I first read this book back in the mid-nineties and just re-read it. It's an excellently paced example of military sci-fi. It's listed as Starfire #2, but it's actually a pre-quel to Insurrection, which is Starfire #1 and is better read before that book. In fact, Insurrection is actually the fourth book in the series when listed chronologically. I can recall being quite confused on my first reading, and it taking me a good portion of the book before I was sure that it was a pre-quel and not a sequel.

The book does one thing exceptionally well, and that's maintain internal consistency in tactics and technology, this is largely due to the fact that the book is based on the Starfire game that models both space combat and empire building. The authors also designed the game (or at least the edition that was out when the books were written), and by building the story around the framework of the game they were able to create a level of consistency that is missed in some other works.