The Story gets a 3.5 
 The Book gets a 2 
 I enjoyed this story but would never have got through it had I not been listening to the audio. 
 LOTS of background information to the point that it detracts. There were times when I really wanted them to say that they had to use explosive type 1 instead of type 2 because it would make a bigger hole - rather than going over the history of each explosive's design, usage, cost, political repercussions, supply lines, etc. 
 There's even a completely unnecessary appendix at the end of the book that explains (amongst other things) which months have the extra leap year day(s) on various planets (many of which didn't even play a real part in the story). 
 As a side note, this book was published in the 90s, books are becoming more and more sparse in the unnecessary background info area. It is very likely that this level of unnecessary information was common and fully acceptable at the time of its publishing.