cover image A Passage of Stars

A Passage of Stars

Alis A. Rasmussen. Spectra Books, $3.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-553-28372-3

In this first volume of her projected Highroad trilogy, Rasmussen ( The Labyrinth Gate ) creates the most delightful robot since R2D2: Bach, who whistles lieder under his cybernetic breath. The rest here is standard space fantasy. The settled section of the galaxy known as the Reft has a bloated galactic bureaucracy that expertly directs the anger of the majority toward a bitterly repressed minority. Some fugitives from another quarter of the universe become entwined with partisans of the Reft's nemesis, the insurrectionist Jehane. Lily, martial-arts student and daughter of a privileged family, is pulled into a maelstrom of intrigue and violence, and is soon a key player in the interlocking fates of the foreigners and the insurgents. The story inches forward without momentum, largely because Rasmussen simply withholds information from her characters in a vain attempt to sustain plot tension. (Feb.)