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I usually have a very good memory for details, but for this story I remember quite little.

It contained humanity/earth and some (one?) alien species. At some point an alien fleet was completely wiped out by some freak solar flare. Humanity claimed responsibility and said it was their super secret superweapon.

They then used the threat of using this superweapon to keep the peace. The weapon was supposedly split into multiple pieces and hidden, but could at any moment be reassembled.

I would expect that this is some sci-fi book from before 1990s, but I'm not sure. I am no longer sure if this was a major plot point, or merely some political setting for the story to take place in.

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  • Yes, it leads to the same book. However, that question nor the answers mention the primary plot point I remembered, i.e., this secret superweapon. As such, closing the question as a duplicate would be quite odd.
    – Mitchell van Zuylen
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 9:35
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    It's a local guideline - if the answer to a story-ID question is the same a both answers are marked correct, they are closed as duplicates. Both are considered valid questions/answers, but usually linked even if different elements referenced. Has been subject of a number of meta discussions.
    – Michael
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 9:52
  • @MitchellvanZuylen funnily enough, thats pretty much what I said here: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/244649/…
    – Moo
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 10:15
  • @Michael I see. Thank you for the insight. It does come across as a little odd for the uninitiated, i.e., me, but I see the benefit for it.
    – Mitchell van Zuylen
    Commented Mar 31, 2022 at 1:46

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This sounds very much like Conqueror's Pride, the first installment of The Conqueror's Saga by Timothy Zahn, first published in 1994.

From a review on goodreads:

The book starts during a long period of peace. In the recent past, the Commonwealth "pacified" an alien race using their secret super-weapon called CIRCE. With the threat of this super weapon, the alien worlds in the Commonwealth don't dare rebel against the Commonwealth for fear of having the weapon used against them.

Towards the end of the book, a retired physicist called Ezer Sholom reveals the truth about the CIRCE super-weapon:

"It was the surge from a massive solar flare. That's all it was. Coming up just as the Pawolian ships sprung their trap. It came up behind them, you see, just as they left the protective cover of the planetary umbra. They couldn't see it coming, of course—they were in the umbra. A million-to-one coincidence. Maybe a billion to one."

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  • That's got to be it! I even recognize the cover art.
    – Mitchell van Zuylen
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 9:35
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    @MitchellvanZuylen Glad to help! Your question will probably be closed soon, as the Zahn books have come up before. Don't be discouraged by this, it doesn't mean your question was bad, just that it has been asked before
    – Clara Díaz Sanchez
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 9:37

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