From Publishers Weekly
A frontier society outwits a big, uncaring parent company in this appealing joint venture by McCaffrey ( Damia's Children ) and Scarborough ( The Healer's War ), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning representatives of two generations of science fiction writers. Major Yanaba Maddock, medically retired with severely damaged lungs after military action aboard a space station, is pressured into acting as a spy by her employer, the sinister Intergal corporation. Colonel Giancarlo, local head of psychological operations, seeks evidence that colonists on the bitterly cold and inhospitable planet Petaybee are abducting company geological survey teams, engaging in illegal genetic engineering and plotting rebellion. Yana finds the locals charming, helpful and uncannily effective as healers; their home remedies salvage her ruined lungs. As the company and its forces move in to quell what they perceive as rebellion, Yana casts her lot with the Petaybeans and geneticist Sean Shongili, the man she has come to love. Perceptive characterizations and a vivid depiction of a nurturing culture integrated with nature make up for the somewhat hackneyed plot.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Forced by her ruined lungs to resign from active service with the Company, Major Yanaba Maddock "retires" to the ice-bound planet of Petaybee with an order to mingle with the colonists and discover the source of certain anomalies on the planet. What she finds is both a new way of life and a challenge to all the loyalties she has ever known. Award-winning author McCaffrey (the "Dragonriders of Pern" series) and Scarborough ( The Healer's War , Bantam, 1989) combine their talents to produce an exciting tale of survival and moral courage featuring an engaging female protagonist. This fast-paced adventure belongs in most collections.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
