What a hoot! At it's heart, this is a David and Goliath story. The huge corporations vs the upstart Archangel system. The corporations are defrauding and riding roughshod over everyone, and the Good Guys stand up to them. Everyone thinks that the Good Guys are going to be squashed right away for such a silly thing. The Bad Guys REALLY want to slap the Good Guys down, because it's bad for cash flow and a bad example. Got the basic setting?

Into this conflict comes Tanner Malone, Everyman, who reads a lot. He reads manuals. This dude is surrounded by girls, and can't get any relationship past "Friend" going. He doesn't want to fight, he can't pilot anything, and yet ...

He wins fights with fresh approaches, he "steps up." This is categorized as YA fiction, but grownups can like it too. Everybody likes a good "coming of age" story. Everyone likes to try to get better and to take up for their friends.

I like the characters, especially all of the tough women who beat up the bad guys, out-think the bad guys, and then complain that they don't get to wear dresses to anything cool.

Looks like there will be more to the story, and they haven't run out of Bad Guys yet. I'll be there.

The space battle, called the Battle of Rafael, is a fine bit of sci-fi.

One bit of spice to this story is the action of Captain Casey, who you might remember as a bad guy from Poor Man's Fight. He's a terrific character. So much was happening in the climax that I'm not sure whether he's still with us or not. I have my fingers crossed that he'll show up again down the line.

There is a spy in the story, Vanessa Rios, who I'd also like to see show up again. In case it's not obvious, I like the characters and care about what happens to them. Is there anything more to wish for in space opera? Big battles, cool characters, and a setup for another book?