This is a very capable and imminently entertaining nod to the great universes that have been created by Asimov, Niven, et. al.

Written in 1990, it tries, and succeeds as a hard sci-fi epic. The Hegemony of Mankind spans 160 worlds linked by the "farcaster" network, a system of instantaneous-transport wormholes. Outside this network are colonial worlds, which are reached through ships employing Hawkins drive, faster-than-light travel, which incurs "time-debt" as a result of relativity. The original Earth had failed due to a Great Mistake, initiating a diaspora about 400 years after Man's first colonizations of other worlds through Hawkins drive. One one outpost world, explorers discovered the Time Tombs, which science has determined are traveling backwards in time, in an anti-entropic field. Within this field, dwells the Shrike, a seemingly all-powerful monstrosity of a four-armed humanoid made completely of glimmering sharp edges...

The tale has high drama, high-tech battle scenes, and epic journey, a bit of fantasy and a good helping of good ol' fashioned hard sci-fi, Asimov style, all set in a background of impending interplanetary war.

An excellent read, indeed. It's the first in a series of these book, of which I've onlt read this one.