author : Mike Shepherd

Ensign Kris Longknife is the daughter of a powerful ruling family, who has joined the space navy to escape from them. But soon she finds herself caught up in military problems, political problems, and assassination attempts, and she finds herself buying into the naval ethos. Her upbringing, and the ghosts of her past, have helped mould her more than she cares to admit, which leads her into having to make a dreadful decision.

A good page turner as we watch Kris grow into being an officer, leading assault teams, pulling a despondent crew into shape, and rescuing beleaguered farmers. The political interludes back home break up the action, and don't ring so true, but are all part of setting the scene for the rest of the series.

Junior Lieutenant Kris Longknife has a boring ship duty, but a suggestion on how to fix an engineering problem puts the ship in dock for a few weeks, giving her time to visit the family she joined the Navy to escape. So when a cry for help comes from her friend and fellow officer Tommy, she rushes off to his aid, despite knowing that it is a trap for her. Accompanying her are her bodyguard Jack, and her new maid Abby, who has a rather eclectic skill-set.

This is another romp-fest, as Kris powers forward, keeping the bad guys off balance with her momentum. Less on the military side of life here, and more on the political infighting (with real guns), as she meets up with an old foe. This particular episode is wrapped up cleanly, but new plot threads have been started off, presumably for inclusion in future episodes.

Lieutenant Kris Longknife is arrested and charged with misappropriating funds on her first mission. Relieved of command, she is asked by her greatgrandfather, King Ray, to go on a diplomatic mission. That turns out to be rather more exciting than has been assumed, but she tackles it in her usual style. And she returns to a planet stripped of its space fleet. When six unidentified battleships demand surrender, she has just three days to whip together a defence fleet from any space-going craft that she can find.

More non-stop slam-bang excitement, with a much greater military component than the previous book, as we see the detailed logistics of bringing together a disparate bunch of people to form a stop-gap navy, and embarking on an essentially suicide mission. And there is a price to pay, of course.

Lieutenant Kris Longknife is given command of Naval District 41, a space station around the backwater planet of Chance. It's been given to her to keep her somewhere out of the way, but at least it's an independent command. And this being Kris Longknife, it's not long before trouble finds her, and she finds herself in yet another hopeless battle with a ragtag fleet against overwhelming odds. But again, as usual, she manages to inspire loyalty and commitment from those around her to help her in her fight. And this time, the odds are a lot higher than anyone back home has realised.

No surprises that her ultimate victory isn't going to make life any easier for her.

Lt Kris Longknife has been sent to the idyllic world of New Eden, to keep her out of trouble. But New Eden hides a dark secret under its utopian facade, and soon Kris finds herself up to her neck in assassination attempts, and even a planetary coup. And which side is she supposed to be on?

This starts slap in the middle of an assassination attempt, and the pace rarely lets up as Kris discovers the unpleasant truth about New Eden, and we discover more about the background of her maid Abby. Again, Kris wins through, and again, there is a high price to pay.

Lt Kris Longknife aboard the warship Wasp is with a bunch of scientists exploring the new fuzzy jump points, but is also hunting pirates. Naturally, they find some pirates, which leads to a short space battle, and then, in Kris' inimitable way, a protracted land battle, all before her troubles really start.

This has a slightly less frenetic pace than usual, possibly because there's a lot of slogging through swamps, but it has all the action one has come to expect of a Longknife. It lets us see Kris fighting a different kind of battle, rather more lo-tech than she is used to (although with help from the odd nanite, and Nellie, to keep the plot moving along). And there's lots of juicy plot developments ready to come back and haunt her at a later date.

Lt Kris Longknife, still aboard the warship Wasp, encounters an Iteeche Death Ball. But they don't want to fight, they want to talk. So Kris finds herself playing diplomat to humanity's long-term enemies, whilst having to cope with an over-protective computer, and, along the way, solve a political crisis between a bunch of cowboys and industrialists, which puts her in more danger than she's been in before.

Another fun page-turner, with slightly less action, and more diplomacy, as we discover things in the universe are even more complicated than we had been led to believe.

Lt Cmdr Kris Longknife survived the last attempt on her life, but hasn't precisely recovered from it, when she's off hunting pirates and bringing famine relief to beleaguered planets. She has to oust some nasty pirate bosses without making the Wardhavens think she is annexing their planets. And then the pirate slavers abduct one of her crew. But Kris discovers that her increased rank brings increased responsibility, and she can't just lead from the front, all guns blazing, any more.

More space battles, land battles, and political intriguing. Good fun, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's not the Greenfelds that are the clear and present danger, but those snarky computers...

Now she's gone and done it!

Lt Cmdr Kris Longknife goes off on a mission to investigate the strange disappearances of Iteeche scout ships. She does it in an unconventional manner, by going off in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, she finds it, and things will never be the same again.

More fun space battles, strange alien motivations, and a whopping great plot development.