Lone Star (Stellar Ranger)

Responding to a summons by a desperate local leader, Cinch Carston journeys to the jungle planet Mtizito in order to round up a gang of terrorists and discovers an unexpected web of corruption that targets the Stellar Ranger himself. Original.

The author of the highly successful Matador saga seems in his new series, Stellar Ranger (of which this is the second book), to be thumbing his nose at all the old guard in sf who roundly denounce translating western plots into sf settings. For to a degree that is certainly what Perry is doing: Stellar Ranger Cinch Carston would get along famously with Wyatt Earp or Texas John Slaughter. Perry does, however, also tell a highly readable sf action story with his usual exuberance of incident and breakneck pacing. The plot involves Carston's being sent to a jungle world to round up three rebels who are, however, rebelling against attempted genocide, which puts the matter in a different light and, in due course, Carston on a different side. Perry clearly has fun writing action sf; his readers are likely to have an equally enjoyable time. Roland Green