This is much more of an action story than the previous one. And it has a distressing body count. It begins with six of the Guardia Real being killed by the kidnappers, and goes on to rack up an even higher list of casualties. On the one hand there is the commando raid on the caves where the princess is being held, which sees several of the Guardia Real and the Operaciones Speciales killed or wounded. Then there is the space battle which saw the Adano-Ambradan mothership destroyed in a suicide collision ordered by the insane general of the Terrignan revolutionary fleet, and presumably any number of the fighter ships in the dogfights with the Terrignans.

And the big issue in this story is one that gets glossed over a little, it must be admitted. Penne, a young ruler of his Empire, who had not worn the crown for very long, committed so many of his subjects to a war that had little to do with Adano-Ambrado. The comparison with Vietnam made by Terry, who was a young man in the era when that war was being fought, is apt. And there are plenty of other examples in Earth history. And the problem is clear. Penne risked losing the faith of his people by allowing so many of their sons to be killed in a war that was not about the security of their own homes.

Of course, as Penne did point out, the fall of Terrigna to a despot with empire building ambitions would not have been good for Adano-Ambrado. General Baqra Geint WOULD have set his sights on conquering Adano-Ambrado next. But that was a political gamble.

In the end, it came down to Hearts and Minds, as it so often DOES in politics. Penne almost certainly won the loyalty of his three planets by being a handsome and poised young man who looked good on the postage stamps and currency of the planet, who had most of the female population a little bit in love with him and so on. The fact that he had learnt to be a good politician, and a fair and just ruler under the guidance of Ambassador de Lœngbǽrrow was secondary to the glamour he cast. And Cirena, beautiful and tragic, having lost her planet in the war, standing at his side would have finished off most of the doubters. It’s a bit of a Princess Diana scenario. People thought the world of her because she was beautiful. Whatever accomplishments she had were secondary to how she looked in formal and informal photographs. The Hearts and Minds of the people were with her. And thus it is with Penne and Cirena. Between them they won the beauty contest, the popularity vote. And the question of whether he did the right thing in committing so many Adano-Ambradan lives to that war was forgotten.

The fact that Adano-Ambrado HAS an army and a space fleet, of course, was something that had to be explained. The fourteen months that Chrístõ was away, which only amounts to a month in the lives of his other friends on their honeymoon, were time enough to train an army. Sammie and Bo, he with his SAS experience, she with her martial arts expertise, could do that. The space fleet was paid for with mineral wealth. Penne’s domain was rich in that and so it was easy enough.

Guardia Real and Operaciones Especiales, of course, continue the vaguely Mediterranean feel of Adano-Ambrado, a name taken from Italian/Spanish influences. Guardia Real of course is Spanish for Royal Guard. Operaciones Especiales is obviously Special Operations. Sammie trained an elite force among the army.

Chrístõ going to the rescue of the king was something that took a couple of revisions. I was in two minds whether he would succeed or not. Rescuing the king in the nick of time would have been very heroic. But in another way it was important for Chrístõ to know what it is to fail, and it made Cirena’s plight more significant. Of course, she ISN’T the last of her kind. There are colonists on the other planets of her system, and the pilot and crew of the Terrignan shuttle, and her ladies and waiting and attendants. Even so, Chrístõ’s thoughts about her situation, and wondering to himself how he would feel in her shoes, is a forecast of his eventual destiny.