Rules of Conflict (Mass Market Paperback)

by Kristine Smith (Author) "Name?" Jani Kilian shifted her attention from her aching stomach to the admissions clerk who held her MedRec card by the corner like a dirty..." (more)
Key Phrases: vend token, idomeni embassy, idomeni ambassador, Sam Duong, Captain Kilian, Kristine Smith (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A fine new voice in the field of science fiction." -- -- Catherine Asaro, author of The Veiled Web

"A well-portrayed far-future society and a strong protagonist. . .Smith milks paranoid possibilities like an old pro." -- -- Asimov's

"The characters come alive in an intriguing setting...Smith is a major new talent in the field." -- Talebones, Fall 2000

Product Description
Anarchy Rules

For eighteen years, Captain Jani Kilian has been hiding from her bloody past. Now she faces trial for what she once did, what she knows now, and what she has become.

Eighteen years ago, she was saved by a radical -- and illegal -- medical procedure that added alien genetic material to her own. But her hybrid body is breaking down. And so is everything else.

Relations between the human and alien idomeni races are deteriorating as rapidly as Jani Kilian's augmentation. And Jani's reemergence has caused old wounds to reopen and new wounds to form. Perhaps it's time for a damaged soldier to stop fighting; to let the desperate architects of a vast and devouring conspiracy keep the truth well hidden; to let the universe and everyone in it go straight to Hell.

Perhaps not...

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Eos (September 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038080784X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380807840
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #731,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A winning interstellar read, October 1, 2000

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Almost two decades ago, Jani Killian served on a diplomatic mission to the Idomeni. Her superior officer broke regulations and interfered in the local civil war. In the subsequent dispute, Jani kills him, but almost dies too from an explosion. The doctors on board, Shroud and Parini saved Jani's life when they introduce Idomeni DNA into her body. Jani went underground so she would not face charges of mutiny and murder.

Eighteen years later, her body seems to be rejecting the foreign DNA. Desperate for help, Jani checks into an obscure off-world medical facility where her past still catches up with her. However, instead of a trial and conviction, Jani, accompanied by an intel officer and an archivist, begins to investigate what really happened on Idomeni and why everyone who was involved wants it kept buried at all costs.

RULES OF CONFLICT is an exciting science fiction tale that proves Kristin Smith's debut novel (see CODE OF CONDUCT) is no fluke. The story line is complex due to the interstellar conspiracy to hide the past. Surprisingly, and this further demonstrates the author's talent, the intricacy of the plot actually augments the non-stop, fast-paced action. Ms. Smith's talent resides with her characters who appear real whether they are Idomeni, earthlings, or the reengineered hybrid heroine. Ms. Smith takes the X-Files into outer space.

Harriet Klausner

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome second book in a awesome series, November 22, 2000

By	J. Chung "Junebug" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to admit, I normally don't like reading a trilogy or series of books. Waiting for the next book to come out just is a pain... especially if you're really hooked into a good triolgy like this one.

The wait was WELL worth it. The follow-up to Code of Conduct is amazing. Enough intrigue, mystery and conspiracies to make an X-files fan VERY happy with a dash of action thrown in for good measure. All in all a recipe for an excellend sci-fi book. Jani Killian is one of the most kick-butt heroines I've read about. Very human, but someone well worth cheering for. The secondary characters are very well defined as well. The Idomeni culture is superbly described, alien yet familiar in some ways.

Before reading this, you definitely should pick up Code of Conduct and read it. It's well worth your time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Promises Kept, December 10, 2003

By	lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This is the second of Kristine Smith's "Jani Kilian" novels, and it's a great read. Smith's first offering, "Code of Conduct," showed promise: it was brilliantly written although confusing and overly flashbacky. This one is even better written, if that's possible, and not at all flashbacky.

At the end of the first book Jani, the cat-eyed "augmented" hybridized (against her will) military document examiner who once apparently killed her commanding officer during a civil war among the alien Idomeni (some of whose DNA she now carries) seemed to have got clean away after solving a murder mystery. But in this tale she quickly gets pulled back in, and the next thing she knows she's up to her neck in diplomatic negotiations, while her body enhancements are failing (fix the chick's knee and get her a new liver--STAT).

Smith's plotting is delightfully over the top although confusing, and maybe she's done that on purpose. She obviously wants to focus attention on Jani and her mob (a few chapters are told from viewpoints other than Jani's) while the diplomatic events, having to do with delicate human-Idomeni negotiations, are kept murkily in the background. And so what I took, in the first book, to be "first novel" faults may in fact be deliberate. No doubt more shall be revealed in the author's next volume (the third of four), "Law of Survival." I look forward to it.