Ceephay Queen by Joel Shepherd

I love the Spiral Wars series by Shepherd.  The two year gap between Qalea Drop and Ceephay Queen was difficult to endure but enhanced the pleasure of diving back into the Spiral Wars universe with my beloved characters.  I intentionally read this book slowly and even recorded some aphorisms:

One worries less about turbulence when one is a pilot. There is a metaphor in there somewhere.

You start to use it, thinking it is a saddle but it ends up being a leash.

A person meets her destiny on the road she takes to avoid it.

Nothing is more dangerous than an officer with a good idea.

The photon hits the electron; the wave hits the shore; we are all just pawns in some larger game; the magic of sentience lies in the attempt to make the process slightly less random.

Why make a small threat when you can make a bigger one?

The day humanity accepts that "dangerous" automatically means "bad" is the day we start to go extinct.

You may not be interested in violence but violence is always interested in you.

I was disappointed in Styx's new character arc and her dialogue; I don't particularly like most of the new characters.  The new species, Rhee incompetence, and lazy writing about the politics are also a little disappointing. The book is still fantastic and I can't wait for the next installment. 5/5 Stars.