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I stumbled upon this book in a used bookstore--I loved Emma Bull's War for the Oaks and Territory but had never heard of this one until I saw it on the shelf. I was really excited to find it, but felt like it wasn't as amazing as War for the Oaks. The first half of the book takes place much earlier than the second half, so I spent a good while waiting for the "main plot" to start (because Part I seemed mostly unrelated to the plot blurb I'd read on the back of the book, so I felt like I was trying to get through the set-up.) Looking back, of course, it was important to have all that information from Part I for Part II but it's hard to get attached to a setting and characters when you expect that they won't be around for very long.

My impatience and short attention span aside, I did enjoy this book. The narrative jumps around a bit in Part II and you don't get as much action from Niki's perspective, which is understandable but felt a bit too sporadic at times. The ending felt a bit rushed, and by the end there was hardly any narration from Niki's POV, probably because the author was withholding certain details to keep the ending a surprise.

The science fiction behind the gestalt pilots and the gaming was pretty interesting, and of course I always enjoy reading future scifi/space stories that were written in the 80s, before everyone had laptops and smart phones. Overall I enjoyed this book but it took me awhile to get into the story.