As always--Riveting!

Plastic data sheets, rogue Silsviss, the presence of the much disliked and inept commander General Morris, Warden Torin , Craig and the rest of the Strike team have their hands full with new developments that bring up old challenges. Devious plans are being hatched by the Humans First fanatics. The finding of data sheets similar to the plastic from before has everyone including the elder race, the H'san on edge.
After Warden Torin's Strike Team's last mission, where information about the H'san and their ancient, deeply hidden weapons cache, Torin's trust of them has devolved even further.
"The H’san were the Eldest of the Elder Races. They sang to the dawn. They loved cheese. For most of the Confederation, that was enough." But not for Torin!
Presit of course becomes involved and with all theses free wheeling, loose cannons the stakes just became higher.
I love the interplay between Torin and the rest of her crew, the way she reads a situation, and her easy acceptance of those who are different. Her understanding of the different races is shrewd and most often compassionate, except where fools abound.
Another great ex Gunnery Sergeant, now Warden Torin happening!

A NetGalley ARC

I started reading Tanya Huff back in the 1980's and the stories just keep getting better. Great, well rounded characters, a setting you can easily visualize and an adventure you want to follow to the end. Although this was book 3 in the series I was able to follow the action within a couple of chapters without having read the first two. I intend to rectify that situation shortly.
Elder aliens keeping a tight leash on their adopted, aggressive younger worlds after needing them to fight a war and keep them safe. Elders claiming to be unable to react with violence themselves. Total transparency is the byword of the day- but it seems many things are hidden. A very readable book,will keep your interest!
I received this ARC from NetGalley.

If this is truly the end of ex-Gunnery Sergeant now Warden Torin Kerr’s story, I’m going to be very, very sad to see it end. Torin’s story, from its beginning all the way back in Valor’s Choice (nearly 20 years ago, OMG) has been absolutely marvelous.

I began the Valor/Confederation series and the Vatta’s War series at about the same time, so they are both inextricably linked in my memory. They also both finished at the same time, and then revived at about the same time. Wonderful synchronicity.

And they both feature kick-ass, strong, idiosyncratic heroines in vast interstellar space operas. The biggest difference is that Vatta’s War and its sequel series Vatta’s Peace are mercantile space opera, while Confederation/Peacekeeper is strictly military SF.

Torin Kerr begins the series as a Sergeant in the Confederation Marines, and even though at the end of the Confederation series she does manage to retire the sergeant from the Marine Corps, as we, she and her crew discover in An Ancient Peace, the first book in the Peacekeeper sequel series, it is impossible to take the Marine out of the sergeant.

Even in what passes for peacetime, she’s still the Gunny. Mostly. When it counts.

The Privilege of Peace picks up almost immediately after A Peace Divided leaves off. Which means that this is not the place to start. And as much as I loved An Ancient Peace, the first book in the Peacekeeper series, I don’t think that’s the place to start, either. Because this peace, and the characters’ reactions to it, all depend on who and what they were during the late war, and what their relationships to Torin Kerr were during that war. If you enjoy military SF with great characters, terrific world-building and absolutely fantastic heroines, start at the beginning with Valor’s Choice.

And I envy anyone who does a binge-read to “earn” The Privilege of Peace. I’ve read the entire series, but as it was published. Which means that the details of Torin’s history happened even longer ago for me than they do for her. It took awhile for me to get back up to speed on all the names, faces, races, and reasons behind each character’s inclusion in this conclusion.

Because of that “ramp-up” time, the story seemed a bit choppy at points. Lots of characters have similar names, the reader is expected to remember all of their backstory, and the action jumps around a bit. It takes a while to set up the big showdown with “Big Yellow” and the Humans First pukes.

And that’s a hint that there are effectively two different enemies in this book, at least for certain definitions of enemy. Possibly also for certain definitions of factions.

“Big Yellow” turned out to be the enemy of the entire Confederation series. And while the threat of them returning has hung over all of the Peacekeeper series, in Privilege they really are back, and no one is happy about it. But at least now everyone knows that Big Yellow is the big enemy, even if they can’t always recognize its “minions” when they appear. Or disappear. Or hide in plain sight.

That second enemy is the home-grown variety. Humans First will sound familiar in entirely too many contemporary 21st Century ways. They believe that Humans are better than every other race in the galaxy and that the Confederation is holding them back from their greatness. They also believe that violence – along with infiltration and blackmail and other nastinesses – are the way to take their rightful place in the galaxy.

