This was a disappointment, I’m sorry to say.

To start, my general feelings on Scalzi: I loved the Old Man’s War series for the most part, and a lot of his earlier stuff. I enjoyed *Kaiju Preservation Society* for what it was (which is exactly what Scalzi intended it to be - he called it the book version of a “pop song.”). *Starter Villain* didn’t really work for me - I was just bored with his style, and I decided I wasn’t going to read anything more from him. But I loved the OMW series well enough that when I saw this I decided to give it a read.

Mild spoilers for the OMW series below.

It’s set about a decade after *The End of All Things*. Our main character is Gretchen, whom you might remember (I admit I did not) as Zoë’s best friend on the Roanoke colony. Gretchen is part of the Colonial Union diplomatic core, working at the Obin desk (having gotten to know the Obin pretty well hanging out with Zoë on Roanoke).

The treaty between the Colonial Union, Earth, and the Conclave is holding, more or less, but the strain is building. As Gretchen learns early on in the book, those three groups decided to make a joint colony to show they could all live together. It was going ok, not great. Not much mingling, but no violence either. Then things get complicated when the colony just … disappears. It had been built on an asteroid, and it’s just gone. Not moved, not destroyed, just gone. Signs point to the involvement of the Consu, the enigmatic hyper advanced race that’s been lurking on the edges of the entire series doing their own thing.

So why was this disappointing? Three reasons.

First is a matter of taste. John Scalzi is always going to be John Scalzi, and that means tons of banter with everyone in every conversation trying to show they’re the cleverest person in the room. I enjoyed it in his earlier books, felt it reached its apex in *Kaiju Preservation Society*, and was bored with it in *Starter Villain*. It was toned down a bit here compared to those two books, which are meant to be silly and fun, but it was still a LOT. I didn’t enjoy it, but your mileage may vary.

Next is the matter of the Consu. As a device within the story, they do not benefit from closer examination. They’re kind of like the Borg or the Q from Star Trek: nigh-omnipotent, enigmatic, more than a little terrifying. Or, to be more precise, like the Borg and the Q when they *first appeared*. Every Star Trek fan knows what happened over the course of TNG, DS9, and Voyager: we learned more and more about them, and the more we learned, the less unknowable and terrifying they became. Learning more about them made them mundane. That’s exactly what happened with the Consu in this book. We learned a great deal about them, and in the course of that, what made them such a powerful force in the story was drastically weakened.

Last is the status of the OMW universe in general. As I mentioned in my summary, the treaty is getting creaky. There is lots of concern over whether it will hold; there are many factions, in all three signatories to the treaty, who want it broken. The colony disappearing is a major shock to the treaty, and the repercussions of this event might well shatter it. Hell, the book is titled *The Shattering Peace*.

None of that is addressed.

I assume Scalzi is working on book #8 in the series, because this leaves a LOT of questions unanswered. Which is *fine* in the context of a bigger ongoing series, but I honestly thought OMW was done with *The End of All Things*. But there’s no hint of that; an epilogue setting up book #8 would have improved things greatly. Something that didn’t leave me blinking and going, “That’s it? But what about [all this important stuff?]”

If #8 does come out, I’m going to wait to read it until I get some reviews. Overall, I’m going back to being done with Scalzi. All respect to him as both an author and a decent human being, but he’s just not working for me anymore.

We really liked The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi. The characters are a highlight to this story. Scalzi also makes sure to bring any new readers up to speed pretty quickly. Gretchen is a great character and I loved seeing her interact with everything that happens in the story. Naming the Consu some foolish names and learning that the Consu are closer to us than they pretend to be was great. I really liked seeing more about the Consu and learning more about the technology. The decisions made at the end of the book are a great choice and can be a twist on what you think might be happening. The Shattering Peace is a great book in the Old Man’s War series that brings new and exciting problems to new characters.

Wow! What a way to come back to the OMW universe! While I did not have to wait 10 years for more of these stories, I really loved the journey from book 1 to 7 over the last 1-2 months. This very much feels like a sequel to a mix of Zoë’s Tale and The End of All Things as we get Gretchen’s Tale - the same Gretchen that was Zoë’s best friend on Roanoke.

