I'm really not sure where Weber was going with this novel. The premise is that the human race is at war with the Kangas (an illogically homicidal bunch of aliens) at some point in the future. A human space navy task force catches a Kanga force making a hyperspace jump back through time to attack the Earth before humans reach space. The two forces arrive in the early 21st century, battle to near mutual destruction in the skies over the Atlantic Ocean, involving a United States wet navy task force in the showdown. The sole surviving member of the time traveling human force, Ludmilla Leonovna, is rescued from her escape pod at sea by Richard Anton, a retired commander of Navy Seals, and the sole surviving member of the Kanga's attack force, a cyborg known as a Troll, goes to ground in Antartica. The rest of the novel deals with Dick and Milla's trials in getting the armed forces and governments of Earth to understand and believe the threat posed by the cyborg and, eventually, in defeating the cyborg before it can destroy mankind.
It seems as if Weber has blended some elements from earlier novels (notably, the Mutineers' Moon series) with some of the fast-paced militant fiction style that he's developed writing the Honor Harrington novels, and just tossed off something to satiate his ravenous fans while he writes the next HH installment. There's nothing new here. It was well-written, as we've come to expect from Weber, so it provides a few hours of enjoyment on a cold winter night. I wish he'd have spent the effort on a new novel in one of his existing series, tho.
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