One of the things one least expects to find in a space opera is an excerpt from a grand opera. But the final chapter of this book is prefaced by a quotation from Der Rosenkavalier
. Indeed, heroine Ahmi Sheva seems modeled after Strauss's Marschallin. Each is a noblewoman who, unhappily married to a military officer, takes a young lover: the Marschallin to Octavian, and Ahmi to a farm boy turned soldier, Hardi Degas. Both women feel world-weary and old, though Ahmi doesn't look more than 30. Each foresees that her new amour will eventually leave her for a girl his own age, and, indeed, Degas falls in love with his young countrywoman Una. The parallel to Strauss gives Moeller's story what emotional depth it has. Otherwise, this is just a standard issue sci-fi war story depicting the familiar situation of a future in which humans have colonized other worlds but are menaced by an evil alien empire. The enemy, the Vaylen, are parasitic worms that link with their hosts' minds, evoking memories of Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters
or even Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
. Moeller's painted artwork is handsome but rarely distinctive. It's as if he is trying to squeeze the mature sensibility of Rosenkavalier
into the adolescent monster-hunting warfare of Heinlein's Starship Troopers
—and it's not a good fit. (May)
