Alex Benedict lives in a time of a tenuous Confederacy of human-inhabited planets. The various planetary governments maintain their relationship to one another largely due to the shared military threat posed by the alien Ashiyyur species. Otherwise, the humans from different worlds hold each other in political distrust, a situation exacerbated by slow travel and communication technologies.

Benedict inherits from a deceased uncle an intriguing, albeit maddeningly undefined, historical puzzle. Were the heroic founders of the Confederacy—whose names and deeds are enshrined in poetry, textbooks, and monuments on dozens of planets—the people the legends make them out to be?

A Talent for War is part science fiction, part detective story as it follows Benedict through his investigation. There are some nice action/adventure scenes, but the larger questions McDevitt poses are those pertaining to historical myth. To what lengths will a hero, his allies, or even his enemies go to secure a place in history? What are the costs and benefits of unveiling historical legends? What agendas do the maintainers and debunkers of these legends bring to the task?

This is a quick, lively read. The heart of the story is not so much any single character, but their shared history. McDevitt makes that history, and Benedict’s quest to understand it, believable and interesting.