Best volume in the series so far

I don't think I've ever read a novel that seriously tackles the idea of women in the armed forces. It's rare to see an author dealing with the consequences of the differences between the sexes and the facts of how men and women interact. I can't speak to how closely the results resemble reality, but it must be noted that one shouldn't trust public relations departments or activist academics to explain how women have integrated into armed forces. They have too much of a vested interest in promoting a given policy or ideology.

A military should seek to maximise within its numbers the best possible combatants it can find and train. In this, the novel acknowledges that, by and large, men will be better than women. It thus unashamedly employs different standards for the female units. Men and women are segregated, by the way. This is to simultaneously enable more women to graduate, prevent overall standards from decreasing, and also prevent conflict. It also prevents improper fraternisation within a unit.

There a lot of detail I'm not going to cover. It suffices to say that various arguments for and against women in the armed forces are dealt with. Again, I can't speak to the real-world accuracy, but it's mostly convincing.

Piper Goodeve is a much better narrator than the regular one for this series. She doesn't present quite the breadth of voices that some narrators can achieve, but her voice is clear and she acts out the characters quite well. I'm actually going to miss her voice when I move on to the next volume.

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