I may be generous in my assessment of this book but I felt it was the best of the "JAG in Space" series to date (4 in the series). All of the novels f..Show More »ollow the same formula - some action at the beginning with a tragedy of sorts, followed by a prolonged court room drama. Apart from the fact that the action occurs in space the novels really aren't science fiction. Don't bother with the book if you want hard sci fi.

The books roughly follow the experiences and tensions of a junior ship's officer with collateral 'legal officer' duty. In this book (more than the others) the tension seems more realistic because the protagonist is the instigator of the court martial procedings and so has a more vested interest in the outcome. That makes the tension and concern seem more plausible than in other books.While the consequences of going against more senior officers do not materialise in this book (but are implied to become manifest in book four), the real concern that they could and that the court room drama could become "career defining" make this a book worth listening to if that is your 'cup ot tea'.

The small things that are observed in court including the lawyer tricks add to the overall interest in the developing character of the protagonist but the arm wrestle between prosecution and defense should have been a bit meatier.

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The JAG in space series is really only good for those people who like courtroom dramas. Like all of the series there is nothing in the story that is p..Show More »articularly science fiction - it happens to be a court room story that involves a problem with a space ship.

In this story the actual case seems to be very improbable and it is disappointing that the defense is so poor that no credible or plausible witnesses are found and the really obvious defense argument [that if it so much equipment was tampered with how could it have occurred in such a way that everyone not notice it in any way?] is not even addressed during cross examination.

To enjoy this story you really need to like stuff that goes on in a court room. By this time (the third novel in the series) the mundane stuff has become a little tiresome and seems like padding; weighing too heavily against any action that occurs. With about a third of the novel dealing with the courtroom stuff directly I would have liked better development of the arguments and the resolution is far too obvious and predictable, especially with the patently poor prosecution case.

Still there is some interest in the resolution of the case. If you're looking for science fiction or space drama this book and this series is definitely not for you. However, if you have some spare credits you could certainly do worse than this book.

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This book is not a bad listen. But at the end you (ie I) get feeling that there needed to be something more to the story; some greater reason for ther..Show More »e to be all the apparent tension but there's not. Like the other books in the series there is a bit of action at the beginning and then the book falls into a prolonged court room drama, and except for the fact that the initial action occurs in a space setting there really isn't much science fiction about the book. This book has a little less of the mundane court room stuff than the previous volumes and it is interesting to follow, especially some of the things that occur outside the court room but as the end was coming I was expecting something to happen. When it did happen it was more surprising in its banality than its twist. I thought that some of the side issues could have been handled better and I personally would have preferred more action dispersed throughout the novel rather than the two part formula of action then court room. The amount of intrigue is probably less than I would have otherwise expected for an espionage plot. The entire series of "JAG in space" is also misnamed. In reality you only have the perspective of a ship's officer with collateral 'legal officer' duty and while there are large editorials to fill you in with other's perspectives, the tension is all that of the legal officer not the court room drama. The only 'space' aspect of the novels is that the events occur in space although they could have easily occurred on a seafaring ship. At least there was a little more science fiction technology in te evidence of this novel, but only marginally slow. Definitely more a novel for those interested in court room stuff than science fiction or action.

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