HELLBURNER

Direct sequel to Heavy Time (1991) and part of Cherryh's medium-future Company Wars spacefaring saga (Cyteen, etc.) about a thoroughly disunited Solar System facing invasion by genetically engineered superman. Now serving with the United Defense Command fleet, ex-Belter and former spaceminer Ben Pollard is poised to grab the Earth-based job he has long coveted—when abruptly he is reassigned to the remote space station Sol Two. Seems that a former shipmate, the apparently jinxed Paul Dekker, has gone more or less insane after an "accident" and has named Ben as next of kin! Protesting, Ben interviews Dekker, and realizes that some sort of coverup is going on. Dekker was working on a top-secret military project rife with rivalries and backbiting. Ben, accepting his situation, investigates; helped by tough Belter ex-miners and former shipmates Sal and Meg, he exposes a furious tangle of politicking and power-struggling among Earth's top military brass, powerful family-connected politicians, and the ubiquitous Earth Company. Characters well up to par, and the backdrop as solid as ever—but the plot, slow to develop and desperately short of propellant, quickly subsides into flabby confusion. A disappointment after sparkling work last time out.