I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I did enjoy it quite a bit and, especially once things actually started happening it finally became a bit of a page turner. The setup and world building are intriguing but kind of slow. The alien races are poorly described. I have no clue what most of them look like. And the fascist alien ideology doesn’t really seem to have much impacted the characters interior lives. Society seems simultaneously not at all sexist and totally sexist. It doesn’t make much sense. The space combat tries to be “realistic” but the idea of doing gravity slingshots at 0.7c is silly and the premise that just having a huge velocity is an intrinsic advantage is silly. And then the writer seems not to understand the implications of these ridiculous velocities (if you can slingshot around at 0.7c it ain’t going to take weeks to cross a star system). So I found the elaborate explanations of space combat and tactics annoying and tiresome rather than engaging. Instead of being hard SF it’s just faux Newtonian window dressing. Looking ahead, I see that the conclusion of the trilogy is less well regarded than the first two books. Good endings are hard, but it makes me wonder if I want to finish the series.

Highly enjoyable. Thrilling and a page turner. GRRM likes it and page by page I could read why.

Unable to put it down despite brutal sleepy ness. This is the kind of book you will love reading. Thank you

The author's style flows with an energizing blend of creativity, grit, culture and humor. His characters are awesome and so is the tale