This space opera followup to Sassinak show's Elizabeth Moon's hand in its similarity to her other space opera series. Solid entertainment with perhaps too many points of view, still considering what effect differing rates of aging, as a result of coldsleep, has on people, relationships and society. This does seem to be the end of the Planet Pirates series. There's some deep backstory for the heavyworlders here, also.

The fate of the galaxy is placed in the hands of Lunzie, who discovers the true nature of a new friend; Fordeliton, who is dying of a mysterious poison; Dupaynil, who is exiled; and Aygar, who tries to prove himself.

It took me over a month to get through this, mostly I think because of the plethora of POV switches between scenes that made it difficult to connect to the characters I loved from the first two books, Sassinak and Lunzie. I did enjoy Sassinak's scenes in this book, but there was so much going on I had difficulty keeping track. By the time I got to the end, the deus ex machina by the Thek to solve all the problems and the suggestion in the very last page that Dupaynil deserves a romantic relationship for his heroism (which flies in the face of the feminist strides McCaffrey had exhibited in romantic relationships in the previous books) prevented even a satisfying conclusion to offset the chaos of the entire book. Very disappointing. ( )

What went for the second volume in this series goes even more for this one, except that it has a more action-packed plot that, once you look at it, is in some ways dodgier than what has gone before. Military coup? Yes, but that's alright because we're the good guys, dressed in shining white and conspicuously getting on with all the alien races. ( )

This tale begins with Admiral Sassinak's desire for revenge against the aliens who enslaved her a millions of others. Along the way she cobbles together a small band in the pursuit of the truth behind the planetary pirates and the uneasy aliance that has kept war from engulfing all the known worlds.
This read began a little slow and appeared to wallow in the mire of politics, but as the story began to come togther the cast of characters and situations turned this into a great experience. I found myself wondering just what was going to happen next as the characters figured their way out of dire straights.
There is a reason why I prefer sci-fi, and this is one. ( )