Having called this a good ending to the series, allow me to elaborate. I was expecting a big blowout. Instead, it kind of petered out, as if it ran out of steam. However, it is more realistic this way - a lot of wars peter out when the combatants are tired of fighting. And it served as a useful setup for the Colonisation series.The major gripe is the same as I've had with the other books in the series - too repetitive! I guess this is useful if you had to wait a year between installments, but surely if you've read all the 3 previous books, you realise by now that the Race has a long history, that they can't mate without female scent pheremones, that Earth is colder than Home, etc. Still, an entertaining end to an entertaining series. I will definitely pick up this alternate history in Colonisation.