Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife, Princess and kick ass military leader, is scouting the poorly-mapped rim of human- populated space. Her task, to eradicate any pirate's nest or drug-growing enterprise she encounters, without stepping on sensitive Peterwald family toes or giving the appearance of gaining influence over any part of the Peterwald's Greenfeld Territory

Her first task presented by the mission on the planet Kaskatos brings the difficulties front and center, when she discover the inhabitants are kept near starvation by refugees and former Greenfeld State Security members who fled to the agricultural planet from a Peterwald-held industrial planet. There is no way to bring order to Kaskatos and distribute the desperately needed famine relief without thoroughly eradicating any resistance and setting up a temporary police force, something difficult to explain when she inevitably encounters a Peterwald. The stakes ramp even higher when young twelve-year-old Cara is kidnapped by slavers and taken though an unfamiliar jump point. Every person on the Wardhaven Scout Ship, Wasp, is hunting with blood in their eyes, hoping to rescue the young crew member before the unimaginable happens.

Readers have come to depend on Mike Shepherd for fast-paced military science fiction bound to compelling story lines and adrenaline-pumping battles. This eighth in the Kris Longknife series does not disappoint. Kris Longknife is a hero to the core, with plenty of juice left for future installments.