author : Jan Clark

Rieka Dagahv is an Earth Human starship captain who gets caught up in a dark conspiracy, with the warlike Procyons involved somehow, in a universe where Humans are second class citizens. She and her alien friends must unravel the puzzle before the Commonwealth of planets is destroyed.

I certainly can't complain about lack of plot twists or set-backs -- the action rips along: Reika is arrested, released, captured, escaping, captured, rescued, fighting battles, and captured, seemingly every other chapter. And there are plenty of alien species interacting. But it has a rather old-fashioned feel, and a bit too flat -- I found the prose a bit too stilted, the characterisation a bit too shallow, the aliens a bit too humanoid, and the space battles a bit too wooden.