Lieutenant Commander Sikander Singh North of the Aquilan Commonwealth navy is feeling a touch depressed. After his adventures in the Gadira system, where he saved a society from civil war and fell in love with their soon-to-be anointed new leader, the Sultana Ranya Meriem el-Nasir (see Valiant Dust the preceding book in this series), he is now paying the price for disobeying his superior’s orders. Having narrowly avoided a court martial, he has been filling the role of Intelligence officer for Helix squadron based in the alien Tzoru Dominion for 19 months.

There is no warning when a populist movement within the Tzoru peasantry, known as the warumzi agu, erupt in a fit of rebellion over the changes to their society and traditional ways occasioned by the influx of foreigners from various human and other alien societies. The embassy area in the capital city is under siege. Sikander’s commander, Commodore Abernathy, cobbles together a coalition of human and alien warships to rush to the aid of the besieged embassies, which should be a fairly simple matter as the Tzoru space fleet is totally antiquated compared to the ships Abernathy can bring to bear … but will it? Sikander will have to fight against powerful alien forces as well as internal enemies in order to win.

Baker has created a powerful, likeable hero in Sikander North with excellent world building and all the key elements of grand space opera, making this an eminently readable series. I look forward to seeing more of Sikander’s ‘Hornblower in Space’ adventures.

Reviewed by Brooke Walker