PEACEKEEPER is a science-fiction war story, set long after the war is ended. Following the use of a solar-system wrecking weapon, the Terran Expansion League (TerraXL) and the Consortium of Autonomous Worlds (CAW) have forged an uneasy peace, largely forced upon them by the alien Minoans. Now the disarmament treaties are in place, and its time for CAW's Major Ariane Kedros to host an inspection team of TerraXL. A fairly easy mission, except Major Kedros is on a short list of targets for an assassination squad because she helped fire the very weapon that is now being banned. PEACEKEEPER follows Kedros as she tries to survive the inspection process, the assassins and figure out who it is that's trying to kill her.

Starting a new science fiction series is a tricky business. You have to construct a future history, imagine a future society, create interesting characters, nations and plots, and you have to convey that all to the reader without either boring them to death or leaving them utterly lost, and still have room to tell an interesting story. And I am very pleased to say that PEACEKEEPER does an excellent job. The universe is exceptionally well realized, with a number of interesting concepts and ideas, from how society deals with ubiquitous surveillance, to regulation of Artificial Intelligences. There is an ongoing metaplot of who are the Minoans, and how the peace between the CAW and TerraXL will hold (or not). The characters are interesting, with room for their relationships to grow and evolve. The seeds are in place for subsequent stories. And, most impressively, the actual story of this first book is really quite well done.

In short, it's a good book, and it's a promising good first book in a series to come. I look forward to the next.