Black Eye Galaxy Arbitrators – C.R. Daems

I enjoy Daems’s books, and I enjoyed reading this one - but it wasn’t one of his better efforts. Daems has a formula that can produce better or worse books: The protagonist is an extraordinarily-capable woman with some special ability. She assumes a leadership position and out-thinks and out-fights her enemies. Her victories often depend on a gimmick - something she does or thinks of that provides an advantage. To put it in perspective, the gimmick in one of his books was “use a computer for accurate targeting”. In this book it’s “use your ships’ stealth capabilities to surprise the enemy”.

What is most missing from this Arbitrators book is arbitration. The world - and presumably the galaxy - is full of messy conflicts in which all participants consider themselves to have legitimate grievances. That’s where arbitration can come in. All the conflicts in this book have obvious bad guys, and arbitration is replaced with combat: The Arbitrator carries a big stick and is free to apply it.