While the Perry family continues to remain out of the spotlight, the Scalzi’s humor from the Perry era of OMW is back and better than ever. Of all the books in the series that feel most like OMW in terms of humor, this is the one. It was delightful and I really enjoyed how Scalzi was able to maneuver the characters into impossible scenarios, yet find such satisfying solutions!

If you have been waiting for this series to return, you will not be disappointed. If you know nothing about this series (please see my other reviews for books 1-6), I still think you could pick this up and enjoy it, but I do think it is better having read all of the other books first. Trust me, it is worth the journey.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @torbooks for the copy of this book! All thoughts are my own.

A phenomenal return to the Old Man's War universe by John Scalzi. The Shattering Peace gives Gretchen Trujillo (Zoe's best friend) the spotlight as she encounters the god-like Consu and explores the mysteries behind skip-drive technology. Though its ramifications are sure to cause major ripples across (potential) future books in the series, this story feels much more intimate in nature compared to earlier books. Gretchen is a joy to follow as her and quick ire and rash actions conflict with her thoughtful and level-headed nature. She is a badass without being a Mary Sue and provides plenty of chances for Scalzi's noted sarcastic wit. While The Shattering Peace would be a bit difficult for new readers, it is sure to please longstanding fans of the series.

After a decade, John Scalzi returns to his breakout series Old Man’s War. He left us with a tentative peace between the Colonial Union, the Conclave, and the Earth, but, if a series has the word “war” in the title, we cannot have too much of this so…enter the Consu who are on the brink of a massive factional civil war across their entire species. Longtime series fans know the Consu would not have such upheaval AND leave other species alone, and it is up to mid level Colonial Union bureaucrat Gretchen Trujillo (Zoe’s best friend in The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale) to join a mission to save a myriad of species and allow the fragile peace to hold.

This is a fantastic conceit that largely works. It has been well over a decade since I read The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale (and I avoided reading summaries) so I struggled to recall the role of the Obin in those books as well as the characterization of Gretchen in them as I was less focused on her when I read them. If you have the time, a reread of those books may very well be rewarded. I will say it does not seem like she has matured a whole lot since those events, which makes for very entertaining interactions throughout the book. That being said, Gretchen is aware she comes across this way, which is to her advantage. She is a fun and charismatic person to go on this journey with, and the plot itself is engaging and had me on the edge of my seat at times. I will also say the Consu are more immediately frightening in this book than in others because there is a Consu faction that does not care about niceties, and they are ruthless.

I highly recommend this book to existing fans of the series!

The Shattering Peace is the seventh installment in the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi. Luckily for me, it has only been a couple of years since I last read this series so I generally remembered the events of the previous books 😂

This book takes the reader back to the futuristic galaxy that Scalzi has brilliantly created over the course of this series. The story contains all the great action scenes, great dialogue, and characters that you want to cheer for that have been part of the previous installments of this series. It is slightly difficult to give a summary of this book without providing all of the background from the previous novels. This definitely does not work as a standalone.

If you are looking for, in my opinion, one of the best sci-fi series out there, check out the Old Man’s War series. If you have read previous novels in this series, definitely read The Shattering Peace.

John Scalzi continues to be my favorite sci-fi author and he just writes banger after banger all the time😌

This was such a good and entertaining read. If there was ever a book where I giggled during every chapter, it’d be this book (and let’s be real, his other books too). Scalzi is SO good at writing dry humor and weird ass things that just make sense because they do. Literally he could write the most random ass things that make zero logical sense and I’d still nod my head and be like “omg yes makes perfect sense”.

Anyway… I loved this book and in particular LOVED Ran. Literally it’s so sweet. The sweetest baby ever.🥹 despite the fact that it’s some weird twisted alien that’s a cross between a giraffe and a spider. That’s my baby.

After a decade we finally get a new novel in the Old Man's War universe and it manages to break new ground and feel familiar at the same time!
The Shattering Peace connects to the events and characters of earlier books in the series and elevates a former side character into a fantastic new lead, while also bringing deeper insights into the political machinations between the different forces across the galaxy. It's classic space opera, filled with trademark Scalzi humor. If you're a fan of OMW, you're going to love The Shattering Peace. And if you're new to this universe, there are plenty of rails to help you get started into what will become a new favorite series.

