After another punishing engagement, the Alliance fleet commander and his senior staff are murdered when they go to negotiate terms, leaving Geary in charge. Nominally anyway. Real command is going to require dealing with the hero worship he hates, the ones who resent him because of it, and the vast middle ground of battle weary officers who need a reason to hope but who aren't taking anything, even legends from the past, on faith. While those hundred years have brought a lot of changes, with the technological ones his least concern. First challenge up - the enemy Syndic's ultimatum to surrender within an hour or be killed. Of course to the true hero, there's always a third option - accomplishing the impossible...

Tactics were presented so that even this non-expert could readily grasp them - I particularly enjoyed the consideration of relativity's effect in space battles, and the need to factor a delay between perception and reality caused by distances measured in light years when managing a battle. Just as importantly, the book is filled with real people you care about, not just toy soldiers in a box.

That starts with John Geary, who may once again end up a legendary hero despite himself, but who is also very human and even more appealing because of it.

This was an old fashioned military action-adventure story without cutting edge quantum, nano or cyber tech, but still offering some food for thought and some thoroughly enjoyable reading. Recommended.