Bhaajan, who used to be a Major in the Imperial Army and who is now a private investigator, is hired by the Majda family when one of its precious princes disappears. The case will be a challenge in many ways.

First of all, the Majdas are one of the most powerful families in the Imperialate with many serving as ranking officers in the army. They are wealthy beyond counting and demand excellent service. Second, finding the missing prince means that Bhaajan will have to go back to the Undercity which she left to join the military. That means reconnecting with old friends and old enemies and going home to a place she had never meant to see again.

When she finds the prince and learns that his kidnapper had planned to sell him to the Imperialate's enemies, she finds herself in the middle of a big political deal above ground and a war between rival drug gangs below ground.

Bhaajan also finds that she can no longer abandon the Undercity which was her home. She needs to find a way to reconcile its culture with that of the above ground city. Those above ground, especially the Majdas, want to help but Bhaajan knows that their kind of help will destroy the unique culture that exists in the Undercity.

Bhaajan learns that she'll have to be an envoy for her people if she wants them to survive especially since they now have something that the rest of the Imperialate wants.

I enjoyed this story which starts as a mystery and ends as something else. It is great space opera. It is a part of Asaro's Skolian Empire series which consists of quite a few books, but it stands alone well since it is about a unique event and person only peripherally connected to the huge political picture.

Suzy Jackson's narration did a good job with all the characters and with the mood of the story. ( )

I was first drawn to Catherine's books by Saucony, first in short story, then the duology concerning her, & finally the Ruby Dice and this book. So far all were pretty good.... But this one falls short of those others. Several problems with the plot, but I don't want to go into spoilers. We'll see how the next goes... ( )

This book started out as an enjoyable fast-moving action story and got better and better. Several nice fresh ideas (which I consider the best part of science fiction) and even better, it's an early episode in a group of related novels. Lots to look forward to! ( )

Parts I really enjoyed and parts were pretty boring. It seemed like the author lost the train of the story in the middle. So there was a lull that I had to struggle through. The setting was interesting but I had a few problems with world building. I understand the appeal of matriarchal societies but I think that they would not hold up over the long term and here they have been in place for 5000 years. Unless you are inventing an alien race where the females are stronger than the males, female dominated societies don't really make sense especially when you are dealing with colonizing planets. Strength plays a huge part in those sorts of situations and she never said the men had been bred to be wimpy and weak. Why would the stronger sex allow themselves to be dominated and subjugated and kept in harems for thousands of years? I realize that the main portions of society had left this behind for the most part but it still seemed to be embedded in the psyche of the women. I see where the author was going with all this but she just didn't sell me on it.

Then the undercity part seemed a bit unlikely. The citizens of the undercity seemed too few to support a viable population. Also they lived off stealing and the black market but were utterly unable to leave the undercity so who were they dealing with?

I liked the main character but some of the secondary characters could have been better filled out.

This is my first try by this author and I may try another to see if the world building is more convincing. ( )

I liked this for the most part

It's long past time we had characters and stories set with everyday folks. ( )