Final Inquiries (BSI Starside) [Mass Market Paperback]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Very well plotted, if a little expository, but I found it gripping enough I regretted having to finish it. I will be looking for the first two in the BSI series to read, as well.

Bureau of Special Investigation Agents Hannah Wolfson and Jamie Mendez are sent to their Commandant to learn of a mission so Top Secret even she has no idea what it entails. To their surprise they are to work with Kendori Agent Brox, who they have teamed up with before. The Kendori and Humanity are Younger Races looked down on with scorn by the Elder Races who were in space long before man left the swamps. The Kendori and Humanity are not at war, but hostilities can happen at anytime as they are in close competition with each other.

They compete for the inhabitable worlds in the Perton System while an Elder Species the Vixa will decide who gets them. Brox takes the two BSI Agents to Vana to find out who killed a Kendori woman working in their embassy which is connected to that of the Human Embassy sharing a common work place. Circumstantial evidence points to a human as the killer, but neither Hannah nor Jamie allow surface appearances to taint their investigation. The more the pair digs, the more they believe that there is a larger conspiracy to put the Younger Races in their place, which is not in space; to do that without losing Elder blood means manipulating the rivalry so that the two lesser species are at war with each other.

This fascinating military science fiction thriller makes man in space competing with other races seem real due to the vivid social, economic, and cultural details of the Vaxa society. FINAL INQUIRIES takes place far into the future with humanity struggling to find its niche in a hierarchy in which those at the top of the pyramid want those underneath to stay there; as the superior races see mankind and the Kendori as recalcitrant children who need to be taught respect for their Elders. The BSI Agents and Brox try to understand one another as they work together on the homicide investigation, but it is difficult as the differences between their species have been emphasized though interestingly the two groups have so much more in common. Roger MacBride Allen provides an exciting space opera.

Harriet Klausner

BSI: Death Sentence is the second in the Bureau of Special Investigations series. Each BSI agent is a combination of police officer, diplomat, arbitrator, and jacks-of-all trades. They watch over humans throughout the galaxy, seeing that they get a fair deal. This time Special Agents Hannah Wolfson and Jamie Mendez are sent out to find the murderer of Special Agent Trevor Wilcox III. They also need to find out why he was killed and where he hid the decrypt key for the document he carried.

Trevor Wilcox was sent on a fairly routine courier detail. He wouldn't learn anything about the message he would carry unless the contact gave him information when he arrived to pick up the item. Long overdue, his ship, the Irene Adler, was found as was the body of Wilcox. Trevor, a young agent, died of old age. All evidence points to the fact that he knew he was dying and that he expected to be boarded again after his death, so he'd hid the decrypt key for the document that he carried so that only another BSI agent could find it. The bad news was that so far no one had. The document's contents are unknown but could cause a galactic-wide war -- so it's imperative that it be found as soon as possible.

Now we're up to chapter two, the tension just continues to build from here. Hannah and Jamie are sent to Metran to see if they can learn anything from the people that Wilcox had met with while on planet. Metrans are one of the elder races and the Unseen Ones who lived with the Metrans were an even older race. Hannah and Jamie are being dropped into the deep end of the pool sans swimming lessons and expected to figure it all out before they drown.

Once more Allen gives us a rich detailed world and civilizations with all the attendant rules, tensions, history, and backstory. He manages to pack the book with all the information that is needed with the clues right out there for all to see, but to stir the pot with enough miscellaneous information so that our main characters will solve the problem about the same time we do. The tension is kept throughout and the witty repartee is just what's needed to release some as you read along.

Allen has to be one of the best writers of hard science fiction going. While his novels are entertaining, they do manage to pack in a lot of information without that "as you know, Bob" feel.