cover image Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri

William Barton. Avon Books, $23 (438pp) ISBN 978-0-380-97511-2

The coauthors of the SF thriller Iris collaborate on another tale of human lust and limitation set among the stars. In the year 2239, with the human race bursting the seams of the solar system, the Earth launches starships in the hope of finding another habitable world. The crew of Mother Night, a resourceful band of scientists, engineers and biologists, is assigned the binary system of Alpha Centauri. Although Captain Virginia Vonzell Qing-an and her shipmates, including her female transsexual lover and the traitorous Mies Cochrane, don't find a new Earth, they do stumble across an explosive discovery--signs of intelligent, alien life. While the crew investigates this mystery, there are plenty of intimate intrigues below decks, with partners switching partners and all manner of zero-gee couplings performed with balletic skill. Barton and Capobianco's emphasis on infidelity and sexual addiction pervades the novel, as if to say that, when humanity finally journeys to the stars, we will carry our baser impulses with us. Though blessed with fantastic visions, this space saga is diminished by its gratuitous sex and soap-operatic plotting. (July)