From Library Journal
It is the 25th century, humans have colonized space, and even as the various colonies vie to be first among equals, space pirates are upending everything. When young Hunter Blake finds himself kidnapped by pirates, he has some tough decisions to make. From the coauthor (with Arthur C. Clarke) of the best-selling "Rama" series. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Bright, personable, young medical technician Hunter Blake impatiently awaits acceptance to medical school on Mars. When designated a Covington Fellow, which entails a generous scholarship and two years' training with the best minds on Mars, he can't believe his good fortune. His pleasure is compounded when his old girlfriend, Tehani Wilawa, returns after three years' absence and plans to accompany him to Mars. Romance burns hot in their ship's tiny cabins, but their lives are abruptly detoured when anarchic space pirates capture the ship. Hunter and Tehani find the pirates' lives vastly different from how the government and media portray them. Tehani's beauty causes disruption when the pirate chief becomes infatuated with her, and Hunter has to grow up quickly, conquer his jealousy, and reexamine his political ignorance when the pirates put a challenge to him that promises either great adventure or permanent exile. Lee handles technology and action deftly, but stilted dialogue and Hunter's unlikely success with every woman he meets detract from the novel's overall appeal. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
Praise for the Rama novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
Rama II
"This is a space trip that no reader will want to miss."
-- Playboy

"Offers one surprise after another."
-- The New York Times

The Garden Of Rama
"A fascinating mix of technology and humanity, soaring high into the mysteries of the universe and far into the depths of the soul."
-- Chicago Tribune

RAMA REVEALED
"Breathtaking."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"More than fulfills the awesome scale of size, alien presence and spiritual exploration that were introduced in [rendezvous with Rama] 20 years ago."
-- The Indianapolis Star


Review
Praise for the Rama novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
Rama II
"This is a space trip that no reader will want to miss."
-- Playboy

"Offers one surprise after another."
-- The New York Times

The Garden Of Rama
"A fascinating mix of technology and humanity, soaring high into the mysteries of the universe and far into the depths of the soul."
-- Chicago Tribune

RAMA REVEALED
"Breathtaking."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"More than fulfills the awesome scale of size, alien presence and spiritual exploration that were introduced in [rendezvous with Rama] 20 years ago."
-- The Indianapolis Star


Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling novelist Gentry Lee, author of Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night, as well as co-author with Arthur C. Clarke of the Rama series, comes a thrilling new novel of suspense, love, and adventure set against a grand galactic backdrop. Here is the story of a young student, a dangerous love affair, and an explosive conflict to establish control over humanity.

The Tranquility Wars

For young Hunter Blake, the future is bright indeed. He has been awarded the exclusive Covington Fellowship, named for the totalitarian ruler of the FISC (Federation of Independent Space Colonies), bringing with it fame, a generous stipend, and assured success in his chosen profession.

In addition, after years of separation he has been reunited with the one woman he ever loved, the beautiful and enthralling Tehani Wilawa. She has come back into his life, offering her love with one proviso--that he accept her profession as the most beautiful paid escort in the FISC's most famous pleasure palace, Sybaris.

But as tension mounts between the FISC and its neighbor and rival, the UDSC (United Democratic Space Colonies), bands of renegade space pirates begin to take advantage of the growing hostilities between the two contending federations--raiding, looting, kidnapping, and building their ranks from the disaffected of both space powers.And when Hunter and Tehani are kidnapped by a pirate band, the aptly named Utopians, they find themselves forced to choose between the enticing ideals of their captors and the rigid conformity and shallow satisfactions of life in the FISC. They suddenly find themselves questioning "truths" they've accepted all their lives. Are these space pirates really the avatars of a new freedom, as they claim--or simply criminals? To answer, Hunter and Tehani must quickly learn the razor-thin difference between freedom and anarchy, obedience and slavery, pleasure and indulgence.

But of even greater consequence, Hunter finds his reputation unexpectedly compromised when he becomes an outlaw in his old world as a result of his activities with the space pirates. Separated from Tehani by his own acts of revolution, Hunter faces a countdown with destiny itself as events spiral toward a crucial climax that will explode in the
Tranquility Wars.



