This is the direct continuation of the previous book, Admiral. I quite liked that book and this one is pretty much more of the same.
Kris might have thwarted the rebels rebels grand plan and defeated their attacking fleet but the Iteeche empire is wast and the rebels are plentiful and have many more ships and resources at their disposal. But this one of those damned Longknife’s after all so do not expect her to sit down and wait for them to come. Let’s take the fight to them instead.
I really like the bizarre interactions between the Iteeche and the humans. The best parts are of course when Kris demonstrate how much the Iteeche’s “way of doing things” sucks. At least when it comes to military matters.
The book do, to some extent, follow the same pattern as the previous one in the sense that Kris has to gather a fighting force, give them some rudimentary training, and the go and kick some ass. This time however, it is Kris calling the shots from the start unlike the previous time when she more or less only could react as the rebels plan revealed itself.
There are quite a bit of nice and well done action in the book and Kris is really kicking ass. I quite like that we get the story from both Kris view and the enemy commanders, especially when the enemy commander is taught a rather humiliating lesson in how to fight with battlecruisers. Not that he has much use of the lesson in the end though.
If I should complain about something it would be that the user of their Smart Metal is really becoming a bit too much of a magical wand. There seems to be nothing that cannot be done or fixed with Smart Metal.
Still, on the hole a well written, fun and action filled installment in the Kris Longknife series.