I left reading SF thanks to the military Sf and this was a little militariatic but more about the characters than the flogging. Sadly when i got it from the library sale i didn't know it was book2. I like Tanya Huff so I read it. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr told off a general and is now on a mission with a stupid attention seeking captain of a race new to the alliances they’re trying to promote. It should be easy help salvage captain Ryder brings in a strange yellow ship but it’s an unknown ship not from any known race. So Torin, or Staff as she’s usually called leads a new to her team of Marines along with the crappy captain and a team of scientists to check it out so Ryder can have it. Needless to say it goes wrong and their enemy shows up to boot leaving them stranded on an organic ship that can read their minds with the enemy there too.

I liked Torin, excellent strong female without being a bitch. But the story is slow to start, almost 150 pg before they get to the ship and stuff happens and nearly another 100 before the enemy appears. It’s a bit slow and the scenes could be very short as they bounced around the multiple povs.

Outside of Torin and Ryder, the other characters aren’t as well drawn as they could have been and there are many of them. The di’Taykan with their sex pheromones was the most memorable part. Over all, not my favorite Tanya Huff but it was still pretty good.