First, you have to read the first book Peacekeeper in order to understand this book at all. A good third of the beginning is given over to exposition that glances over the facts of the first book. That said you can commence reading the second book.

Ariane is once again up to her neck in trouble, though to be fair some of it is leave over from Peacekeeper. She isn't a reckless character, but circumstances and past events have made it hard for her to live a peaceful life...even if she wanted one. She's guilt-ridden, fully accepting the death sentence that's being cried out, but she won't toss her life away when she can instead be using it to protect people. Her determination to, not really atone for the past, but never make those mistakes again, make her a tough customer and driving force to be reckoned with. Her partner Journey isn't a meek shade either, but Ariane is clearly in charge of the story.

As I mentioned above there's a whole boatload of exposition in the beginning that made this tough for me to wade through at first. Even having read the first book within the last four months, I found myself growing weary of all the facts being thrown at me. I wouldn't call this a light read for the casual science fiction or military-action fan, Reeves assumes that if you're reading the book then you're going to be able to keep up with the pace of the facts. This isn't so with myself. I thought this was less hardcore then it turned out to be and found myself reluctant to continue on with the book initially.

The latter half of the book is better, focusing less on what's happening every where at once and concerning itself more with Ariane and her dilemmas. If you enjoyed Peacekeeper, then you're sure to enjoy Vigilante, but for casual fans this might be a lot to swallow to get to the interesting part. ( )

cover-Like the first cover, love it...however, the gun and the hair don't really match the story - small potatoes though when compared to the other factors of the cover.
I LOVED this series. Emotionally scarred, functioning alcoholic, n-space pilot, military reservist with undercover assignments, mixed feelings for her civilian boss, a job on an exploration ship, Destroyer of Worlds, Explorer of Worlds, Ariane as Kedros, full of guilt and ghosts in her head - and that's just one woman. The other characters are just as interesting. Her military commander, her civilian boss, the newly growing Aritifical Intelligance, the spies/enemies turned "allies". This is one hell of an interesting novel full of intrigue, betrayal, twists, aliens, space ship travel and danger. Loved it.

One of the best things about this book is the dialog and the differing pov's in the narration. I guess some would call this the characterizations. Each character had a distinct voice and style. The dialog between all the characters was so believable because it all read so naturally - all the differing characters had their idiosyncracies and manners of speech. I feel like I might be raving a bit, but sometimes in these SciFi books, the dialog can be a bit....over-dramatic or overly formal to denote a different planet or country. These all meshed nicely. Some of the characters even had the added depth of a type of sign language - little flicks and gestures that added to the conversation.

In Vigilante Ariane Kedros is off duty, traveling with her business partner to a generational ship that is in a new system. Things are complicated when the generational ship is attacked and taken over by extremists - extremists who don't care how many people they kill or if they cause a sun to go nova. They have an extremist agenda - and yet the leader is being led by someone else. Many layers are well - layered on this plot. Once again Ariane has to deal with a weapon of mass destruction, only this time it's a stolen one and she has a very slight chance of saving the system. Her former enemies are suddenly uneasy allies, because everyone wants to survive and they're all under attack.

There is one more book to go in this trilogy (which I've read by now)
I think the trilogy is worth reading and I wish Roc/Penguin would ask for more from Reeve. Fortunately, Reeve is working on a prequel to Ariane's story and hopefully it'll be available for purchase...I'm hoping. anyway, you can check out the website and sign up for notification, which I did. sometimes, I'm quite the geek. The website also includes some of her worldbuilding, alternate history, info about the mysterious Minoans (the aliens) and the characters. I'm already missing the novels, now that I've finished reading them. It's fantasy/UF time now, though. I've ran the gamut of all the SciFi I could find that caught my eye. (I am a bit picky about my SciFi Space Travel novels) ( )

Amazon preorder,Amazon received