With Hunted, Gardner returns to the core of the series: the high crimes of Admirals and the dark secrets of the League of Nations.

Edward York is a genetically perfect clone of his father, the Admiral York, with a slight flaw in his brain that's rendered him embarrassingly stupid. Packed away to the Explorer Corps, he's spent 20 years on a small observation post around the planet Troyen, home to the insectile Mandasar. When a ship taking him to nearby Celestia crosses the line, everybody else is killed by the powerful intelligences of the League, and it's up to poor slow Edward to figure out the crime and save the day.

What he finds is a decades-long conspiracy to foment civil war, create a slave race, work around the League laws on murder, and exploit the unique biochemistry of the Mandasar to save humanity. The biochemical mystery is fantastic, a real cool take on the insectile hive alien, and mutual influence on thoughts via pheromones. We also get some important setting detail. The human Technocracy seems kind of blisteringly incompetent, even given anti-government slander. Turns out that this is because they actually are: in the past 400 years since humanity joined the League of People, their intelligence scores and physical abilities have declined, and no one know why. Admiral York's plan to create biological kings is insane, but may be necessary. Of course, he love of war seems rather misplaced, given that in-setting God is Real, and he smites people who even think of transporting weapons with a mighty hand.

My one concern was that Edward would prove to be some kind of magical retard (to borrow a phrase from Tropic Thunder, but as viewpoint character he's not nearly as stupid as he claims to be. While he's no Miles Vorkosigan, he puts the pieces together decently enough.