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.
Fifteen years ago, Ariane Kedros piloted a ship on a
mission that obliterated an entire solar system. Branded a
war criminal, she was given a new identity and a new life
in order to protect her from retribution.
But now, twelve of Ariane’s wartime colleagues are dead—
assassinated by someone who has uncovered their true
identities. And her superiors in the Autonomist army have
placed her directly in the assassin’s line of fire on a
peacekeeping mission that will decide the fate of all
humanity…