Interesting! Same universe as the earlier books, but no overlap of characters - except in that the characters here discuss whether Trios and the king and prince who threw back the Coalition are legend or possibly have some truth in them. Ziem is a planet, well away from Trios and Arellia and all the others we've encountered in the earlier books - but not out from under the Coalition. This sort of answers "where did the Coalition go when they were thrown out?" - they retreated to other areas where they were running things exactly the same way. Ziem has a mineral (a metal), planium, that is very useful to the Coalition; it also has an atmosphere that seriously bothers them, both the people and the machines. So Ziem's miners are still mining the planium, under the heel of the Coalition. There have been many deaths and much destruction in the invasion and the subsequent setting up of Coalition control, but things are calmer now - that is, there are very few left alive who are willing to fight. And those who are willing to fight have to do it secretly, for fear of reprisals. Drake's double life was pretty clear early on, before the author actually stated it, but he does a good job of separating his different roles. I wondered about the Spirit, after the chapter from Grim's viewpoint (and I'm at least as confused as Drake is about who and what Grim is...), but the way it came out was lovely. Including that things did not magically come right, everyone has things to work through. The fact that Drake's double role was revealed twice in quick succession was rather odd - though I suspect it was partly that he was just too tired to keep things smooth. And the twins are amazing, and I'm glad I'm not responsible for them. Though they're not going to be able to pull off the same tricks for long - what's tolerable in a child is much less so in a (physical) adult. Maybe the next book will be their story? Like Rebel Prince, this is an action/adventure story with a romance subplot (or two) - the romance is a minor driver of events, but not the center of the story. I'm very much enjoying this series...the only problem is, the next book isn't scheduled yet as far as I can see. Soon, I hope! ( )