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi


Finally! A return to a well loved by one of my favorite authors that doesn’t disappoint! I’m a big fan of Mr. Scalzi’s work since I found Redshirts on the new books shelf at my local library years ago, and I’ve been reading his website regularly for a long time. After Redshirts, I went through his back catalog. I remember enjoying Old Man’s War but bouncing off the sequel, the Ghost Brigades, the first time I tried to read it. I went back to it and enjoyed it eventually, but found the series to be a bit uneven. I didn’t particularly care for the Zoe character and didn’t love The Last Colony or Zoe’s Tale, but I enjoyed The Human Division and The End of All Things a great deal more. I realized that what I enjoyed most about this series was the world building much more than I enjoyed the Perry family. This was a space opera set in a world where humans were often the villains and where human civilization was not a monolithic political entity, both ideas that I find interesting and that I thought were executed well.

Mr. Scalzi’s novels in the past few years have been more misses than hits for me. Many of them were weaker than some of his earlier work, and I personally think it was due to his habit of rushing through writing them to make his deadlines (as he has eloquently described on his blog). However, his last novel, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, I loved (well, except maybe the ending) and he seemed to have his mojo back.

So I was I got the new John Scalzi book from NetGalley and Tor in exchange for an honest review I was really looking forward to a return to the Old Man’s War universe.

The main character of this book was Gretchen, a minor character in previous books who was the teenaged friend of Zoe. When she was a kid, I found her fairly one dimensional and annoying, but now she’s all grown up into an interesting character in her own right. This book tells into two of the interesting and previously unexplored aspects of this universe - the enigmatic aliens the Consu, and the skip drive. When the skip drive was introduced in the first book, it was explained that ships equipped with it didn’t travel through space so much as they skipped into a parallel universe that was so close as to be indistinguishable from the original universe, and that people shouldn’t bother thinking about it. Multiverse stories have all the rage recently, but what the author does with it here did not feel trite or overdone to me. Without spoiling the mysteries, I will say that this story move the overall political plot forward and satisfying ways, while giving us interesting characters that, unlike in a number of previous books by this author, actually felt like different people.

It was a real page turner and a return to form by an author I really like and like to enjoy.

Twenty years ago, a book by a then up-and-coming author was released on January 1, 2005. That book was Old Man’s War (original cover is pictured at left). The story is still stuck in my head all these years later, because the premise was just so utterly bonkers. It begins with 75 year old John Perry fulfilling his earlier enlistment in Earth’s Colonial Defense Forces.

Which is where all the fun began – for ‘may you live in interesting times’ values of ‘fun’. First because Earth’s Colonial Defense Forces aren’t exactly that. They don’t really belong to Earth. They use Earth for cannon fodder, while keeping the entire population under ‘mushroom management’ – meaning that they are keeping Earth’s people in the dark and feeding them (bull)shit about the actual state of the galaxy and the human colonies eking a living out amongst the stars.

This story, set in the same world twenty years and six books later, is all about reaping the whirlwind of those original choices. Because humans are far, far, FAR from alone in the galaxy, habitable planets are scarce, every species needs a place for their excess population – and no one likes being lied to, particularly not on as grand a scale as the Colonial Union had been lying to the population of Earth.

The colonies – everyone’s colonies – and the need for more of them had set the Colonial Union and the everybody-but-human Conclave on a collision course that the CDF was doomed to eventually lose even before Earth pulled the plug on recruitment. But ten years ago a fragile peace was cobbled together between the opposing parties, a peace based on a moratorium on colonization for all sides.

Of course, that agreement was broken. But the breakage – in the form of a joint colony populated by non-humans, Earth humans, and colonial humans – was more or less working. Whether it was working more, or working less depended a LOT on whose reports one had access to.

Then the reports stopped. And so did everything else. Because the colony disappeared from space. Completely. Totally. It didn’t even leave any debris behind.

Which is where Gretchen Trujillo, her Obin assistant and best friend Ran, and a whole shipload of scientists, engineers, diplomats and administrators enter the scene of the crime. Or whatever this is.

It’s their responsibility to figure out what happened to the missing colony before that fragile peace shatters into the shards of war – no matter how impossible that task might be.

