....last in the trilogy. there were a lot of things i liked about this series, but it never quite jelled for me - it was okay as an (oddly ambitious) shallow adventure story, but i wanted more from it, largely because i thought i could see more peeking out from under it from time to time. for instance some bits made me think of Keith Laumer's Retief stories (there's a lot of espionage sf in this, but no character that's as interesting as Retief), and of Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan. but the characters were not as interesting, the backgrounds were mostly bland, and the plot often solved its plot knots by the seat of its pants, leaving the reader to go all 'what? no way!' i haven't given up on this author, though, and i will try another book of hers again in a couple of years. ( )

A great conclusion to the trilogy, satisfactory even. It still feels like there are more stories to be told in this universe and with these characters - I hope we see more! ( )

I put this up for a 5-star because I think everybody should read this series and honestly the ups and down to the turns was fantastic ( )

I liked this final installment in The Protectorate trilogy, but I didn't love it. There was a heavy emphasis on action and plot over character development, and in the end this simply felt too lengthy for what it wanted to do. Scenes were dragged out unnecessarily and (at least for me) this called for something to balance all the action. It sounds odd, but it became a little boring after a while.

I feel like maybe the author was a little bit rushed in getting this book out in a relatively short period of time, which resulted in the fact that a lot of great ideas and plot points were just thrown in the pot without the necessary spices or the finesse to actually cook them into a proper meal.

I'm glad I read the series, though, and I hope O'Keefe will come out with more sci-fi in the future.

( )

10/10 stars ( )