For Hashi truth and fact are not the same and it is his struggle with this paradox versus his loyalty to Warden Dios that trips up the story and puts the salvation of humanity in jeopardy. Believing Angus a threat to Warden's plans, Hashi conspires with another pirate to destroy Trumpet. When Trumpet rockets into human space over an UMCP listening post, more than the Amnion Defensive pursue her, and she has no clue who are her friends.

For all those that thrilled to Lord Mhoram's Victory over the raver at Revelstone, the condition of the Land, and its people is a gut-wrenching examination of that question; what is evil? For the people of the Sunbane locked Land, Evil is Andelain, where health and the dead have power. Blood, sacrifice, the Rede of the Clave are the rhythm of life. Blood and sacrifice are how they survive.

I cry foul when ships in Star Trek or Star Wars line up on a plane and start shooting at each other from a few kilometers distance. Donaldson avoids that. The crew on a gap-enabled ship is blind until the ship's sensors can sweep the area and determine the location of objects in the vicinity. And in space, where everything is moving all the time, positions must be assumed, calculated, and, in some cases, guessed. Add the old challenge of matching or exceeding velocities in a chase and the ship-to-ship scenes become grittier, more real. Unlike the warp drive of Star Trek, the Gap Drive does not cut the vastness of space, it traps humanity into believing any distance can be crossed, then leaves them abandoned, all alone in the dark.