Strange aliens. Mysterious artefacts. A cold war that used to be hot. A pilot with a dark secret in her past, and a troubled present. Disarmament treaties for weapons of mass destruction. Plots. Politics. Prospecting. Strange technology. Aliens. Bureaucracy. Terrorism.
With elements such as these, I’m a little surprised that Laura E. Reeve’s Major Ariadne Kedros novels didn’t make a bigger splash. Peacekeeper came out in 2008, followed by Vigilante and Pathfinder. All three are already out of print.
I’m quite fond of them, because while they’re a species of military space opera, their military aspects are those of a peacetime military. So we get intelligence and counter-intelligence operations and uncomfortable co-operation with old enemies, bureaucratic audits and the problem of your own side’s politicians, sabotage and spies and lots of manoeuvring. They have a civilian perspective much military space opera neglects to include. And Reeves humanises both sides of the conflict between the Terran League and the Confederation of Autonomist Worlds.
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