The idea that humans will carry their xenophobia into the stars is more than a bit depressing, but feels all too possible.

Torin and her friends are, as usual, stuck in the middle, caught between the manipulations of Big Yellow, the violence of Humans First, the mind-numbing insanity of Confederation bureaucracy and the secret dreams of the Confederation military.

Peace is a privilege that has to be earned. And as usual, Torin Kerr and her companions are paying for that privilege with their own blood, sweat and hopefully not too many tears.

Escape Rating B: I loved traveling with Torin and Company one more time. Not having just finished a binge of the entire series, it did take a while for me to catch back up, and the longer it has been since the beginning and the more that has happened since that beginning, the longer it seems to take with each book.

The multiple perspectives in The Privilege of Peace made the story seem a bit disjointed at times, but I still liked the journey and felt that the ending was earned. Which means I can only recommend this book to fans of the series. And I still think it is well worth reading the entire series.

The blurbs claim that this is the conclusion of Torin’s journey. If so, I’m sorry to see her go and I’ll miss traveling with her, but she has certainly earned her happy ending. And it is a happy ending – or at least as happy as Torin can manage.

At the same time, there are enough loose, or at least loose-ish, ends that it would be possible for the adventures to continue. And if that occurs, I’ll be glad to watch the Gunny kick more ass and take more names. Anytime. Anyplace. Any galaxy.

The Privilege of Peace is the third and final installment in both the Peacekeeper series, and the Confederation series. Warden Torin Kerr and her team have come a very long way not only since the beginning of this series, but the end of the Confederation series as well. We are to the point in this world where nobody trusts anyone. Elder Races are ready to lock down the Younger Races who helped them fight a war against the Primacy. Younger Races are tired of being disrespected, which has leads to a group of Humans taking dangerous actions that have left Torin and her team on the cusp of facing yet another war.

While the Humans First pirates continue to steal raw materials in their ramp up to war against the plastic aliens, Torin and team must finally deal with an issue that has been in the background for a year now. This is that of the plastic data sheet found on planet 33x73 that led to scientists being taken hostage by a group of pirates, former military, and those from the Primacy. Torin always knew Big Yellow would return. After all, she and Craig had plastic aliens in their heads once.

Disaster looms at every angle. Torin is a catalyst for disaster and disaster attracts attention. Torin also has a very public face since her past actions are legendary. Torin distrusts the H'san and makes them uncomfortable whenever she's around. H'san are the only race who keeps a facility of ancient weapons which Torin found out in the first installment in this trilogy. She's seen too much death and destruction ad has lost too many people to be taken lightly. She knows that they are up to something, but what is the question. Torin in known universally as the person who faced the Silsviss and survived, as well as the Big Yellow which was in her head. Can she survive one final mission?

Note to readers. Please don't be like me. While I thoroughly
enjoyed this trilogy, I could have used the previous series as a background to understanding all of the alien races and the political landscape, as well as Torin's fights that have been well documented in each and every book. The world building is hard to keep track of if you don't know what the author has already set in motion. There is a whole lot of military shenanigans, jokes, and this series, in the end, is a pretty decent space opera with a cast of hundreds.

This book pretty much continues right after the previous one so may not be the best place to start. The Peacekeepers at the Dept of Justice seem to be fighting Humans First on all fronts including in their own ranks. The piece of Big Yellow that was found in the previous book is going to be shown publicly before it is locked away. Torin, Craig and Presit are there to touch it to see if they can get a reaction that the scientists couldn’t get. They do get a response by the way of the data sheet sending a signal to the rest of the Big Yellow and of course Torin and crew are needed to be there when Big Yellow arrives. The ending is good, but I certainly want more stories in this setting.

The Justice Department's new Strike Teams are very busy combatting piracy and hostage situations. The terrorist group Humans First has turned started hijacking raw materials to build a fleet. Meanwhile, Parliament is considering locking all of the Younger Races planet-side to keep their violent tendencies from upsetting the rest of the Confederation. And ex-Gunnery Sergeant Warden Torin Kerr has become very suspicious of the mysterious H'san, whom everyone else trusts implicitly. When the plastic aliens' spaceship Big Yellow reappears, the situation gets even more complicated.

Well-rounded characters, tense situations, and gripping small-unit military science fiction without the common jingoism make for a worthy entry in a highly recommended series.