The Rebel Worlds
Poul AndersonThe barbarians in their long ships waiting at the edge of the Galaxy waited for the ancient Terran Empire to fall, while two struggled to save it: ex-Admiral McCormac, forced to rebel against a corrupt Emperor, and Starship Commander Flandry, the brilliant young officer who served the Imperium even as he scorned it.
Trapped between them was the woman they both loved, but couldn't share: the beautiful Kathryn - whose single word could decide the fate of a billion suns.
REVIEW
The basic gist is that Dominic Flandry (James Bond of the future) is on a quest to bring down a provincial rebellion threatening to disrupt the galactic empire, while breaking as many rules as he can and skirting war crimes and romance on his way to promotion and status.
The main thing I liked about the book is probably the extended sequence stranded on an alien planet with weird symbiotic natives, since I like the exploratory thing (new races, languages, behaviours). There are a number of things I dislike about the book, too, but that comes from reading too much Anderson so that I start recognising bits that sneak their way into pretty much everything he wrote (type of music, appearance of love interest, insistence on certain words, etc); still, see the first sentence for why I still enjoy the story.(