I just finished this old (1988 - wait -that's not old is it?) space opera and I really found it enjoyable. Yes, its space opera. No brain bending ideas presented here.
But, if you like the idea of events on the interstellar scale also having a personal touch, then well, this book is for you. It all starts when a guard ship (one of the massive ships that safeguard Canon space) intercepts a freighter with an alien aboard that is supposed to be extinct... From there, it gets into the intrigues of the Great Houses (and I believe this bunch could teach the Harkonnen and Atreides lessons), the Guardships and its living and deified (recorded) crew members, survivors of conflicts with the guardships and living artifacts. Its wild, its twisted and I wish I'd read it earlier.

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Reviewer: S. Batten "SB" (Tasmania, Australia) - See all my reviews

One of the best space operas I've read - my only complaint is that Glen Cook never wrote a sequel.
The story revolves around a Canon Guardship (think a massive starship the size of a moon with the firepower to obliterate a star system) and the attempts to break the grip of the guardship fleet on the galaxy. Add in issues with an immortal crew now several thousand years out of step with current society, a rebellion drawing on the resources of 100's of star systems, alien empires trying to covertly topple the system, a means of rapid interstellar travel created by some unknown race in the distant past, mix them all together and you have something bigger and much better than Star Wars.

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