A great followup to the first book in the duology, "The risen empire", though the books are tightly couple and short, so feels more like a second volume, rather than the second in a series. Here we get the space battle, very hard sci-fi, with relative velocities and communication delays being big factors. The revelation of the empire's secret and the political machinations back on Home feel a bit simple, not a good as the space battle and action sequences. Still, a very fun book.