ORION AMONG THE STARS
by Ben Bova
What started out as a series of fantasy/superscience potboilers (Orion and the Conqueror, 1993, etc.) has shown notable improvement of late. This time out, the eponymous android warrior—incarnated, made immortal, and controlled by Aten the Golden, the hateful, godlike Creator—finds himself leading human troops commanded by reptilian aliens in a bloody and bitter interstellar war—a conflict caused by Aten's battle against another Creator, Orion's forever unreachable beloved, Anya. He makes contact with some Old Ones, from an ancient civilization that desires to stop the Creators; the latter's constant meddling with the structure of time and space has strained the fabric of reality itself. The best entry so far in an evolving and increasingly worthwhile series.