2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon—a history-making clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.
However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.
Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.
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Product ReviewSeriously great reading. Bought the next in series.
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Product ReviewInteresting read. Multiple alien races, interesting human characters, a few space battles and a heavy dose of mystery. The mystery element intrigued me because the reader hardly knows more than the main characters, so as you read you are free, encouraged, to try to deduct who is pulling the strings and why. If there is one thing I am missing, it is a more in-depth explanation of the alien races and their societies, their feelings, their way of thinking. But then it would have been 3 books in the series instead of 2. And those 2 are already long, so they are also good value for money.
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Product ReviewA very fast-paced book. Caine is a great character. He's capable without being a superhero, and quick-witted without making connections that are so abstruse that the reader feels stupid trying to follow the plot.
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Product ReviewGood but ends with no resolution, no cliff hanger, just sort of a whimper. Was the book too long and they cut it in half?
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