This second book in the Kris Longknife series has Lieutenant JG Kris Longknife assigned to a ship which is testing the new smart metal.

When she gets a distress call from her friend Tom, she uses some leave time to travel to Taurantic to try to rescue him. She is traveling with her bodyguard Jack and a new maid hired by her mother whose name is Abby.

Rescuing Tom is not beyond her small team's capabilities especially with the addition of another Navy Lieutenant named Penny. But the rescue was a trap set by Kris's old enemy Cal Sandfire. Sandfire wants Kris dead but she's only one small part of his bigger plan.

With Kris stuck on Taurantic because of an Ebola outbreak and a strangely coincidental failure of the Comm System, Kris finds herself using her role of Princess Longknife to find out what is going on on the planet. She finds that Sandfire is building a space fleet using merchant hulls. The question is whether he is working on his own or at the direction of Henry Smythe-Peterwald the Twelfth.

Kris has met Hank Peterwald the Thirteenth who is her agemate and someone she should have a lot in common with considering that each has a trust fund hovering around a trillion and powerful parents. But a series of accidents whenever he's around leaves Kris uncertain about whether Hank is a villain or a dupe.

The story was filled with action and intrigue. I really like Kris's new maid who seems to have lots and lots of secrets and some really strange competencies. I like that Kris is smart and creative and driven to make things better for those around her.

This is an entertaining series with great worldbuilding and great characters. ( )

Second Kris Longknife - again, one I've read several times. Kris (and crew - Abby shows up here) get stranded on a planet that's got major political and other problems. No ships in or out (quarantine), no communications in or out (fire in the relay center), no...third time is enemy action, and Kris starts moving. I liked the scenes in the Arab quarter - nice, if sketchy, characters there. Though the displayed fact that prejudice and general attitudes haven't changed at all in three or four centuries seems unlikely. She runs into Hank Peterwald again, and finds he's still a believer in his family. It ends up with a rather spectacular blow-up, a hijacked ship (that just happens to have Hank aboard...oops), and Kris in trouble again. Though given her actions probably stopped a war or three, not _too_ much trouble. ( )

I enjoyed this more than the first book, [b:Mutineer|129582|Mutineer (Kris Longknife #1)|Mike Shepherd|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309283922s/129582.jpg|124804], but at the same time this was really pushing the line with its sexual content.

While not explicit, it is made more of than I am comfortable with or want to read about. ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and alil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and alil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )