You owe it to yourself to read the two previous books in order. There are space battles, daring emergency landings, desperate quests, hand-to-hand combat, and double-and-triple crosses. About Raising Caine: 'Raising Caine unveils a lot of thought-provoking ideas but ultimately this is a space opera adventure. Assuming that the bizarre and dangerous Slaasriithi lifeforms don''t do it first. And that means finding and killing Caine Riordan. A group of renegade K''tor are following them, intending to destroy humanity''s hopes for a quick alliance. But Caine and his legation aren''t the only ones journeying into the unknown reaches of Slaasriithi space. The possible prize: a crucial alliance in a universe where the fledgling Consolidated Terran Republic has very few friends. But mere hours after the attackers surrender, the mysterious but potentially helpful Slaasriithi appeal to Caine to shepherd a diplomatic mission on a visit to their very alien worlds. Gannon is also the winner of the Compton Crook Award Caine Riordan, reluctant diplomatic and military intelligence operative, has just finished playing his part repulsing the Arat Kur''s and Hkh''Rkh''s joint invasion of Earth. So were prequels Trial by Fire and Fire with Fire. Triple Nebula finalist series! Raising Caine is a Nebula Award finalist. Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.Science fiction adventure on a grand scale.

Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly-and to fight fire with fire. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient-enough so to have built a lost civilization. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself.

Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. 2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon-a history-making clandestine project-and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles.

Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon