Mirror to the Sky

Returning to science fiction after a 20-year hiatus, Geston ( Lords of the Starship ) trots out a tried concept--the arrival on earth of godlike, apparently benign, aliens with a sinister secret agenda. These so-called gods are classically handsome, aristocratic and technologically advanced. They can travel faster than light and bring people back from the dead. And their art has the ability to drive people on earth insane. The plot, such as it is, concerns the search for some vague but horrible threat portended in one of the alien paintings, and an alien artist's efforts to paint a new masterpiece that would explain everything. Geston has a graceful style and a good ear for dialogue, but he seems to feel a faint contempt for his characters, both human and alien. Accordingly they fail to elicit much sympathy or interest. Even in the final chapters, as the world sinks into anarchy and the various intrigues comprising the plot begin to come together, the outcome never seems important. (Dec.)