This novel would appear to be a fixup of two short stories previously published. The sections covering those short stories are the best parts, but the beginning drags a bit in actually getting us there.
The pacing is weird (I suspect it’s due to the fixup) with long sections which are flashbacks or quotes and most of the action happening in the second half.
Also, the summary blurb would be a massive spoiler if it wasn’t completely incorrect. Don’t read the back cover summary. It says something that really isn’t true. The real hook is: our hero Alex Benedict wants to know what his uncle (father figure?) was trying to find out when his space liner randomly misjumped out of existence. It’s National Treasure but instead of American history it’s the detailed fictional history of a far future human space civilization organized around common defense against aliens. I wanted a space opera and I suppose I got one in a slightly roundabout way.
I will note that I read this because I started Polaris and realized that it was actually book two in a series several chapters in. I’m going to restart Polaris and see if anything makes more sense, but it felt pretty self contained (and I think the author improved a lot in the intervening decade and a half anyway.)
The setting has some interesting space opera set pieces, but my favorite is that the center of the character’s universe is a planet called Rimway, Earth is an afterthought.