From the Inside Flap
From the New York Times bestselling novelist Gentry Lee, author of Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night,  as well as co-author with Arthur C. Clarke of the Rama series, comes a thrilling new novel of suspense, love, and adventure set against a grand galactic backdrop. Here is the story of a young student, a dangerous love affair, and an explosive conflict to establish control over humanity.

The Tranquility Wars

For young Hunter Blake, the future is bright indeed. He has been awarded the exclusive Covington Fellowship, named for the totalitarian ruler of the FISC (Federation of Independent Space Colonies), bringing with it fame, a generous stipend, and assured success in his chosen profession.

In addition, after years of separation he has been reunited with the one woman he ever loved, the beautiful and enthralling Tehani Wilawa. She has come back into his life, offering her love with one proviso--that he accept her profession as the most beautiful paid escort in the FISC's most famous pleasure palace, Sybaris.

But as tension mounts between the FISC and its neighbor and rival, the UDSC (United Democratic Space Colonies), bands of renegade space pirates begin to take advantage of the growing hostilities between the two contending federations--raiding, looting, kidnapping, and building their ranks from the disaffected of both space powers.And when Hunter and Tehani are kidnapped by a pirate band, the aptly named Utopians, they find themselves forced to choose between the enticing ideals of their captors and the rigid conformity and shallow satisfactions of life in the FISC. They suddenly find themselves questioning "truths" they've accepted all their lives. Are these space pirates really the avatars of a new freedom, as they claim--or simply criminals? To answer, Hunter and Tehani must quickly learn the razor-thin difference between freedom and anarchy, obedience and slavery, pleasure and indulgence.

But of even greater consequence, Hunter finds his reputation unexpectedly compromised when he becomes an outlaw in his old world as a result of his activities with the space pirates. Separated from Tehani by his own acts of revolution, Hunter faces a countdown with destiny itself as events spiral toward a crucial climax that will explode in the
Tranquility Wars.


From the Back Cover
Praise for the Rama novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
Rama II
"This is a space trip that no reader will want to miss."
-- Playboy

"Offers one surprise after another."
-- The New York Times

The Garden Of Rama
"A fascinating mix of technology and humanity, soaring high into the mysteries of the universe and far into the depths of the soul."
-- Chicago Tribune

RAMA REVEALED
"Breathtaking."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"More than fulfills the awesome scale of size, alien presence and spiritual exploration that were introduced in [rendezvous with Rama] 20 years ago."
-- The Indianapolis Star



About the Author
Gentry Lee has been chief engineer on Project Galileo, director of science analysis and mission planning for NASA's Viking mission to Mars, and partner with Carl Sagan in the design, development, and implementation of the television series Cosmos. He is the author of Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night and the co-author of Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed. He lives in Texas, where he is at work on a new book.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE UNTOWARD EVENTS ALL occurred within a few seconds. The two technicians had been sitting in their space suits on top of the long, thick arm of the giant mining machine, just below the bottom joint. They had been having a diagnostic discussion by radio with the supervising engineers, who were watching on video from the confines of the control center inside the enclosed dome. When their conversation was finished, the technicians rose to their knees to finish the repairs on the electronics that controlled the enormous claw head resting on the surface of the asteroid twenty feet below them. Suddenly the mining colossus sprang alive. Its long arm jerked into motion, catapulting the two humans away from the equipment.

They flew in the airless, low-gravity environment of the asteroid as if they had been shot from a gun. Tumbling head over heels, their arms flailing, their terrified shouts resounding throughout the control center, the technicians smashed against the side of a second mining machine two hundred yards away. The engineers under the dome shuddered in horror as their colleagues ricocheted upward and then fell slowly, apparently lifeless, near the lip of a large mining pit.

MR. DAVID BLAKE, the chief engineer on the asteroid Cicero, was sitting in his office when the accident occurred. Just as he finished composing an electronic letter to FISC (Federation of Independent Space Colonies) engineering headquarters in Centralia, on Mars, complaining once again about the shortage of critical parts on Cicero, one of his assistants burst into the office.

