It’s always nice when a series with a shaky start improves rather than collapsing under the weight of previous issues.

This book continues to follow Paul Sinclair on the Michaelson, in a “U.S. Navy in Space” setting. This time he’s introduced to a slacking officer who he has to deal with in the middle of a crisis. The crisis results in an investigation of serious wrongdoing, which Paul initially carries out. He subsequently takes a central role in the ensuing court martial.

Hemry either figured out that the minutiae of Navy life wasn’t everyone’s forte, or he figured that he’d covered the details well enough in the previous volume that he didn’t have to rehash them here. Either way, there is much less naval jargon and procedure and a lot more stuff happening. Navy procedure is still rampant, but most of it is only discussed when people are doing things that need context. As a result the book’s pacing is a lot better.

Another thing that helps with that is that more things actually happen. The disaster, investigation, and court-martial take up much more space than the incidents in the previous book did, and the book is better for it. The investigation part of it was a well-done detective story, and there is a lot more byplay and legal maneuvering in the court martial. Some might not consider that interesting, but the byline of the series is “JAG in space”, so I’m not sure what those people were expecting.

The major failing here is that the characters are a bit weak; there isn’t a great deal of complexity to many of them, and the ones that are slightly more complex don’t get much time in the story. The romance sub-plot is still present, but it is still predictable and somewhat clumsy, to my mind. The girl’s father is also introduced, and that encounter also follows patterns so predictable as to be clichéd.

Despite that, the story is more like a cop show. While it’s nice if the side plots are engaging, much can be forgiven if the main mystery is well done, and that’s certainly the case here.

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With this second in the series, we establish the pattern of interaction/action in the first half of the book and then trial in the second. Author Campbell never gives away so much information that there is a foregone conclusion nor are there any tv-drama hysterics or surprises. This serious is about an everyman standing up for ideals (a recurring theme in Campbell's books) despite the costs.

Story: As Paul Sinclair works his way up the military ladder, engages with a new Captain for the Michaelson, and gets to know fellow officer Shen better, life settles down on the ship. Until an explosion rocks the engineering deck and costs a good man his life. When the evidence is collected, it points to an officer better at impressing superiors than performing his job. A young man whose father is an admiral. As Sinclair watches on the sidelines, he'll find he may be more involved in the case than hoped - or feared.

The story begun in the first book builds quite nicely in this second novel. The characters are all interesting and fascinating - from the antagonists to the friends that Paul meets on the ship. As crew continues to rotate around him, he'll deepen some relationships but also be forced to say goodbye to others.

The court scenes are surprisingly engaging and it helps that even Paul himself is not sure that the fellow officer is guilty. I found that once I started the book, I didn't want to stop and stayed up quite late with it. The story really was that good.

I listened to the Audible version and the narrator did an excellent job.

The second "JAG in Space" story picks up where the last left off -- a young ensign (now Lt JG) slowly advancing in his career, which includes being the collateral legal officer on his US Space Navy cruiser.

What's remarkable about this series is how unadventurous it all is. Yes, there's danger and drama, but very mundane. The "bad eggs" are easy to spot (if not to deal with), and of all the conflicts that one expects, 9 out of 10 of them simply don't materialize. It's very work-a-day and non-operatic, while still being a quite enjoyable read.

Another good series by John G Hemry (also known as Jack Campbell). Second in the series and I am looking forward to where this refuses-to-be-a-space-lawyer goes next in career and what happens next on his ship.

Very enjoyable account of another case that a legal officer has to deal with. Everybody is being very professional and precise, collars starched and buttons gleaming and seemingly always at attention. Things seem very tidy.
For me, it is often very difficult to tell which customs are space navy and which are already present in the real US armed forces. My basically pacifist family has little to do with the our own armed forces. My elderly relatives were all drafted to serve in the Wehrmacht and later the Volkssturm, my father and childhood sweetheart were drafted for nine month, my brother for one, but the military does not have a strong presence in my life. Especially when it comes to the highly standardised language and sheer amount of flag-saluting.

This seems more realistic than the JAG TV series. Apart from being set in space, the customs and traditions of the Navy are adhered to very closely and it doesn't appear that any part of the UCMJ has needed any altering for ships in space vs ships at sea.

This is basically a 'life aboard ship from the perspective of a young officer who has the collateral duty of ship's legal officer.

In which the main character's actions in the previous book, plus a couple of serious cases of nepotism, cause things to spiral. I liked the legal plot a lot, but found the complications of the romance plot and her jealousy -- too serious to be just a play for laughs -- to be annoying and borderline inappropriate (death threats of the "just kidding" sort). But I like the story, and again the verisimilitude covers up a number of sins.

Another entertaining legal procedural drama type story in the space navy of 2100 and very much characteristic of exactly what it is. I thought the court martial was interesting, but I also enjoyed the slower paced character arcs surrounding it.