Booklog 02/2019 - Tanya Huff: An Ancient Peace – Peacekeeper #1 or Confederation #6

[jacey]

This is the beginning of another sub-series of books about Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr. (Now ex-marine, though still tied in to the methodology and the code of the service.). She's pulled together a team of elite ex-marines plus her lover, Craig, and one somewhat needy diTaykan crack programmer, barely this side of legal. Together they work for the Justice Department, taking on missions that officialdom balks at. This time they are sent after a gang robbing a H'san gravesite which potentially holds planet-killer weapons. Torin's company needs to find the grave-robbers before the robbers find the weapons, otherwise a war looks likely.

An engaging premise, and I've loved all the previous Torin Kerr books, but somehow this one was a slow starter. I admit it's a few years since I read the last Torin book, but I'd forgotten a lot of the detail about the different races and lost site of some of their language, (often used without explanation). To be honest I found the first half of this book slow going as the team thrashed about, trying to find a lead (unsuccessfully). It picked up the pace when they got to the cemetery planet of the H'san and entered the catacombs following the grave robbers, but all in all not my favourite Torin Kerr book. I was intending to read the other two straight away, but I might give it a bit of a rest before trying the next one. I would recommend if you haven't read any Torin Kerr books that you start from the beginning with Valor's Choice, which is #1 in the Confederation series.