"Blake," the assistant said, panic in his voice, "something terrible has happened. Miner number 7 moved. Samuels and Turner were thrown off the arm. They aren't responding to our calls."

Blake quickly followed the assistant down the corridor to the main control center in the engineering complex. The control center was a large room at the top of a cylindrical tower near the edge of the dome that covered the inhabited region of Cicero. Half a dozen technicians and engineers were inside the room, along with ten computer workstations and seven large overhead monitors. On each of the monitors, a live image depicting an activity in process outside the dome was projected. When the two men entered the room, the huge central monitor showed a close-up picture of the two men in space suits lying motionless near the mining pit. In the image background stood one of the gigantic, silver, robotic mining machines, the bold, black letters FISC clearly emblazoned on its side.

Nicholas Cruz, the earnest young man who was in charge of outside operations activities on the current shift, walked over to Blake. "The biometry readings are garbage," he said. "Their transmitters must have been crushed during the accident." He paused a moment. "I assume you would like to see the complete video?" he said.

Blake nodded. The large central monitor filled a moment later with a still image of the two men sitting on the arm of Miner number 7. The recording that began to play included the last snippets of conversation prior to the sudden movement of the arm, as well as the horrible cries of the technicians during their short flight. Blake winced as he watched his friends carom off the adjacent miner and then fall to the asteroid surface.

"We'll need an emergency rescue team," a visibly shaken Blake said as soon as the video was finished.

"Yes, sir," Nick Cruz said. "We've already begun the preparations." He paused a moment. "Please, sir, I would like to volunteer."

"All right, Nick," Blake said. "You lead the team. Take Lucy, Julius, and Hiro. No diagnostics on the miner. Just bring Samuels and Turner inside as fast as you can. Every second counts."

Nick quickly left the control center. Blake told one of the technicians to reconfigure the screens so that the central monitor would always show the activities of the rescue team. For the next several seconds, he gazed idly at the other screens, his mind deep in thought about the possible repercussions of the accident. Three of the screens showed other, similar mining machines at work in different locations outside the dome on Cicero. The remaining monitors in the control center depicted scenes inside the robotic factories where the raw ore was taken for processing after it was extracted.

There had never been a work fatality outside the dome on Cicero. For a decade eight of the mammoth mining drones, considered to be triumphs of human engineering, had been in nearly constant operation on the small spherical asteroid. The machines ripped into the ground with their enormous claws, tapping the rich lodes of iron and nickel that were very close to the surface. The material was then deposited in the open beds of large, all-terrain robot trucks and carried to four widely separated processing factories, each located about a mile outside the enclosed town.

Inside the vast, translucent dome, which covered twenty square miles in the equatorial region of Cicero and provided an Earthlike atmosphere for the asteroid's three thousand inhabitants, all the mining activities were carefully monitored from the control center. Regular maintenance on the mining machines and trucks, or on any of the equipment in the unpeopled processing factories, was provided by robot technicians dispatched from the inside.

The entire system was designed so that human activity outside the enclosed dome would be reduced to an absolute minimum. In fact, during the four years immediately prior to Engineer Blake's decision to recertify each of the mining machines, only three human sorties "outside" had been required to repair or maintain any of the mining system components.

Over the past year, however, as incident after incident had increased the tension between the FISC and its rival space power, the UDSC (United Democratic Space Colonies), efficient management of its mining operations had become a low priority for the Federation. The engineers on Cicero and the other mining asteroids had been ordered to sharply reduce maintenance activities on the existing equipment and key personnel were transferred to the defense effort. As a result, serious failures in the mining system on Cicero had begun to occur more frequently and productivity had dropped off markedly.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A young student, a dangerous love affair, and an explosive conflict to establish control over humanity...

For young Hunter Blake, the future is bright.

He has been awarded the exclusive Covington Fellowship, which brings fame, a generous stipend, and two years of privileged study on Mars. He has also been reunited with his lifelong love, Tehani Wilawa.

