The Méridiens of the ship Rêveur have returned to Confederation space with their new allies, the New Terrans, expecting to be welcomed delightedly after their long absence and presumed loss. Instead, they find that the same silver ships that nearly destroyed Rêveur have destroyed half the Confederation, and the surviving Méridiens have no plan except to flee, abandoning their long-settled worlds.

This plan does not sit well with the crew of Rêveur, neither her surviving Méridien crew nor her new captain, Alex Racine, and his fellow New Terrans. Having proven the silver ships can be fought, they want to take the fight to the enemy. To do that, though, they need help, resources and volunteers who will have to come from the Méridiens, who for the most part don't believe either that fighting can be effective, or that killing is ever justified.

But Confederation society has a dark secret--a whole prison colony of "independents," people unwilling to conform to peaceful, prosperous, but mostly quiescent Confederation society.

A whole planet of independent free thinkers.

This is good, old-fashioned, space adventure, with battles with aliens, ingenuity, derring-do, and culture clashes among the different societies--the Confederation culture of most Méridiens; the "independents" of Libre, and the new society that's forming on Rêveur, blending the customs and viewpoints of both New Terrans and Méridiens, constructing a new culture capable of fighting the threat to all humanity that the silver ships represent. There's lots of danger, challenges, on-the-fly can-do engineering...

What's different from "the good old stuff" is that Jucha is writing from the social assumptions and dynamics of the 2010s, not the 1950s. Or 1930s. Both smart characters and stupid ones, good and bad, come in both male and female, as well as the range of ethnic options represented in the populations of New Terra and the Confederation. in a way that feels natural and realistic.

It's just a good, solid, enjoyable story, with pretty good characters and world-building. Both have gotten stronger since the first book, The Silver Ships, although Alex Racine is still improbably capable. Overall, this is a lot of what I want when I wish for some of "the good old stuff," without the baggage that makes me hesitate to pick up a Golden Age old favorite for fear it won't be as good as remembered.

Recommended.

I bought this book. ( )

I liked the first book in this series and wished to immediately continue. But, alas, second book wasn't out yet. It actually was released August 1st, but I only noticed it being out when I looked early October. When I did my normal little 'let's run through every author I've read to see if anything new is out' thingie I sometimes do. And spotted the new book.

I almost didn't begin reading. Why? Because I did what I sometimes do. Even though I knew I wanted to read this book, I glanced at the reviews. They almost scared me away, they did. But I ignored them and dove in. And am quite glad I did.

This book was a quite enjoyable natural continuation of the series. There were some certain issues that I had with it that weren't that major. Like how Alex is this super good Admiral that everyone loves. And . . . keeps secrets from (people keeping secrets from the Admiral). That was vaguely strange, though I understood why. I had other 'issues' that I can't specifically recall at the moment, but do recall one specific one. I disliked how the book ended. Another little cliff-hanger. Another little - 'must wait for next book to be released' I've put myself into.

Hmm. Apparently I didn't have a whole hell of a lot to say. The combined New Terrans and Meridiens arrive at Libre. They intermingle (Alex's gang and the Librans). Alien spaceships might be heading to Libre. They, Librans, are attempting to flee. Alex and his gang help while also building some weapons. Stuff happens.

This is probably a solid 4 star book as opposed to some I've rated 4 stars and wished I had other levels I could use, like 1/2 stars.

(oh, one final thought, doesn't mean anything really, but every time I thought of the Librans I thought of them as being the Librarians. That's just me messing up words). ( )