War to The Knife, by Peter Grant, with a little extra

NO: I CHANGED MY MIND. THIS IS ONLY A REVIEW OF THE FIRST VOLUME!

Okay, the little extra is this: I've got to toss in a quick review of 'War To The Knife," which is the first book in the Laredo trilogy. I reviewed the work on Amazon on November 13, 2014, but at that time I was not cross-posting Amazon reviews to my then-moribund blog.
Furthermore, my review was really a non-review. I knew that I wanted to read a book by Peter Grant, but as it turns out, there are AT LEAST two Peter Grants who publish books in the Amazon KU program, and I inadvertently got the other one.  I figured it out when I got to the first explicit gay porn scene; I stopped with the mention of the zipper, so I don't know HOW explicit it was, but I knew that I had the wrong Peter Grant. (The other Peter Grant was done no harm by my error, as I read at least 10% of the book by that point, and under the provisions of KULL at the time, he received full payment.) But then, it turned out to be beneficial to me, because I titled my review "This is not gay porn," and then went with the explanation I just gave, and you know what? I got 16 'Likes' on that review. I don't think ANY of my other reviews has ever gotten as many as three 'Likes', although I could be mistaken. Up until this review gets posted on Amazon, I've written 109 reviews and have 93 likes; so that one little review accounts for 17.02 %. My reviewer rank is 43,087, up from 14, 360, 604, so just think where I would be if I DID review gay porn....
At any rate, here is a REAL review of "War to the Knife, followed by a real review of "Forge a New Blade." NO, THE SECOND REVIEW IS IN A SEPARATE BLOG POST.
After this small observation on the titles.
"War To The Knife" is a phrase at least 200 years old. It was a response from the officer commanding the defense of Zaragoza, Spain against the French demand for surrender in 1809. It's brief, and memorable; it falls in with responses like "Come and Get Them" and "Nuts." What it means, in this context is that the defenders are not about to surrender to a superior force as long as they have ANY means to resist, even if that means death. Now, given that context, "Forge A New Blade" means that
you KEEP fighting, even after your knife is gone, as long as you have the means to produce new knives (figuratively speaking).
And here's the situation: the lightly colonized planet of Laredo has been invaded and occupied by the forces of Bactria. The invasion is unprovoked, and is illegal under the provisions of the only multi-world authority, United Planets, BUT in order to appeal to them for help, the Laredo government has to come up with cash. And, the cash is held secure on the planet of New Helvetica (I don't have to explain the names, do I?) and in order to release the funds the bank requires three bearer keys. The only member of the Laredo government off planet has only two keys, and the Bactrians control all access to space.
Most, but not all, of the Bactrian forces occupying the planet are thugs. There is the usual tension between regular army and security services, so there is not total unity among commanders as to the best way of dealing with the people of Laredo and with the Laredo resistance. Currently, the leaders of the planetary administration advocate harsh treatment to anyone suspected of involvement with the resistance, which has been interpreted to mean no prisoners.
Leaders of the resistance are at the point of disbanding, since reprisals against civilians are the consequence of their actions; they also have no heavy weapons, or off-planet support to speak of. However, a raid made possible by the arrogant incompetence of one of the SS Colonels provides them with Bactrian equipment, and intelligence that the Satrap of Bactria and his son, the Crown Prince, will be visiting Laredo. They bet everything they have that an attack on the Bactrian leadership will create enough confusion to give them some breathing space, and get the remaining bearer keys off planet, along with conclusive proof of Bactrian atrocities.
Okay, here's the tough part. I have to END the review now, so as not to create spoilers, but I also have to review "Forge A New Blade." I don't know how to do that!
Well, heck. This is MY blog, after all, and I can change my mind. So, after initially planning to do ONE review of BOTH books, I'm not going to.
Cooperate with me. If you haven't read "War To The Knife," go read it. It's a Kindle Unlimited selection (as is Forge a New Blade), and if you don't have that, you ought to. It's $9.99 a month and you get FREE BOOKS.
Cooperate with me! I'm about to write the review of "Forge A New Blade," and if you haven't read "War" then DON'T READ MY REVIEW UNTIL YOU HAVE!!!!.
See, I'm an easy guy to get along with. Don't anticipate, Just participate.