The "origin" story of a young man trained as a surgeon and heir to a noble house of an interstellar empire, compelled by custom to become a torturer, the primary duty of Fleet Inquisitor/Chief Medical Officier. The training course is a set 10 levels, starting at verbal abuse and quickly escalating to physical and potentially fatal violence. This is often ugly, but not ugly enough to entirely convince and while the pace and interest level pick up, there is a discouraging grim despair, not inappropriate, pervading the initial chapters, interleaved with a telling of the standard markers for "this character really isn't the typical dregs, this one is" that have become, though they may not have been in 1997? when it was first published. There is a twist in the character development which adds interest and tension, but is more buried under plot that satisfactorily addressed or developed, and huge hooks for future conflicts aside from the core one left bandaged over. ( )

What's good is great, and what isn't is mostly an amateur flexing. A powerful and alarming character study. Every person on Station is obsessed with Kosciusko, who can do no wrong (except for that one little thing...) my thoughts on this are still jumbled. I have the next several books in the series to start ASAP though. ( )

Gripping space opera drama. ( )

Epic space opera. Addictive to read and re-read every few years. Worth a read. ( )

This was a really good book. I'm a big fan of sci-fi in general, especially if it's more character based than plot based, which this one is. It's not an uplifting book - it's actually quite dark and depressing in many ways, but it's also quite engaging and interesting. Will definitely be reading the next one. ( )