his is the second in the series following The Cruel Stars, by John Birmingham (and make sure you follow this link for the details  – I have another book of that name in my library, one of the Ark Royal books).

Yeah, so anyway, this is a middling book in a set so most of the action (while interesting and fun) just pretty much works through its plots. We have the aging Scottish Admiral (who is something of a Highlander, being 700 years old) and his sarcastic floating super computer. And the Captain of the Defiant, pretty much the last ship facing the non-purity-fascists, standing out against hundreds of enemy low-tech warships that are arrayed against her. And the pirate crew with its love-aching lady-queen, morning her great loss. And the last legal representative what passes for a galactic senate, a moody teenage princess who is all that is left after the evil Sturm launched their mental malware attack on the rest of the galaxy (if only for the reason that it wasn’t “pure enough”).

Nice to have bigoted baddies I can openly root against.

So there’s some fun space battles, a creepy sneaky trip onto a zombie-filled space station, some witty dialog and the death of a main character. It’s all here.

Really enjoyed it. Since I found the first book of the set in a used bookstore, you might luck out as well. Otherwise, if you like good space opera, this one bangs away on all cylinders.

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