The whole series seems partly to involve a restating of the old pastoral/technological conflict. The Republic worlds are more technologically oriented, while the Mageworlds rely on the use of magic to maintain a fairly bucolic-appearing culture. One of the shocking aspects of the Mageworlds system is the way the Mage Circles use killing of members of the Circles to augment their power. This is done by sympathetic characters several times in this story, and it is one feature that tends to increase this reader's sympathy for the other worlds.

The way in which the presumable technological system of faster than light travel is integrated with the presumable magical talent of "Voidwalking" is another interesting feature. In general, the magic/science interaction of these stories seem to be excellent examples of pure Space Opera world-building: fairly internally consistent, not quite scientifically plausible but with just enough sensible handwaving to allow suspension of disbelief, and allowing plenty of room for colourful action.

The story is fairly involved, featuring several viewpoint characters and several threads of action, some only tenuously linked to the rest. The mainest main character is Arekhon Khreseio sus-Khalgath sus-Peledaen, the younger brother of the head of the sus-Peledaen star fleet/family. 'Rekhe, as he is called, is introduced to us as he is performing his familial obligation by serving in a minor capacity on a starship. His real ambition, however, is to be a Mage. His apprentice voyage is successful, and he forms a relationship with an up and coming young woman of the fleet. Then he leaves the family and joins a brand new Mage Circle, headed by an older, more powerful Mage named Garrod.

Garrod plans to try to cross the mysterious starless gap, caused by the long past "Sundering of the Galaxy," and to find the human-inhabited planets he is convinced exist on the other side. Parallel threads follow 'Rekhe's lover as her career blossoms in the sus-Peledaen fleet; the actions of a spy for the sus-Radal, one of the Peledaen family's key rivals; and the actions of a mysterious group of plotters who resent the collective dominance of the various star travelling families over the loose confederation of the Mageworlds.

The story takes a while to get going, a common problem when there are so many threads to initiate. But eventually Garrod makes his exhausting quasi-magical trip across the gap, and 'Rekhe persuades his brother to sponsor a trip to the world Garrod finds. But the technological situation across the "sundering" is rather different from what the Mageworlds are used to, and it isn't at all clear if this contact will be a good thing. At the same time, the various plots coming to a head back home threaten to disturb the settled, somewhat peaceful, order of the Mageworlds.

The conclusion is exciting and satisfying. The plots turn out to be more convoluted than expected, and in a sensible way. The authors manage to make the people of the Mageworlds believable and basically good, while at the same time setting them up to be the villains they become in future books. The various characters are also believable, and mostly likeable, even when they act in questionable ways.