Escape Rating A-: The opening scene of this book is a stunner. Literally. Gretchen Trujillo walks into a training class for potential diplomatic security personnel, promises that she’s going to kill them all, and then does so. Repeatedly. They’re not really dead, but they do, EVENTUALLY, get the point. That the universe isn’t fair and their preconceived notions about what does and does not constitute a threat to their protectees – and themselves – has to get chucked out the nearest airlock ASAP if they want to have half a chance at doing their damn jobs.

And it’s a terrific introduction to Gretchen, who will be our point of view and tour guide to the currently effed up state of the galaxy – as well as to the thoroughly FUBAR’d mission she’s about to become a part of.

She needs to go to the place where Unity Colony used to be because, as those recruits just learned, Gretchen thinks outside the box to the point that the box might as well give up and go home. But that’s not the only reason. Gretchen also needs to go because she’s the one human who has a chance of being respected and listened to by at least one of the alien races – if not a few more. And that’s because of Gretchen’s ties to the people and events of two of the earlier books in this saga, The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale. Even if her presence and participation did not make it into the movie. Which she hates. The movie, not that she’s not included in it.

Which leads to an interesting question that I can’t really answer. The Shattering Peace is book seven in a series that’s been going on since 2005. I did read the whole thing but I haven’t read any of it recently. I believe there was enough backstory to remind me of enough of the details of past events to not feel lost in the present story. I THINK that would be true for someone who hasn’t read the whole thing – however long ago. But I can’t prove that assertion because I DID.

With that caveat, let’s get back to THIS story, which is every bit as much of an SF mystery as it is epic space opera – if not a little bit more. It’s also a story about humanity out among the stars in a situation where we are absolutely not the top dogs and where our frequent xenophobic and ethnocentric behavior is a ginormous problem.

It’s also a story about a whole lot of ‘home truths’ hiding in plain sight while everyone tiptoes around them hoping that they won’t explode. Even though they have, and are, all the damn time.

The fun part of the story is wrapped around the super-advanced aliens who are messing with ALL of the species involved, not just with the colony, but with the whole, entire galaxy. While at the same time being as completely unable to deal with their own bad behavior and interpersonal conflicts as any of us ‘less advanced’ species. Emotions get the best of everyone – and petty behavior gets very petty indeed – no matter how advanced anyone thinks they are.

(Fans of the author will get a particular chuckle over the names that a frustrated Gretchen gives to the two feuding über-advanced aliens. I’m still having a good laugh about THAT part of the story, no matter how chagrined Gretchen is at the consequences of her own petty behavior.)

The solution that Gretchen comes up with is as far out of the box as it gets – only exceeded by the out of the box problem that she’s been presented with. It feels like a happy ending, but then the previous book, The End of All Things, ALSO felt like a happy ending. So maybe.

Or maybe we’ll see Unity Colony again in another decade. They’ll have either done great things – or torn a hole in the space-time continuum. Either way, it’ll be fun to find out.

I was not prepared for the emotional reaction I had to have to reading about the Obin again. "The Shattering Peace" is the 7th book in the Old Man's War series from John Scalzi (out 16 September, thank you Tor for the arc and undisclosed bookstore for ignoring street dates).

Despite the fact that the galaxy is normally violent, there has been relative peace for the last decade. The Conclave, Colonial Union, and the Earth have a tripartite peace and it is "working." At least until an experimental colony with the three factions goes missing. This time we follow Gretchen Trujillo (yes that one) as she goes from mid level bureaucrat to unfortunately important.

Reasons to read:
-I can not be objective about this series. It is formative to my sense of humor and sardonic nature
-A person doing good in the face of poor decisions
-Answers to a couple of questions I gave up wondering about
-No one has the maths for that
-The Obin

Cons:
-I don't get to enjoy it the story with my person who gave me the first book in the series anymore

A new 'Old Man's War' novel?! Yes, please, and thank you.

You will want to have read the previous books in the series as there are some important connections between this and the earlier books in the series. Author John Scalzi does do a good job of reminding the reader of what has gone before (or laying some ground work for those who haven't read any of the other series books) but it will be a more enjoyable read if you go through the series.

Our main character is Gretchen Trujillo - a friend of Zoe's (of Zoe's Tale). She's a diplomat now, working with an Obin assistant, helping to maintain the decade of peace between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave. That peace is threatened, however, by the Consu - an extremely advanced race that is expanding. And to really set nerves on edge, a multi-species space colony - intent of showing that the different species can live in harmony - has gone missing. It's not easy to make an entire colony disappear without a trace, but someone's done it and the technologically advanced Consu are the prime suspects.

