The beauty of this book is thinking through the implications of long distance space travel. There’s neither hyperlight speed nor wormholes to make the trips from one solar system to the next fly by in a whirl of stars. It’s long-haul travel for the humans and other combatants. Thinking through how this affects the protagonist, his family, and his love is just as interesting as the different worlds he travels to and the aliens he fights. It’s a classic sci-fi for a reason, and apparently a series—which I just now saw. I’ll have to finish it as I thoroughly enjoyed this one.