I don't think I'll ever call this the best Space Opera mil-SF I've ever read, but it DOES have its moments. The fighting is quite a treat, in fact, as was the cool alien tech, the tea, the crystals, and all the reasons and purposes around them.

On the surface, it may appear very familiar to the SF trope world, but Bear digs deeper and serves up some really great and classy, mind-trip stuff. Oh, my uploadable universe. :) Taking the data stores of Eon and ramping it up big time.

On the other hand, I'm caught between treating this as lite-fare popcorn fiction with alien discovery elements showered with military action, moving out to the reaches of Titan. Did I already say I love the alien stuff? Well, I did, and the BIG QUESTION about the Guru's, those guys giving us tech and telling us to go fight this battle, became a bit clearer.

Too bad about the fallout of a little bit of information, right?

What didn't I like?

Well... some of the character stuff was a bit confusing or overblown, almost like the MC was under a drug haze, and that IS the big question here. Between the Tea, all the artifact stuff AND the Guru stuff they threw into the soldiers, it's slightly confusing. Is it coming from him, other's memories, mind-conditioning, or just plain post-traumatic stress disorder?

And then there's the thing about me and Mil-SF in general. I like it somewhat, but not always and I have to be in a mood for it. Is it me or is it this book?

Still, overall, as an SF, it was average-to-good. This trilogy is probably going to be at the bottom of the list for must-read Greg Bear, unfortunately, but as for popcorn, I'm okay with it. ( )

I didn’t really love this, but it has some interesting ideas. It always bugs me when main characters don’t ask the right questions. ( )