A PASSAGE OF STARS (The Highroad Trilogy. Volume 1)

Lilyaka Hae Ransome answered to no man. Born to a powerful clan on the storm-wracked colony world of Unruli, she'd grown up willful, independent, strong. The only person who held her respect was the enigmatic man called Heredes, who tutored her in history and the martial arts.

So when alien bounty hunters kidnapped Heredes, she threw away her heritage and set out after him on an awesome odyssey through the unknown reaches of space.

In this first volume of her projected Highroad trilogy, Rasmussen ( The Labyrinth Gate ) creates the most delightful robot since R2D2: Bach, who whistles lieder under his cybernetic breath. The rest here is standard space fantasy. The settled section of the galaxy known as the Reft has a bloated galactic bureaucracy that expertly directs the anger of the majority toward a bitterly repressed minority. Some fugitives from another quarter of the universe become entwined with partisans of the Reft's nemesis, the insurrectionist Jehane. Lily, martial-arts student and daughter of a privileged family, is pulled into a maelstrom of intrigue and violence, and is soon a key player in the interlocking fates of the foreigners and the insurgents. The story inches forward without momentum, largely because Rasmussen simply withholds information from her characters in a vain attempt to sustain plot tension.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When her martial arts instructor, the elusive man known as Heredes, is kidnapped by alien bounty hunters, Lilyaka Hae Ransome defies her family and flees the planet of Unruli in pursuit of the kidnappers. Populating the world of the future with multicultural spacefarers, immortal terrorists, and swashbuckling galactic pirates, Rasmussen ( The Labyrinth Gate ) creates a fast-paced space opera with a likable, courageous female protagonist. For large sf collections.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.