In addition to being perhaps the most intelligent species in the known galaxy, the Consu are also the most formidable in combat, practically designed as killing machines. While in addition to being a diplomat, Gretchen is also skilled in combat, but one human against even one Consu would not end well for the human. If the missing colony is the result of Consu action, will Gretchen have any chance to find and rescue the colony if the Consu don't want her to?

If you enjoy reading a Scalzi novel, everything you love about it is here - particularly the Scalzi sass and humor (you know - naming terrifying aliens with goofy, cuddly names).

There's plenty of action and excitement here but I wouldn't consider this an action novel. Scalzi spends a lot of time explaining how things work - whether it's the Consu's fighting skills or the Skip Drive (how ships get around very long distances), it's all made clear. Maybe more clear than we need. I'm not sure I needed to know that the skip drive was basically Star Trek's transporter but on a larger scale. (There, I just told you in much shorter time than Scalzi does.) I admit, it is important because the plot does revolve around a variation of this (I'm trying really hard not to give too much away).

I really liked Gretchen as our protagonist. She is, as I suspect Scalzi intended, the perfect combination of fighting skill and diplomatic negotiator and she steps up when it's important. She's kept humble by her alien assistant with plenty of humor.

There is an interesting little twist that I did not see coming and it does suggest that there may be still more to come in the series. But don't hold your breath - this one took awhile to get here.

I find the series quite interesting. It all started with Old Man's War - a fascinating look at upgrading a body and intergalactic war, but it quickly developed into a series of diplomacy and expansion. Is this reflective of our times? Are we getting back to a more aggressive nature? Only Scalzi knows.

Overall, this fits in very nicely with the scope of the series. Our protagonist is not unfamiliar to readers of the series, though this is her first time getting so much focus.

Looking for a good book? The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi is the seventh book in the popular Old Man's War series. A blend of the familiar and the new, Scalzi keeps the story fresh without alienating (pun intended) the reader.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Scalzi for returning to the Old Man's War series and thanks to Tor for this eARC.
I was excited to dig into this latest installment of the Old Man's War and I was not disappointed. This was classic Scalzi writing, humor, snark all wrapped into one. I flew through the book because I was so engaged in the storyline and characters. I've enjoyed Scalzi's standalone books the past few years but am thrilled to be able to recommend The Shattering Peace to other readers!

This is a great standalone that showcases the series and the author's style without a big compromise. It's an episode (usually as this series is), but it's not hard to dive into this mission without knowing very well the previous characters. The focus here is that a lot of people are missing, and the expectation is that they are dead, but the team is still hopeful to understand what happened. The humor makes the dialogue fun as usual, and once the team is gathered, we can't put the book down again. Exciting, great for fans of Murderbot or unlikely heroes as a team on a mission in space. Humans are not the only ones; there are a lot of other types of monsters... I mean aliens. Ahahaa. I do hope there will be more. Not very long, easy to read, and entertaining.

This is excellent writing, however it was a little difficult to resonate with and I think that might be because it’s been so long since I’ve read this series. Regardless, it has me interested again and wanting to reread all the way through and see if I have different feelings about this one on my second read. The author has a stunning skill at portraying science fiction, and there’s really nothing negative to critique here in the regards of the efforts that went into rekindling this world!

Another fun Scalzi read! Great addition to the Old Man's War saga, fans should not miss this book! Main character is extremely likable!

This is a fun little standard sci-fi romp. Expect the regular tropes - quirky aliens, a hero who solves everything, governments that kinda suck. I don't think this is a bad thing, it's endearing and feels true to the genre.

The heroine is unabashedly herself (which is a little violent ), and her alien sidekick is the perfect balance to her harshness.

I've never read any other books in this series. I totally believe that it would be made better by understanding the previous books, but I don't think it's necessary. It works great as a standalone.

All in all, it's a pretty cool book. You can't treat it as anything high brow or too serious, since it is under 300 pages. So for being fairly short, I think it nails its niche and delivers a great little read.

Scalzi never fails to impress me with his writing, intelligence, and humor. Old Man's War series is wonderful and since finding out about The Shattering Peace, I've since re-read the series to prepare.

