This second book of Tandemstar takes us to Kingdoms, where the five gods of the Pantheon blessed a family line as living avatars to rule and technology is restricted. Enter Battine Alconnot, the -not denoting that she did not inherit the blessing of the god Ho, whose childhood sweetheart inherited the throne, but because Battine is Unblessed had to marry her sister instead. She usually avoids the court and her family, but promised her sister to attend this festival. The King tries to talk to Battine alone, saying that she is owed an apology, but before he can explain they are interrupted by the queen and later that night he is found dead. The murderer has unfortunately framed Battine, so with the help of an outsider and a servant ,she sneaks around the castle while looking for the truth. The shocking truth makes no sense to Battine but sends her to an ancient temple seeking the deepest secret of the Blessed.

Makk had the misfortune to be born on a day believed to be so unlucky that his parents barely paused long enough to get him tattooed with the outcast mark before dumping him at an orphanage. The stigma of that mark is so strong that before becoming a cop Makk considered joining the House, planet Dib's religious organization, simply because some of the monks wear concealing robes that would hide it. The city of Velon's best detective also grew up in an orphanage and is therefore familiar with their compound when a scholarly monk is found murdered. Almost from the beginning this isn't a typical case. The monk, Orno, is the younger brother of Velon's most notorious criminal. Orno had recently stolen a priceless ancient religious text that no one can read, but it appears to discuss the Culling, when the god known as the Outcast will return and bring about the apocalypse. Then, just to really annoy Makk, he gets saddled with a shiny new detective as a partner. Everyone wants the case solved without any secrets being revealed, but in a world where independent reporters record everything with drones and conspiracy theories are more common than facts, Makk will have difficulty distinguishing the possible from the impossible.

I didn't really know what I was getting into when I started this book as I was in a hurry and quickly selected what I thought was a fantasy book from my long list of pending reads. My expectations were initially satisfied as the book started with an assassin named Caine doing what assassins do and I started to get my bearings in this new fantasy world. However, upon completion of his mission Caine was suddenly transported back to a futuristic sci-fi world and I found myself being disappointed that this wasn't the fantasy tale I thought it was. Luckily though, Matthew Stover instead provided me with an interesting cross-genre story that successfully straddled two genres that I love and he won me over in the end with a compelling story.

It is 3000 years after the events that take place in Ender's Game and Ender Wiggin is alive and well, as is his sister Valentine. Having spent the majority of their adulthood travelling through space, relativity allows them both to be only in their 30s age-wise and yet they have both witnessed the progression of mankind for over 3000 years due to Ansible communications technology which allows for instantaneous communication across the vast distances of space. The Starways Congress has been created in the wake of the xenocide of the buggers and a new form of religion has been formed based on the writings of Ender Wiggin. Speakers for the Dead are now called upon to speak the truth for the recently deceased. Speakers are expected to neither condemn nor forgive the actions of the deceased, but rather shine the light of truth upon them so others can draw their own conclusions. Speakers are given ultimate access to the records of deceased individuals and anyone may request a Speaking. Once a Speaker is called upon and accepts the task the Speaking can't be stopped and the Speakers themselves have rights and powers protected by the laws of the Starways Congress to fulfill their duty. Since space travel still takes significant time it is not uncommon for a Speaker to arrive at a Speaking destination many years after receiving the initial request via an instantaneous Ansible transmission.

Twice before the human race has faced extinction at the hands of the Buggers, an alien race that ruthlessly attacks without communicating in any way, and many feel the 3rd war is imminent. It is within this context that we learn about the battle school set up by the International Fleet (IF) to train earth's most promising children to become commanders of the human fleet. Only a prodigy trained from birth in the art of war will be able to resist our deadly enemy and with the 3rd war almost upon us, humanity is running out of time. The powers that be will cut any corner and take any risk they deem necessary to get ready, because if they fail there will be no humans left to condemn their actions as immoral.