With Chris Bunch, I know I am always going to get my money's worth and this time it is no different. There is nothing original about the setup for this enjoyable space opera, but with genre fiction (and indeed most other types) "it ain't what you do but they way that you do it" so this hardly matters. Bunch brings his own knowledge of military matters to this story that he has endowed with a wonderfully real-seeming, future backdrop of planets populated by racketeers, gunrunners, pirates and sinister governments. The result is an edge-of-your-seat read that had me wanting more. My only minor gripe is that the aliens remain shadowy, and get mentioned rather than described. As concocting alien civilizations is part of the fun of SF, it is a shame that Bunch has so far missed out on doing this. First published in the US back in 2002, this is the first chance for UK readers to discover Star Risk. I'll read them all and still want more...