But as tensions mount between rival government factions, bands of renegade space pirates begin raiding, looting, kidnapping, and building their ranks from the disaffected of both space powers.

When Hunter and Tehani are kidnapped by a pirate band, they find themselves questioning “truths” they’ve accepted all their lives. Are the space pirates really the avatars of a new freedom — or simply criminals?

To answer, they must learn the razor-thin difference between freedom and anarchy, obedience and slavery, pleasure and indulgence. And for Hunter Blake, his greatest crisis is no longer a matter of success or failure, but of life or death.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

It all starts in 2408 on the asteroid Cicero, as problems between the FISC (Federation of Independent Space Colonies) and its rival space power, the UDSC (United Democratic Space Colonies), seem to be escalating again. Twenty-year-old Hunter Blake is chosen as this year's Covington Fellow, a prestigious position that should guarantee a secure future. While traveling to Mars to begin his two years of Fellow studies, Hunter and his girlfriend are kidnapped by space pirates, those disenchanted with the restrictions set by both the FISC and the UDSC upon their citizens. After spending time with the pirates and enjoying their lifestyle, Hunter chooses to return to Mars and resume his life as a Fellow, not knowing that he is now suspect as a traitor. He soon must make the choice of rejoining the pirates or being tried for treason. There's romance and sex but nothing really graphic. (Although the one guy does have a classic line, "A blow job's a blow job.") There's action. There's intrigue. There are spaceships, and weightlessness (that's one of the sex scenes). There are political discussions and medical breakthroughs. (Hunter was going to study medicine before he was chosen as a Fellow and he helps the pirates set up their infirmary.) There's a pirate raid on a lunar ice-processing facility. (Hunter helps with that, too.) There's even a neat new game called Intellego (no real specifics on the rules, but it sounds like computerized group chess with some twists). What more could you want from a good SF story? The sex stuff probably limits this to high school/adults only. Category: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advancedstudents, and adults. 2000, Bantam, Spectra, 627p., Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Sherry S. Hoy; Libn., Tuscarora Jr. H.S., Mifflintown, PA

Library Journal

When rising star Hunter Blake wins a prestigious appointment as a Covington Fellow, he leaves his home in a mining colony on the asteroid Cicero for a period of intensive study on Mars, the center of the Federation of Independent Space Colonies. Captured by space-faring pirates and held hostage as part of an intricate political juggling act involving two rival governments and the anarchistic pirates, Hunter soon learns to question his assumptions about life, love, politics, and truth. The author of Double Full Moon Night brings his talent as a raconteur to bear in a novel set in a far future in which humans have colonized space but still practice the ancient art of political deception. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Space coming-of-age yarn, from the author of Double Full Moon Night (1999), etc. By the 25th century, the totalitarian FISC and the similar UDSC vie for control of the space colonies scattered throughout the solar system, although many independent pirate groups reject both FISC and UDSC and live by their own philosophies and modes of government. On the remote asteroid Cicero, exceptional student Hunter Blake wins an exclusive Covington Fellowship offering a fast-track route to a top government job. At the same time, Hunter reconnects with his stunning ex-girlfriend Tehani Wilawa. Tehani's now working as a high-class whore to pay off the crippling debts left by her father—a situation Hunter is none too happy about. On the voyage to Mars, pirate Utopians capture the ship. Tehani, nearly sold to a vicious barbarian pirate from another band, is ransomed—she's the mistress of a FISC bigwig. Qualified paramedic Hunter becomes Utopia's doctor, and falls in love with sexy Ursula; he still doesn't know how he feels about Tehani. Then, he jumps at the chance to return to Mars and resume his Fellowship, somewhat guiltily abandoning a now pregnant Ursula. Can Hunter fit in on Mars, and will he ever discover how he really feels about Tehani? Lee sets up sucker punches, then pulls them all. There's no war, tranquil or otherwise. And, despite frequent sexual encounters, the hero's either numbingly placid or irritatingly obtuse. Pass.Oltion, Jerry ABANDON IN PLACE Tor (368 pp.) Nov. 2000