Synopsis
First published in hardcover by Tor Books
"...Agent Lan Dillion returns for a vacation and class reunion to his home world of Neverend, a planet honeycombed with caves. His vacation plans are put on hold when he is unexpectedly drawn into a murder case involving his old girlfriend, Tessa. ... absorbing, fast-paced action and witty dialogue." -- Booklist
Reviews
Though Stith (Manhattan Transfer, Redshift Rendezvous) is known for his engrossing SF adventures, his latest is a listless mystery/thriller in SF trappings. On the planet Neverend, where everyone lives in caverns and tunnels carved out of the rock, a kindly museum curator is brutally killed by an unknown intruder. Months later, old pals Lan Dillion and Parke Brenlek arrive for their high-school reunion on Neverend, where, among others, they encounter Tessa Farlon, Lan's old flame and daughter of the murdered curator. Learning that Tessa has been recently threatened, Lan and Parke determine to protect her from her new enemies-who, it seems, want her to sell them the museum, which conceals a secret interplanetary gateway that fits into their plans to commit a foolproof heist. Can Lan, Parke and Tessa stop these villains? Stith plods through this hokey tale, where narrative threads that take up entire chapters vanish without a trace and where several alien worlds (including Neverend) are no more convincing than watercolor backdrops.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
An undercover investigator returns to the subterranean colony of his youth and rescues his high school sweetheart from some hi- tech hooligans in Stith's (Manhattan Transfer, 1993) hard SF thriller that's soft on science, character, and suspense. Lan Dillion journeys home to the bland Neverend ostensibly to rekindle an old flame with Tessa Farlon, but a relationship is problematic due to his claustrophobia. However, even phobias are easily overcome in this juvenile chauvinist fantasy, which soon has a team of crooks trying to bilk the helpless Tessa out of the small museum she inherited from her murdered adoptive father. When the bad guys try to bump off Tessa, Lan and his buddy Parke Brenlek muscle in to solve the mystery Hardy Boysstyle. Some ham-handed sleuthing reveals the major attraction within the museum: an alien teleportation device. Soon Lan, Parke, and their girlfriends chase through space to collar the bad guys. Lan and Tessa realize that the teleportation device enables Lan to live in Neverend without feeling trapped, which puts a new face on their future together. All of the old SF formulaic elements are here, and Stith's brew of dark tunnels, cuddly aliens, and teenage romance ultimately spins its wheels, producing no sparks. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Police agent Lan Dillion returns for a vacation and class reunion to his home world of Neverend, a planet honeycombed with caves. His vacation plans are put on hold when he is unexpectedly drawn into a murder case involving his old girlfriend, Tessa. Shortly after Tessa's father is mysteriously killed at his Neverend historical museum, a suspicious woman visits Tessa and demands that she sell the museum building immediately. While struggling to hide his real profession from Tessa, Lan uses his undercover skills to tail the woman and soon uncovers a plot to steal a priceless artifact from a distant world. Before Lan can foil the plot, he and Tessa are strong-armed and held prisoner inside a previously unknown passageway inside the museum that miraculously leads to other planets throughout the galaxy, including one on which they may become permanently stranded. Although the tale resembles any number of standard detective novels transferred to an sf universe, Stith saves it from banality with absorbing, fast-paced action and witty dialogue. Carl Hays
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