Supernova

Supernova continues where Light Years left off. It is filled with all the "galactic boarding school" tropes. The kids fall in love with each other. They fight. There are battles over a girl. There is a giant conflict where the adults are messing things up and only the kids can make things right. Even though it is set in a distant world, the people share the same liberal values of our society.

The book is not long, but it does suffer from too many characters. Some characters seem to play an important role, but then just disappear. (It is not clear what happened to the "bully") Others seem to have no real purpose in the plot. (There is a regular interlude with two boys in love - but they don't seem to do much for the story other than fall in love.) The main characters do stupid rash things, but every thing works out due to some dumb luck. The only real loser is an authority figure who was trying to prolong the war to benefit military contractors.