I, on the other hand, am dumb. And while I thought I was prepared to reenter the OMW universe, pun intended, I maybe wasn't. Some of the technology and other plot points, particularly dealing with the Consu, went way over my head.

Those of you familiar with the series will be familiar with skip-drive technology, it's what enables ships in the Old Man's War series to travel instantaneously throughout the galaxy/universe.

The thing is, when they skip, the ship and its inhabitants leave the current universe and "skip" to another, nearly identical universe and they can never return to the original universe. So, the more I've thought about it, they basically peace-out of their universe and go help some other alien Schmuck in another universe. My question became, "why does it fucking matter?" You're not even in the same universe.

It's like if your wife asked you to go to the store for milk, you "skip" to the store, that's one universe you've left, you "skip" home, that's another and so now you're two universes removed and your wife isn't really your wife anymore, she's the "same person", but you're now living in Universe 587462 with that wife instead of 532578 with your original wife.

Does it matter? I don't know...but it feels like it should.

Like when Homer goes back in time and sneezes on the dinosaur and fucks up Springfield and spends the entire episode trying to find his way back to his original home and just settles for the family that eats like frogs.

So, let's say that shit's fucked up on Planet X-BO1. The Colonial Union tells everybody to head to Planet X-BO1, so the whole armada, or whatever, skips to Planet X-BO1. Is their shit still fucked up in that universe or is everything cool and they eat space brisket and become best friends? And if it is still fucked up, why does it matter to the original universe? It's a whole-ass different universe, that they can never get back to.

Yes, I'm simplifying, but again, I'm dumb.

I'm really just trying to walk myself through the problem, but if anybody ever needs me on a spaceship, it'll probably just be to clean the toilets or work in the mess hall or something.

Great book, fun story, glad to get to read a new Scalzi and Old Man's War. Could there be more???? I hope so!

This science fiction story is the seventh book in the Old Man's War series. Ten years have passed since the events of the previous book (and in real life too.) Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat working in the Colonial Union bureaucracy. She's the expert on the Obin - one of many alien races humans have met in their journeys to expand into space. Her father is a higher-level diplomat.

When Gretchen's father gives her the assignment of trying to determine what happened to Unity Colony - a hollowed-out asteroid circling a planet the Obin had intended to colonize. The existence of Unity Colony comes as a surprise to Gretchen since one of the conditions of the tripartite agreement which ended the war was that there was a moratorium on founding new colonies.

Unity Colony was intended as a test case to see if citizens of the Colonial Union, the Conclave and Earth could live together peacefully in a single environment. Now the colony has disappeared, and the Colonial Union wants to know why. Gretchen's father was instrumental in the formation of the colony and one of her oldest friends is among the colonists.

An expedition is formed to find out what happened to the colony. When they arrive at the site where it was supposed to be, the colony is gone with no evidence of where it could be. What is there is a prism containing a single Consu. The Consu are a very superior sort of alien immeasurably advanced compared to all the other species. They have a nasty habit of messing with other species to further their goal of "perfecting" all species. They also rarely condescend to speak to other species, but this one that Gretchen names Kitty does speak to her and has a task for her. After which, he will tell her what happened to the colony.

Gretchen soon learns that the Consu are facing a civil war in which one faction wants to destroy the colony and Earth to "perfect" humans. The runaway Consu has developed a new kind of physics of spaceflight which could make the Consu even more powerful and dangerous to humans and aliens. It is up to Gretchen to out-think the aliens, save the colony, and save all the aliens from Consu interference.

This was an engaging space opera with a great main character. Gretchen is smart and mean and tricky enough to win over the dreaded Consu. I think it works well as a story whether or not you have read the previous six books in the Old Man's War series. I enjoyed the story despite my reservations about the efficacy of Gretchen's final solution.

A wonderful extension of the Old Man's War series! Mixing the colonizing intrigue you see in Old Man's War and The Last Colony with the science and political snark and sass of Human Division, John Scalzi has expanded the universe once again.

You get intrigue, you get mystery, grumpy name calling and a touch of temporary heartbreak. The sarcasm and wit of the characters is outstanding. The conniving between races is expected and unsurprising. But twists abound in this new chapter of the universe post John Perry.