The Tranquility Wars »

Gentry Lee has been chief engineer on Project Galileo, director of science analysis and mission planning for NASA’s Viking mission to Mars, and partner with Carl Sagan in the design, development, and implementation of the television series Cosmos. He is the author of Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night and the co-author of Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed. He lives in Texas, where he is at work on a new book.

A young student, a dangerous love affair, and an explosive conflict to establish control over humanity...

For young Hunter Blake, the future is bright.

He has been awarded the exclusive Covington Fellowship, which brings fame, a generous stipend, and two years of privileged study on Mars. He has also been reunited with his lifelong love, Tehani Wilawa.

But as tensions mount between rival government factions, bands of renegade space pirates begin raiding, looting, kidnapping, and building their ranks from the disaffected of both space powers.

When Hunter and Tehani are kidnapped by a pirate band, they find themselves questioning “truths” they’ve accepted all their lives. Are the space pirates really the avatars of a new freedom — or simply criminals?

To answer, they must learn the razor-thin difference between freedom and anarchy, obedience and slavery, pleasure and indulgence. And for Hunter Blake, his greatest crisis is no longer a matter of success or failure, but of life or death.

KLIATT

It all starts in 2408 on the asteroid Cicero, as problems between the FISC (Federation of Independent Space Colonies) and its rival space power, the UDSC (United Democratic Space Colonies), seem to be escalating again. Twenty-year-old Hunter Blake is chosen as this year's Covington Fellow, a prestigious position that should guarantee a secure future. While traveling to Mars to begin his two years of Fellow studies, Hunter and his girlfriend are kidnapped by space pirates, those disenchanted with the restrictions set by both the FISC and the UDSC upon their citizens. After spending time with the pirates and enjoying their lifestyle, Hunter chooses to return to Mars and resume his life as a Fellow, not knowing that he is now suspect as a traitor. He soon must make the choice of rejoining the pirates or being tried for treason. There's romance and sex but nothing really graphic. (Although the one guy does have a classic line, "A blow job's a blow job.") There's action. There's intrigue. There are spaceships, and weightlessness (that's one of the sex scenes). There are political discussions and medical breakthroughs. (Hunter was going to study medicine before he was chosen as a Fellow and he helps the pirates set up their infirmary.) There's a pirate raid on a lunar ice-processing facility. (Hunter helps with that, too.) There's even a neat new game called Intellego (no real specifics on the rules, but it sounds like computerized group chess with some twists). What more could you want from a good SF story? The sex stuff probably limits this to high school/adults only. Category: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advancedstudents, and adults. 2000, Bantam, Spectra, 627p., Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Sherry S. Hoy; Libn., Tuscarora Jr. H.S., Mifflintown, PA