This note contains spoilers for the book.

Seventh of those damned Longknife books.

That's a joke; in particular it's a joke that any fan of the books, and the author, would instantly understand. No need to take offense on anybody else's part. (And if Mike Shepherd happens to read this and find it offensive, my apologies; let me know and I'll remove it.)

Kris ends up meeting the grandson of the Iteeche leader from the time of the diastrous war that's the background to all these books (we haven't met an Iteeche for 80 years or so, if you believe the official histories at least).

He's come to warn us about an alien invasion fleet.

While in some sense this is clearly setup for furture plot, there's a LOT of interesting thinking and schemeing and negotiating going on, and a lot of history revealed.. I'd rate this one of the better of the books so far.