The Absconded Ambassador by Michael R. Underwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks goes to Tor and the author for the ARC!

A few weeks in to her new life, Leah gets thrown into two, yes, two, major infodumps! Poor girl. I never guessed that managerial duties in a big corporation could sound like so much technobabble and serve all the same functions... but wait!

This Is SF. Of course we have technobabble! Especially when we're getting ready for SPACE OPERA! Woo Woo!

My Genre-loving friends, get ready... we're out of the saddle and back in the Saddle, but this time we've got alien politics, burgeoning alliances, mystery, and enough fast-paced Pew-Pew action to make me think I was in a golden age rocket ship, and indeed, that's the point.

Gotta save the universe by saving the universe. Always the multiple layers. :)

I won't give it away, but there's a special crossover and some special character development. It makes me wonder if the ongoing genre-bending events on both sides of the tracks are going to get us into a lot of epic troubles.

It's not quite a cliffhanger, but it serves as a great continuing story hook that is still self-referential in all the story ways it needs to be if it's going to be a self-respecting meta-Genrenaut.

Be forewarned! Setting is just as important in Space Opera SF as story, so don't blink! :)

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