More fairly unbelivable and lighthearted fun in a space colony.

Having gone from backwoods survivors to fully established colonists within 9 months, this the 2nd of the series marks the beginning of their even more outrageous plans to overthrow the rulers of the galaxy. The Catteni were seen as the bad guys, but the colonists co-droppee, Zaniel has persueded them that the Cats are also subject to a higher power and it is the Mentant race Eosi who should bear the Terran's ire.

With the extremely duex et machina plot device of help from some even more advanced but benign mysterious and absent aliens - The Farmers - the colonists on Botany use their insider knowledge of Catteni protocols to lure unsuspecting ships and plan outrageous heists. Fortunetly the former Seargent in charge Chuk is able to pass control over to some proper Admirals and Generals to plan things 'sensibly'.

If you stop and think aout any of it it just doens't make sense, and there are heaps of logical, logistical and other realism problems that Mccaffery just skips over. But if you can really suspend your disbelief then it works quite well as fun escapades in space.

Enjoyable fluff. ( )

I was a bit dismayed to find that this was the second in a series, but this is not the first time I've read a series out of order. I am impressed that the story line could be easily picked up even if you hadn't read the first book. I would have liked some sort of miracle to happen where Catteni and Human genetics could mix and produce a child but I guess that would have been too fictional for this science fiction story. I really liked the speed at which the book progressed: steady with action but not too packed. The cliff hanger at the end was very well placed, didn't leave the reader disappointed yet you did want to see what came next. My favorite part of the book would have to be when the Botanians met with the Farmers. I will look foreward to seeing more of this incredible race in the next book. ( )