Conclusion to the adventures of benRabi and Mouse.

What I like when it comes to Glen Cook is that author gives what you might call open ending - I am yet to read one of his books that would end with a full stop. Reason is very simple (as far as I can tell) - these books are about people not about struggle for its own sake, so struggle can continue even after main characters find their closure and strength to keep on going. Author's stories are very humane in a way that people interactions are normal, everyday. Spies fall in love with wrong people, people die in hundreds due to misunderstandings, families are put to sword and survivors are sworn to never ending vendettas that can only result in the more cataclysmic events and destruction, aliens behave as actual aliens, even when they are biologically very similar to humans (just look at the Sangaree for this or Dragon/Fishes or even Stars' End over-mind for the other end of spectrum).

All of this takes place against the backdrop of ancient mysteries, unimaginable merciless enemies, politicking and backstabbing in human universe and epic battles ..... but again, let me repeat, people are focus. People that do heroic stuff but eventually end up pretty much damaged after years of undercover (Manchurian Candidate type) work amongst the people they finally fall in with or after years of pursuing blood vengeance and then losing the reason to continue living or having to live with the ones actions that have sentenced billions to death. Maybe most important message from the book is how fixation on only one aspect of existence can spell doom to the entire species.

When it comes to action, shadowy spy work, agents and commandos chasing one another, hijackings for information, psychological programming and various other deadly technology available to operators - all of this is something that would not be out of place in stories about Alpha Legion in W40K.

What I especially like in Glen Cook's SF is realism of space combat. Maybe only Neal Asher and Iain M. Banks come near when depicting insanely fast, combat engagements lasting seconds and spanning thousands of miles.

Book has a bitter sweet ending, but after all, when one looks at it through prism of danger lurking on the horizon, everything seems justified (even that research base destruction - although I am still divided on this one). It kinda brings back the belief that humans are not wolves to each other, which is something that last decades seem to just desire to imprint on everyone. Here we have various societies working together, interacting (again in normal way without too much drama) and coming to the solutions that will benefit everyone (again, this is fiction but again, considering the enemy not something unimaginable). Most importantly all characters are reasoning and coming to solutions, yes there are emotions and some actions do come out of them (aforementioned vendetta), but main focus is on reasoning and not allowing emotions to decide on a species wide decisions.

Only element I have a problem with is role of Sangaree - it seems like author wanted to do something with this violent offshoot of humanity but decided not to. I wonder how would the story shape itself if this approach was more developed.

In any case this is great book, great story, highly recommended to fans of SF action/adventure. ( )