Sometimes good science fiction is about nothing more than the tale well told. The tale within this book is not profound, the characters do not have extremely deep inner issues, and there are no existential discussions about life, the universe, and everything. Instead there is a story that maintains entertainment without dumbing down – a story that is fun but still requires the firing of a few brain cells.

As any good action story should, this book throws us right into the middle of things as we join Cully When in prison. (That's not a typo; I'm not saying that we are joining Cully when he is in prison. His name is "Cully When", and we are joining Cully When at the point in which he is imprisoned. Okay, maybe the names aren't great...) A series of events frees him and, in the course of gaining that freedom, we learn that he is a legend for his role in freeing the New Worlds. And we learn that he has been imprisoned because of betrayal. And we learn that there are aliens out there. And while Cully thought he was out of the rebellion business, he gets drug back in as the New Worlds have come under the sway of a conniving group of criminals and the Old Worlds think they can use the New Worlds as a bargaining chip.

Any science fiction novel worth its salt should have interesting aliens. And Dickson has done a good job here. We don't really understand the aliens and they don't understand us. It has led to a war of sorts (surprise, surprise). But the inability for the species to understand each other may lead to more than war – it is the foundation for the Old World's misguided attempt to use the New Worlds as a bargaining chip, and it may not pan out as planned. It is Cully's job to try and intervene, try to understand the aliens, and try to save the New Worlds.

Yes, in that quick synopsis, this sounds like a hundred other science fiction novels you may have read. And, in some regards it is. But, first, Dickson has always been a first-rate writer and, even with the passage of more than forty years, his writing – his characterizations, his dialogue, and his world-building – still stand up. Not perfect, but still darn good.

And where it all really shines is in those aliens. Dickson does an excellent job of portraying the alienness of their thinking, making it just human enough that the reader can get a grasp of how that thinking is impeding the mutual understanding that might exist between the two species.

The only time this book feels "old" is when it falls into the "as-you-know-Bob" syndrome; too many times exposition of understanding is accomplished by characters explaining what they should already know. But it is not overly obtrusive, and it does serve its purpose (if with a slight bit of "clunk".)

A fun read, a nice example of Dickson, and worth the effort. ( )