Goldin created an interesting character in Jade. Computer-augmentation, a fierce intelligence, and years of military training have made her tough, nearly invincible in a fight. And yet, she lives in fear - fear of the past, fear of discovery, fear of other being hurt or betrayed. This makes her vulnerable in ways she doesn't see. It takes a rich businesswoman and a man with honor and nothing else to help her see herself for real. The book starts slow, it seems, with details about Jade waking up, getting dressed, eating breakfast. It seems like it would be boring, but it wasn't. I enjoyed reading about her life, her work, her character. Goldin put the same depth in his secondary characters - creating multiple alien species, as well as the two main secondary characters. The author is creative, to say the least. Plots and Pace are both good, with action, adventure, mystery, and emotion. But in the end, it's the character of Jade that kept me hooked. The books ends when several unanswered questions, but since there is a sequel, I expect to find the answers there. ( )

Short, but enjoyable.

Jade is a mercenary. Currently she's fleeing bad memories and working as a bouncer in an isolated way station far out from normal human traffic, with only her house-computer for company. Her job is to smooth out any interactions between the various aliens dining at the only multicultural facility - with tact and diplomacy where possible, and force where necessary. Given that some races are naturally heavily armed and of intemperate disposition Jade is regarded as being unusally good at her job.

However her concentration is distracted by news that another human has arrived, and bad memories continually surface. At the same time the aliens pick a poor time and race to choose to start a fight with. Leaving Jade with no option but to take her honour into her own hands - where it's always belonged.

The biggest problen I had with this is that the aliens are mere window dressing. Fancy costumes with no thoughts to practicalities, and very little in the way of personalities either. Everyone from one race behaved the same, just liek humans do. Not. The World's fun though, the 4dimensional Greeet particularly novel, and the story rips along nicely. Jade is sufficently non-perfect to be interesting, whilst still be competiant enough to be enjoyable, even if the oucome is never in much doubt. I didn't notice many particular inconsistences in the plot which is always good - even if the continual anchronism of knifes in SF remains.

Worth looking out for, and I'm hoping the sequel will continue to build the characters rather than just being more adventres. ( )