This volume displays much more sophisticated plotting than its predecessors and finally allows us to see the big picture of galactic politics. In doing so, Scalzi finally also reveals what he thinks about the super-aggressive militaristic Colonial Union. It's what I had been waiting for.

The book jackets variously describe Scalzi as "slick", "accessible" and "entertaining", assessments that I agree with. At this point in his career he had not tipped over into overly dialogue dominated pseudo screen-plays, either. Fun stuff.