
about how lucky he is. But mostly this is the recipe working as usual:
space battles, magical conflicts, and the innovative use of one to win
the other when the odds seem impossible.
Stewart writes about logistics more than firepower: the best ship in
the universe doesn't help you if it's not where you need to fight.
There are considerations of space navigation here which make me feel
quite sure that, although I haven't checked the numbers, Stewart
has; and if the distances are set up to make certain key events
happen at about the same time, well, I can live with that.
For me characters were the weak spot here; Stewart usualky does a
better job of making his protagonists interesting to read about, but
the principal here left me cold.
It's suggested that the series will come to an end soon, and certainly
there aren't new mysteries being introduced to replace the old ones. I
continue to enjoy these books.