Acts of Conscience

When space construction worker Gaetan du Cheyne visits the planet Green Heaven, he discovers a fascinating ecosystem whose intelligent life forms are being hunted for sport and exported as slaves by human colonists. Now du Cheyne must follow his conscience and try to rescue the natives of Green Heaven--or die trying.

With insight and intelligence, Barton (When Heaven Fell) describes a series of moral dilemmas with no easy solutions confronting Gaetan du Cheyne, his bored, troubled 26th-century protagonist. The fortuitous beneficiary of a stockmarket power play, du Cheyne becomes the proud owner of a faster-than-light prototype spaceship with which he plans to explore the starry skies. Wisely, however, Barton resists the urge to turn this into another celestial picaresque, creating instead a deeply disturbing tale of a young man whose past troubles stand in the way of his ability to know or do what is right. In fact, in spite of the spaceship device, Gaetan's journey is a psychological, not a physical one. The ethical challenges he faces all occur on the ironically named world of Green Heaven, where he must decide what, if anything, to do about the systematic destruction of the planet's intelligent species and his discovery of another species' own plans for humanity. There is an intense and intensely pleasurable display of erudition, writerly tact and hard psychological realism as du Cheyne confronts difficult questions about exploitation and survival, evolutionary reality and moral righteousness. There are no obvious answers, but there is a fascinating work of science fiction that easily rises above the stock-in-trade.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Far-future multiple-alien drama from the author of Iris (1990, with Michael Capobianco), etc. Centuries from now, space mechanic Gaetan du Cheyne unexpectedly becomes the owner of a new faster- than-light spaceship. He speeds off to planet Green Heaven, a beautiful world whose colonists resemble unreconstructed Boers who care nothing for the planet's spectacular wildlife except how to exploit it. Gaetan, a loner unable to relate meaningfully to women, saves an alien Kapellmeister from being beaten to death by local thugs. Later, touring the planet in his new friend's company (Kapellmeisters, an ancient highly advanced race, have no names), Gaetan experiences the ruthlessness with which the humans treat the intelligent wolfen (captured and made to fight), dollies (used as irresistible sexual toys, they're symbiotically involved with the wolfen), and womfrogs (slaughtered for sport). Unsuspecting humanity's problem, as Gaetan slowly realizes, is that a powerful Kapellmeister faction feels that humanity would be better wiped out altogether. After a slow start, you'll have to grapple with a protagonist who radiates little warmth; nevertheless, with its intelligent speculations, intriguing scenario, and thoughtfully fashioned aliens, this consciousness-raiser clamps on and won't let go. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gaetan du Cheyne, an orbital mechanic, makes a killing on the stock market, gets fired, buys a new faster-than-light ship, and goes out to explore the galaxy. At his first stop on the planet Green Heaven, Gaetan finds several sentient species being hunted for sport, captured for prostitution, and sold into slavery. Disgusted, he decides to help them escape. This powerful, complex anthropological tale mixes hard science with erotica. Recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.