This is the sequel to The Duke of Uranium, which I
reviewed a couple of days ago. Jak Jannika travels with his buddies to
the habitat of Greenwood in the Aerie, where his former girlfriend is a
princess. He’s going because she sent him a secret message asking him to
come and “do something for her”, and to fulfill the requirement for his
Junior Project at the Public Service Academy. The action takes him as
far as the mines of Mercury.

The book has much the same strengths and flaws as its predecessor, but
there was more about it to dislike. In particular, parts of it combine
some really ugly sexual domination with a really cynical take on
relationships that I found unpleasant. It wasn’t gratuitous, I’ll give
Barnes that–he was establishing that a particular character is a
sociopathic bitch, and by the time he was done I believed him. But it
was unpleasant, never the less, and I could have done without it.

There are clearly more books to come; I’ll probably buy the next one.
But unless there’s a clear improvement I may not go any farther than that.