A fun enough adventure with a few cool ideas, but doesn't really measure up in strength of plot or characterization. This could've been a pleasant, breezy piece of filler, but for some reason it's Ace's comeback story, which really ought to resolve the tension of her having left the Doctor in disgust a few books ago. Instead it just sort of... doesn't. Everybody just got over it, I guess. She's totally cool to hang out with the Doctor again. After having previously told him she'd kill him. And then she's supposed to be shocked when he lies to her again..? Sure.

There's a lack of interest in certain emotional beats that undermines a lot of what this book is trying to do, even aside from the Ace/Doctor situation. One of our main locals-who-gets-dragged-around-by-the-gang has just had his girlfriend gruesomely euthanized by the villains to become a piece of their brain-computer. The horror and cruelty in this system coming to light is one of the strongest parts of the book, and really integral to making the whole thing work at all. They totally kick the legs out from under this guy's plot with a throwaway joke about how he had another girlfriend he liked better anyways. Likewise, the whole Daak plot falls a bit flat with nobody having much response to him unceremoniously getting his head blown off, after Ace spends the whole book desperately trying to keep the moron alive.

Overall this one's readable, not the military drama slog I was expecting. Still ranks above the ones I couldn't finish, and some of the ones I could. But I wouldn't jump to read it again.