it's fortunate this doesn't reflect real life

You know you've got a fun fluffy sci-fi novel when the protagonist, a secret-service agent on a diplomatic mission, has a day in which he meets with three major players in the Empire's home planet politics, has his office destroyed by a bomb, and foils 6 different assassination attempts (not counting the bomb). And the action hasn't even really started yet.

Though I think my favorite was the scene in which he invited a secretary to lunch, slipped her a truth-tell drug, and then realized half-way through questioning her that she had slipped one into his drink as well. The back-and-forth trying to be the one asking the questions was well done.