There was a boy and a girl and a strange new planet; the planet was alive with hideous dangers. But the boy and girl were very young and all Robin wanted to know was: "Who stole my doll?"
The opening act of a true space opera. A cynical officer whose career wasn't exactly going great is given a shot at glory and accepts for the wrong reasons. A ship that should not even exist finds itself circling the changeover of eras, the good times have passed and the storms are approaching. A galactic alliance on the brink of a new age, the many parts that make its whole unaware of each other. A hastily-gathered crew learning to become a unit, not by choice, but by necessity.
Most useful high explosives, like ammonium nitrate, are enormously violent. once they're triggered. But they will remain seemingly inert when beaten, burned, variously punished--until the particular shock required comes along....
My family taken and being bitten by a blood drinker changes my life. Now I walk the night to enforce the laws and convents of the kingdom and the councils. Some times it is just to show my presences and others it is my judgement dark creatures seek. And then there are those that would bring chaos and I must take a life to make a final judgement.
Working on the theory that you can skin a sucker in space as well as on Earth, the con team of Harding and Sheckly operated furtively but profitably among natives of the outer planets. That is--until there was a question of turnabout being fair play in a world where natives took their skinning literally!