Review: not bad
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2012
The 2nd spineward sectors novel picks up right where the first one left off. This is a good space opera, a bit less action and science than say Heppner's Doom Star series or Randolph Lalonde's Spineward Fringe, but I think it makes up for it with a compelling female character that I at least don't often see in many space operas, and political intrigue. A quick synopsis: a young college student basically doing a ROTC summer internship is suddenly left in charge of a battleship after the all the "normal " soldiers are recalled. He belongs to a family that is politically out of favor back home and knows he's likely to be the scapegoat for the potentially disastrous situation this abandonment has left all the spinward sectors in. Space battles, pirates, hand to hand combat, sword fought duels, and political infighting ensues. Good action and fight scenes,  witty banter, a love interest, this story has a bit of everything. I look forward to the next edition in this series.