Games of Command

By Linnea Sinclair

Bantam Books, 2007, Paperback, 525 p, $6.99

The War between the United Coalition (UCE) and the Triad has ground to a halt with more or less a whimper. Both sides are proud but are working hard to create the new and peaceful Alliance. As a part of the Alliance Personnel Integration Program Tasha Sebastian, An UCE Captain with a murky past as a smuggler and highjacker, has been demoted to Commander and assigned to Flagship Vaxar under the command of Admiral Kel Patten, a Biocybernetic officer. This officer had been Tasha’s personnel Nemesis throughout the long war. Now he has requested Tasha. She fears he has a vengeful agenda.

His agenda, as Tasha finds out eventually is not quite what one would expect from a biocybernetic organism who has supposedly had the softer emotions programmed out of him. Before all this comes out the two discover that a sinister plot to destroy both nations lies at the root of the original conflict and that Triad is hopelessly infiltrated. Their security organization is completely dominated by the enemy.

Can Kel Patten with his programming and implants be saved? Is there any chance for the new Alliance? Is there any future together for our leading players? For the answer to these and many other questions read this novel with its delightful telepathic Furzels, its numerous and complex human characters, its mysterious evil enemies and its delightful, romantic and sometimes ridiculous situations.

The book suffers structurally from the author’s failure to perfectly meld all of its elements. The novel is a meld of the earlier work “Command Performance” and several short pieces written in the same universe. It does not flow quite as smoothly “Finders Keepers” and “Accidental Goddess.” Still It is a readable book and a good story. I recommend it. – Gary Swaty