SO I GOT AN ADVANCE COPY OF STEVE (S.M.) STIRLING’S Shadows of Annihilation. It’s the third book in this series, and from my perspective the best. My complaint about the first one was that he created a really interesting alternate history, but so much of the action was up-close that you didn’t really get to see much of that world. Each of the successor volumes had gotten better in that regard, and the protagonists have become more three dimensional. (I won’t say “realistic,” because this is spy fiction — James Bond isn’t realistic either, though these characters are a bit more realistic than Bond.) At any rate, I very much enjoyed it, and look forward to the next book coming out soon. Highly recommended.