This is a Man-Kzin war novel in the Known Universe created by Larry Niven but written by a different author. From an interview I heard Niven doesn't like writing war stories so he opened the Man-Kzin era to other writers. I think he has to OK the concept of the story before it can be published.

This is a long novel. Very long, 963 pages. Some of that is used to explain the Kzin and there is a prologue written as a academic paper to explain the history a bit for those new to the Kzin story line. Without that and a lot of the (well done) info dumps throughout the novel this could have easily been reduced a couple of hundred pages. I took this along as pool side reading on our vacation. That was a mistake because 1) it is done well enough that I spent too much time reading it and 2) it is long enough that it took most of the vacation to get through.

Those two points sum up my review, good but too long. It is good so do buy it and read it when its length won't be a problem. Don't start it before a project deadline or finals.

Dave K